All language subtitles for Gold fever part 1

Narrator: in 1848,
A chance discovery

Would lay the foundation
For the American empire.

Gold!

Over the next three years,

Nearly 300,000 people
Would head west

In a hunt for over $25 billion
Of buried treasure.

[ all cheering ]

For some,
It was the American dream,

But for others,
It became a nightmare.

Man: this is California --
There is no right or wrong.

If you want something,
You take it.

[ gunshot ]

♪ tell them that god's
Gonna strike them down ♪

♪ you may run for a long time *

♪ run on for a long time *

♪ run on for a long time *

♪ let me tell you that
God's gonna cut you down ♪

♪ you may run for a long time *

♪ run on for a long time *

♪ run on for a long time *

♪ let me tell you that
God's gonna cut you down ♪

Narrator: this is the story
Of the California gold rush.

-- captions by vitac --
Www.Vitac.Com

Captions paid for by
Discovery communications

♪ let me tell you that
God's gonna cut you down ♪

[ indistinct shouting,
Gunshots ]

Man:
Fall back! Fall back!

They're coming.

Narrator:
By august of 1850,

Greed had transformed
The California gold rush

Into an all-out war,

Where thousands of 49ers

Desperately fought each other
For gold.

But just two and a half years
Earlier,

No one had ever even
Heard of California.

It had been just over 70 years
Since the country was founded,

And the American experiment

Was on the verge
Of financial collapse.

The United States has been
In essentially a depression

For a dozen years.

There's no real good way,

No matter how hard you work
In the United States,

To get ahead.

Narrator: almost the entire
Population of 20 million people

Lived on the east coast,

While the west
Was a vast, empty wilderness.

And at the furthest point away
Sat California.

Not even yet a state,

California was home
To barely 1,800 Americans.

Back then, only a select few
Where brave enough --

Or stupid enough --
To make the trek west.

James marshall
Was an ordinary guy

Who came to California
To start a new life.

He found work
Building a small sawmill

On the American river.

He wasn't looking to get rich,

But sometimes the moments
That forever change the world...

...Are nothing more
Than accidents.

On january 24, 1848,

James marshall
Became the first man

To find gold in California.

Over the next few weeks,

Marshall and his men
Continue to find gold,

And they kept it quiet

So they could have it all
For themselves.

But then,
Marshall made a huge mistake.

[ horse whinnies ]

[ bell jingles ]

[ bell jingles ]

You still owe me
For the tools.

Where you'd get that?

Can you keep a secret?

Sam Brannan
Was a 29-year-old shopkeeper,

And he had
Just learned something

That would change his life.

But he didn't immediately
Run into the fields

To see if he could find gold.

Instead, he came up
With something more masterful,

And he bet every penny he had
On it.

Brannan bought every shovel,
Every pan,

Every mining tool around,

And made sure no other store
For 1,000 miles had any left.

And then he started
The second part of his plan.

Sam Brannan was something
Of an enigmatic character.

He was probably an opportunist
As much as he was anything else.

[ horse whinnies ]

Gold!

Gold!

Gold found
In the American river!

Gold.

Brannan's got
Bottles full of gold,

And he takes those bottles
And he waves them in the air,

Yelling, "Gold! Gold!

Gold from the American river."

Gold!
Gold. Real gold!

Gold!

Narrator: Brannan knew
He had a monopoly on supplies.

Gold!

He just needed the word
To spread far enough

So people
Would come to California

And have to buy
Those supplies...From him.

News of gold in California
Took the country by storm.

Read all about it!

Headlines splashed across
The front pages of newspapers

From California
All the way to new york city,

Instantly grabbing the attention
Of a poor and desperate nation.

People are hearing these stories
From California

Of people picking up,
In a morning,

More money than they'd make
In a year.

And that starts
This explosion -- a frenzy --

That spreads across
The entire United States,

That is known everywhere
As "Gold fever."

Narrator: within weeks,

Thousands of prospectors
Dropped everything

And crammed onto trains
And riverboats.

Gold has this
"Mystical power" on man.

They view gold as their way out,

Their way to escape
Their mundane living.

They just take off.

They leave family,
They leave their security,

And they go chase the gold.

