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The Gold Rush lasted about 17 years but some people still stayed to find more gold.
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James Wilson Marshall found flakes of gold in the American River at the base of the Sierra Nevada Mountains near Sutter's Mill. -
The wagon trained destined to California was estimated at 20,000 passengers. -
The first Constitution of California was signed on November 13, 1849, prior to California's admittance into the Union in 1850. California's current constitution was ratified on May 7, 1879, and has been amended over 480 times. https://archives.cdn.sos.ca.gov/collections/1879/archive/1879-constitution.pdf
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The gold rush finally fell off in 1857, when the gold output stabilized at around 45 million dollars a year.
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One of the events that led to the end of the Gold Rush was the sinking of the SS Central America, a wooden steamship carrying 30,000 pounds of gold (worth about $400 million today). This event, known as the Panic of 1857, was the first financial crisis that impacted the international economy.
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The discovery of silver on the other side of the Sierras in Nevada brought an end to the California gold rush. -
Levi Strauss was one of the many people who wanted a bite of the Gold Rush pie. So he went to California and sold his signature blue jeans to the miners. The ruggedness of the material and its durability made the jeans an instant hit because they could withstand the harshest working conditions. And within a few years, Strauss patented the pants and sold them all across the country.
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In 1884, hydraulic mining was outlawed by court order, and soon agriculture became the dominant industry in California, and it remains so today.