Gold is discovered by James Marshall at Sutter's timber Mill. John Sutter visits the site and request the news is kept secret for six weeks

News of the strike in Sierra Nevada "in considerable quantities" is reported in a San Francisco newspaper in the west of the country, but many people remain skeptical about the report

News of the discovery spreads to the East

Gold fever hits San Francisco sparked by Sam Brannan. The sale of picks, pans, and shovels in Sam Brannan's store booms and nearly all of the male population of San Francisco leave the city in a rush to the goldfields as the first Chinese immigrants arrive in San Francisco

President James K. Polk makes an address to Congress in which he confirms the gold strike in California. The legitimate confirmation by President Polk leads to the 1849 California Gold Rush

Over 90,000 gold-seekers flock to the Californian goldfields in 1849 and become known as the "Forty-Niners". In early August the news of the goldmines reaches Oregon and migrants begin moving south

Nearly 30,000 men from the east congregate in Independence, Missouri to travel in wagon trains over land to California

Some gold-seekers travel by sea, around Cape Horn to reach the goldfields

Californian delegate assemble in Monterey to draft a state constitution, requesting admittance to the Union.

California legislature passes the Foreign Miners Tax, charging foreign nationals $20 a month for the right to work their claims

Many foreign nationals, including Mexicans, Chinese, and Native Indians, are forced to leave the area due to the tax and threats of violence and intimidation from the white prospectors

Congress agrees to the Compromise of 1850, which admits California to the Union as a free state

The Foreign Miners Tax is repealed

The California legislature passes a second Foreign Miners Tax targeting the Chinese

The gold rush and gold fever finally eased in 1855, when the gold output stabilized but by this time many Americans had settled in California. Communications systems to the east were vital and the Pony Express was established until the Transcontinental Telegraph was completed