Narrator: they rode as far west
As they could possibly go,

But no matter
Where they came from,

They all ended up
In the same place --

Independence, missouri --

The start
Of the California trail

And the end of civilization.

At various times
In American history,

You could say,
"This is where the west begins."

But in 1849,

It began specifically
At the missouri river

And at places like independence,

Where there were folks

Who could sell you
Sort of the last thing you need.

Even today in the west,
You'll see signs,

"Last gas for 117 miles."

Well, this was basically
The same thing --

Last provisions for 1,200 miles.

Narrator: tens of thousands
Of gold prospectors

Arrived in independence,

Prepared to make the journey
Into the great unknown.

Among them was Charles Robinson,

A 31-year-old doctor
From Springfield, Massachusetts,

Who gave up his practice
To go find riches.

Little did he know
That one day he would become

One of the most important people
In the California gold rush.

But at that point,
He was just like everyone else,

A prospective miner,

Looking for a group of 49ers
To join up with.

When you ventured out west,
You didn't go alone.

Instead, miners
Traveled in companies

To protect against
The violence of the trail.

Overland companies are organized
As joint-stock companies.

That means everybody pitches in
A certain amount of money

And they all agree
To share the profits.

And they're all going
To help each other

In this enormous undertaking
Of going 2,000 miles

Across the plains
And mountains and deserts.

Narrator: Robinson had his eye
On a company out of Boston

Having gotten word
That they'd sunk their money

Into a high-tech
Gold-washing machine,

One that promised to give them
An edge in the goldfields.

Careful! Careful!

That's worth
More than the pair of you.

You got room
For one more?

It's $300.

I'm a doctor.

Follow me.

Doctors were probably
The most valued individuals --

You know, by profession --
On the trail west.

If you had somebody who had set
A broken limb before,

That was really helpful.

Guns went off by accident
And on purpose,

And people had gunshot wounds.

A doctor could be
Enormously important.

For those of you who don't know
Who I am, I am Captain Webber.

I'm the commanding officer
Of this company.

The journey to the goldfields

Is not for the weak
Or fainthearted.

We will be traveling
Through untamed lands,

Where scorching deserts,
Wild animals,

And indian savages lie in wait.

Not all of you
Will come back alive,

But those who do
Will be rich men.

Man up!

Eymann:
49ers that were embarking
On the journey to California,

This was a grand adventure.

Hyah!

They looked at this
As their big opportunity,

And you could see
There was this sense

That they were
Part of a bigger movement.

That was very much a part
Of the beginning of the journey.

It is dangerous
Because so many times

They go after the gold,

Not knowing the process
By which to get the gold.

There's so much risk.

It's unbelievable
The lengths and the hardships

That men will endure
To find gold.

Narrator:
Starvation, disease, even death

Were all that separated
These men

From riches
Unlike any they'd ever seen.

Many wouldn't make it back
Alive,

But it was a risk
They were willing to take.

Narrator:
The California gold rush
Was transforming America...

As hundreds of thousands
Of hopeful 49ers

Set out for the west coast.

Some of those people
Traveled by ship --

An 8,000 mile journey

Around the southern tip
Of south America

That cost the modern equivalent
Of $32,000.

Anyone who couldn't
Afford a ticket

Went overland on a six-month
Trek across the continent.

It was the start
Of the largest mass migration

The country had ever seen.

[ bird cawing ]

The journey to California
Was dangerous and long,

And so going alone
Was a certain death sentence.

Instead, prospective miners
Traveled in small companies,

Like the California
Mutual protection association --

A group of 40 men
From Massachusetts --

That was better known
As Boston Company.

As we know
From the company's manifest,

Boston Company was built like
Every other outfit on the trail,

Organized around
A number of key positions.

Each company had a doctor.

For Boston Company,
That was Charles Robinson,

Someone who could keep the men
Alive and well on the trail

And out in the goldfields.

Every company had a hired gun.

For Boston Company,
That was William walker...

...A man who had been
A mercenary in several wars.

Most companies
Had a gold expert.

For Boston Company,
It was sylvester edgerly,

A jeweler who understood
The properties of gold

And knew how to find it.

And then there was the most
Important position of all --

The company leader.

