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Gold was found by James Marshall close to Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California.later in March, there were published reports of gold discoveries, though many people doubted. President James Polk confirms this later in the year.
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The New York Herald reports of potential gold deposits in California.
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A shipment of gold heads for the US Mint, valued at about 500,000.
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About 300,000 people head West after waiting for spring. It included mostly men and many were migrants. In 1849, there was more than ten million dollars worth of gold mined.
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California drafts a state constitution and ask to be admitted to the Union.
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California creates the Foreign Miners Tax, which costs twenty dollars a month to continue mining. This causes more than 15,000 miners to leave.
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California mines make a profit of 41 million dollars and San Francisco doubles in population.
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California is admitted to the Union, also known as the Compromise of 1850.
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There is a decrease in wages, dropping $6 dollars a day.
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The news of the Gold Rush reaches across the Pacific Ocean, and brings about 20,000 Chinese to California.
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Hydraulic mining was invented by Edward Matteson by using a high-pressure hose to mine the gold on hillsides.
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Many more complicated ways of mining gold had been invented by the end of the Gold Rush, which had a huge impact on California as a state.