1. California did not have the first gold rush in American
history. That honor actually belongs to North Carolina. Fifty
years before gold was discovered at Sutter’s mill, the first
gold rush in American history got underway after a 17-pound gold
nugget was found in Cabarrus County, North Carolina. Eventually,
more than 30,000 people in the Tar Heel state were mining for
gold, and for more than 30 years all gold coins issued by the
U.S. Mint were produced using North Carolina gold. 2. The Gold
Rush was the largest mass migration in U.S. history. In March
1848, there were roughly 157,000 people in the California
territory; 150,000 Native Americans, 6,500 of Spanish or Mexican
descent known as Californios and fewer than 800 non-native
Americans. Just 20 months later, following the massive influx of
settlers, the non-native population had soared to more than
100,000. And the people just kept coming. By the mid 1850s there
were more than 300,000 new arrivals—and one in every 90 people
in the United States was liv