For the most part, these were
Men who'd already been out west

And knew the lay of the land,

Men like John Webber,

A former major in
The Massachusetts state militia

Who had fought
In the Mexican-American war

Just years earlier.

If you had somebody
With military experience,

You know,
That was always reassuring

If only because they knew how
To hold themselves

And to command.

Narrator: but the vast majority
Of the people in the company

Were just wide-eyed young men,

Looking for an easy way
To get rich.

Brands: California gave them
This opportunity

To go off in an adventure.

They know there's no guarantee
That they're gonna make it,

But these are folks who are
Willing to take a chance.

Narrator:
Having a well-organized company

Offered protection along the
Only established overland route

To the west coast --
The California trail --

A path that cut through some
Of the most dangerous territory

In the western hemisphere.

Animal attacks, harsh elements,
And deadly disease

Killed an estimated
20,000 travelers

Before they ever
Reached California,

Or roughly one death
For every 500 feet on the trail.

Nobody really understood what
The west was going to be like.

The west was as alien
To travelers

As the surface of mars
Would be to us.

Narrator: the best thing
A company could do

Was keep moving,
Not just for safety,

But because miners
Were already starting to show up

In California.

Thousands of miles
To the west of Boston Company,

A massive transformation
Was under way.

While the overlanders
Were still stuck on the trail,

Tens of thousands of miners
Traveling by sea

Were descending on the small
Port of San Francisco...

...Which was quickly
Becoming a boomtown.

And it was all thanks
To the vision of one man.

In the months
Since he had single-handily

Sparked
The California gold rush,

Sam Brannan had watched
The pieces of his master plan

Finally fall into place...

As the population
Of San Francisco exploded

By over 1,200%
In just under a year.

San Francisco was the city
That gold built.

Within just months,
It became a city of 15,000,

Then 20,000,
Then 50,000 people.

It's probably the instance

Of the fastest urban growth
In American history.

Narrator:
Sam Brannan's store was the only
One of its kind in California.

Every fortune seeker stopped
To stock up on supplies

Before heading out
Into the goldfields.

$4.50 right there.

Now, you know
Those are $2 apiece?

Those lanterns
Are $2 apiece.

All right, sir,
What do you got there?

For the man
Who started the gold rush,

Business was booming.

Now, hold on, sir.
Hold on, sir. Hang on.

Brannan had even found a way

To stave off
Any potential competition.

He'd row out to incoming ships,
Find out what they had on board,

Make them an offer
For the cargo,

If he knew
It was going to be worth a lot,

And buy it.

He was a complete opportunist.

Narrator: before long,
Brannan's store was bringing in

The modern equivalent
Of $2 million a month.

Kurutz: he was able to sell
Things at tremendous profits.

Things that cost 25 cents
In new york city,

Would now cost $10
At Brannan's store.

Narrator: Sam Brannan

Was the first millionaire
West of the Mississippi

In American history.

And there were
Thousands of miners

Who were still
Nowhere close to California.

Back in the plains,

Boston Company

Were still on the early leg
Of the California trail,

Which ran alongside
The platte river,

A broad and fast-moving waterway

That cut 300 miles across
The future state of Nebraska.

But the trail didn't just run
Next to the river.

At times, you had to cross it.

[ horse neighs ]

What the hell?
Why are we stopped, walker?

[ horse neighs ]

What's the holdup,
Captain?

We have to wait
For the ferry crossing.

The only way to get across
The river was by ferry.

Companies were
Forced to shell out

The modern equivalence of $6,000

For a ride on a makeshift barge.

But there were only
A handful of ferries

For the thousands of wagons,

And Boston Company was now stuck
In a line over 10 miles long --

A traffic jam that could
Take weeks to clear.

[ sighs ]

I'd suggest we find another
Route.

No,
We stick to the trail.

Eymann: there were a lot
Of groups that would disagree

About the routes
They were supposed to take.

They would disagree whether they
Were gonna head north or south,

And that's where it's difficult
To travel in a company.

Narrator:
Adding fuel to the fire,

The men were forced to come
Face-to-face with a new reality.

The first prospectors
Were returning east,

Bringing with them

Hundreds of thousands of dollars
Worth of gold.

That, my friend,
Will be us in six months.

We're all
Gonna be rich men.

This ain't the only
Route to California.

I say we find another.

I told you, walker,
We stick to the trail.

Let's put it to the vote.

All those in favor

Of finding a quicker way
To the goldfields,

Raise your hand.

Yah!

The decision to go off
The California trail

Was a huge risk.

It could get the company
To the goldfields faster,

But it also sent them
Right into the heart

Of the most dangerous territory
In the west.

Narrator: the gold rush
Was pulling America west

Faster than anyone
Could have ever imagined.

Most of the hopeful 49ers
Traveled along

The well-established
California trail.

But then there were some

Who were daring enough
To set off on their own.

Among them
Was the Boston Company.

Now hundreds of miles
From their fellow prospectors,

The company was trekking

Deep into the heart
Of indian territory.

Brands: the indians were never
A real threat on the trail,

Because here was this mass of
People heading out to the west,

And as long as they kept going,

The indians
Really didn't bother them.

Narrator: but off the trail,

Overland companies
Were isolated and vulnerable --

Easy targets for the tribes
Who called these lands home.

Man: hold!

Hold!

Why don't they attack?

Robinson:
I don't know.

The greatest fear
Of the overland immigrant

Was an indian attack,

And anytime they saw indians
Off in the distance --

Comanches, cheyennes,
What have you --

That was
A great moment of terror.

Narrator: bloody scalpings,
Midnight massacres --

Every traveler
Had heard the stories.

As Boston Company member
William walker recorded

In his journal
In an entry marked june 5, 1849,

"A rumor came up today that
An ohio company was attacked

By the indians behind us.

Several killed."

[ wolf howling ]

[ rustle ]

[ gasps ]

Take cover!

[ horse neighing ]
Where's my gun?

[ gun clicks ]

[ speaking indistinctly ]

[ bird cawing ]

Narrator: as morning broke,

The extent of the raid
Came to light.

Three men were dead,

And the survivors picked through

What little
The indians left behind.

More than half
Their food supply was gone,

And they were left
With only two wagons.

Webber:
We only take what we need!

Provisions,
Supplies on the wagon!

Come on, let's move it!

We got to get moving!

Narrator:
The only good news

Was that Boston Company
Still had their gold washer.

That gave the men just enough
Hope to get them going again.

But the last leg
Of their journey

Was also the most dangerous...

Because between there
And the goldfields

Lied the mighty Sierra Nevadas.

Bagley:
You've come 1,850 miles.

You've tested yourself
To the ultimate limit,

And now you have to cross

The toughest mountain range
In the United States.

Narrator:
40,000 square miles

Of impenetrable,
Wall-to-wall mountains

Shooting over
Two miles straight up --

The highest peaks in
The continental United States.

Many had died trying to cross.

Just two years earlier,

87 settlers
Heading to California

Were trapped
In these same mountains

During the brutal winter
Of 1847 --

The infamous donner party.

Nearly half the group either
Froze or starved to death.

And many of the survivors were
Forced to resort to cannibalism.

Now, desperate
To avoid the same fate,

Boston Company
And thousands of other 49ers,

Had to find new ways to navigate
The hazardous terrain.

The peaks are made of granite,

And they're virtually
Straight up and down.

You essentially
Have to haul your wagon

Up over a granite escarpment --

Very dangerous trek.

Narrator:
For six long weeks,

Boston Company
Carried their wagons

Through the treacherous
Mountain passes.

After this incredible ordeal,

You finally are on
The other side of the Sierras,

And you come up on a rise,

And you're in the golden land.

Narrator:
Eight months and 18 days
After leaving civilization,

Boston Company had finally
Made it to California.

Turin:
It was such a long journey.

It was such a long process to
Get to the actual mining part,

And there's the doubts --

"Will I really find gold?
Will I be a failure?

Will I have to come back home
And go back to my old job?"

You still don't know for sure,
Until you dig it up,

If there's gold in the ground.

Narrator: they'd already
Been through hell,

But that was nothing

Compared to what they were about
To encounter in the goldfields.

Narrator:
By late summer of 1849,

The gold rush had caused
The population of California

To skyrocket from 1,800
To nearly 75,000 settlers

In just a year.

Among the new arrivals
Was Boston Company.

After eight gruelling months
And over 3,000 miles,

The company now found themselves
In a whole new world.

They paid their dues
On the trail...

...And now it was time
To get rich.

But by the time
Boston Company arrived,

The goldfields were already
Packed with prospectors,

As nearly all of those
Tens of thousands of new people

Were crammed into
The same 13 miles

Around the American river.

Turin: you have to be a person
With a high-risk tolerance

To go into gold mining.

I think you could probably
Do better in the stock market

Than you can gold mining,

Because once you
Do your due diligence,

All of the good gold claims,
All of the easy gold,

Has been found.

Narrator: Boston Company
Was forced to stake their claim

In the heart
Of the crowded goldfields,

Which were now
As densely populated

As a large east coast city.

But the men
Were feeling confident.

They still had
Their secret weapon,

One that promised to give them
An edge over everybody else.

Company b,
Let's unload this washer!

Company b!

It cost them a fortune,

And they'd spent months
Hauling it across the country...

Careful with that.

Back! Back! Back!

...Guarding it against
Surprise attacks,

Risking life and limb,

And now,
It was all about to pay off.

Gold washer.

Webber: "Wealth awaits."

Wealth?

Wealth awaits!

[ laughter ]

Eymann: Boston Company believed
That they had

A new way that
They could get more gold

And that they would be able
To get rich quicker

Because they had
This technology with them.

[ all cheering ]

Narrator: as the gold washer
Started working,

It looked like Boston Company

Was on the verge
Of striking it rich.

Meanwhile, in San Francisco,

Sam Brannan was operating
On a whole new level.

In the time it took
Boston Company

To cross the continent,

Brannan had built an empire.

The once struggling shopkeeper

Was now the king of California.

Man: last week, two ounces
Of gold bought four pickaxes,

And this week it only buys two.

[ sighs ]

It's not that the price
Of the pickaxe has gone up,

It's that there's gold
Everywhere,

So the value of gold
Has gone down.

Bagley: the people
Who were making the money

Were mining the miners,

And nobody was mining the miners
Like Sam Brannan.

Narrator:
Brannan's store was the only
One of its kind in California,

Which meant he could charge
Whatever he wanted.

A pound of beef cost
The modern equivalent of $500.

$700 for a pair of boots.

$2,600 for a blanket.

Costs were so high,

It was cheaper
To send your dirty laundry

To be cleaned in Hawaii
And then shipped back

Than it was to have it washed in
One of Brannan's establishments.

For Brannan,
It was the perfect scheme.

With no other options,

Every company in the goldfields

Had no choice
But to go along with it,

And Boston Company
Was no exception.

After months on the trail,

They needed to stock up
On food and supplies.

It's $25.

[ pan clangs ]

We're leaving.

Narrator:
Charles Robinson had seen
Men like Sam Brannan before --

Someone willing
To take advantage of others

For his own personal gain.

But what Robinson
Had no way of knowing

Was that in less than two years,

He and Brannan would be locked
In an epic battle

For control of the goldfields --

One that would shape California
And redefine America forever.

Narrator:
During the gold rush,

Some methods for finding gold
Were based on science...

Others were not.

There were miners who
Covered themselves in oil

To see what
They could pick up...

...And others who wasted their
Money buying bogus gadgets.

And then, there were
The fortune-tellers...

...Or, as we call them, con men.

It's safe to say that none
Of these methods panned out.

By september of 1849,

The gold rush
Was less than a year old,

And already,
The modern equivalent

Of over $5 billion worth of gold

Had been pulled out
Of the ground.

But as thousands of new 49ers

Descended on California
Every day,

The gold was getting harder
To come by.

The competition was heating up.

There was a sense that
We are all in this together

And we should
Help each other out.

That changed as it became
More and more difficult

To make money.

Narrator:
With all the competition,

Boston Company
Knew they needed an edge.

And they were certain
They had it...

With the gold washer.

Just as soon
As the gold rush started,

Top engineers back east
Began developing new devices

That promised to process dirt

Up to 10 times faster
Than a miner could with a pan.

But no matter
How new the technology,

The technique was based on
The same age-old principle --

Gold is heavier than dirt.

Shake a bucket of gravel
And water around long enough,

And eventually the gold
Will sink to the bottom.

The washer just
Accelerated the process...

...Or at least
That was the idea.

With the cost of living
In California so high,

Miners had to dig up
An ounce of gold a day

Just to break even.

But after weeks
With the gold washer,

Boston Company
Still hadn't found any gold.

Hey!
I say when it goes.

Sorry, walker.

The company
Was starting to wonder

If the machine they had carried
Over 3,000 miles to California,

Which men gave their lives
To protect,

Wasn't quite the secret weapon
They had hoped for.

Keep it turning!

I'm trying.

Put some muscle in it.

It's stuck.

Doc,
Check the auger.

Damn.
Keep it moving!

Ware: there's no guarantee
In anything in mining.

You can spend too much money
On equipment,

And if you're not knowing
What you're doing,

You're just wasting your money
And you're not getting any gold.

You're just turning wheels.

Hold it.
Check the tray.

Kurutz:
These mining contraptions
That were brought to California,

People realized that
These things don't do any good.

None of them really worked,
But people were gullible.

Narrator:
It was becoming clear

That the engineers who
Designed the machine back east

Didn't know a thing
About gold mining.

Turin: when you toil and sweat
And have the ups and downs

And you go through it
With a group of guys,

It can either
Separate and fracture

And you can become enemies,

Or you can become, what we call,
A band of brothers.

You just never know.

What's wrong?

It needs a new cogwheel.

Where can you get
One of those from?

Boston.

That ain't gonna happen.

You're just gonna have to fix it
Yourself.

Walker,
You can help him.

You do it.

What did you say?

You do it.

[ chuckles ]

Hey! Hey!
Walker, don't!

Narrator: high in the foothills
Of the Sierra Nevadas,

Along the American river,

Boston Company
Had reached a breaking point.

Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey.

The company's hired gun,
William walker, had had enough.

[ spits ]

[ groans ]

I want my money back.

Whatever money's left
Belongs to the company.

Brechin: gold creates
A new kind of exciting

But also dangerous society
At the same time.

And that's what they discovered
When they came here.

It wasn't like
What they had been promised.

It was much harder,
Much more dangerous.

Narrator: walker took matters
Into his own hands.

He grabbed the company's
Meager supply of gold

And set off on his own.

When a man is desperate,
He'll go outside of the law.

Well, there is no law
In these camps.

Even the camps that I've seen
In the modern-day gold rushes,

There is no law.

Money's gone.

Anyone else wants to leave,
There's the trail!

Steal any of our animals
And provisions,

And you'll be flogged!

Narrator:
The company was falling apart,

And captain John Webber's
Leadership

Was being put to the test.

While Boston Company struggled
In the goldfields,

90 miles west,

Other luckier 49ers
Were living the high life.

In just 18 months,

Gold had turned the small town
Of San Francisco

Into the largest city
West of the Mississippi --

A wild outpost
Where anything goes.

[ laughter ]

Brands:
There's the slogan "What happens
In vegas stays in vegas."

That really applied
To California

In the early days
Of the gold rush

Because most people
Were on vacation

From the people who knew them.

What they did in California
Probably wouldn't get back

To wherever
They were going back to.

Narrator:
But the man who ruled it all
Was a shopkeeper

Who'd used his monopoly
Over mining supplies

To seize control of the city --

Sam Brannan.

While Brannan's store had made
Him the richest man in the west,

He wasn't about to stop there.

Brannan has pretty good
Business instincts,

And he branches out,

And he starts a whole variety
Of different enterprises.

Narrator:
Brannan began taking over
Every business in San Francisco,

And anyone
Who didn't give him a cut

Was quickly run out of town.

Sam Brannan
Was establishing himself

As the first kingpin
In California,

And with no laws to stop him,
Nothing stood in his way.

Bagley: a lot of people
Were afraid of Sam Brannan.

They'd seen him
Exercise his power.

They'd seen him
Be absolutely ruthless at times.

Let me see that one.

That's very nice.

Thank you.

Brannan ruled by fear
In many ways.

Narrator: just 130 miles
Northeast of San Francisco,

The landscape changed quickly...

From the rolling fog of the bay

To the dry, blistering heat
Of the rocky hills.

Hundreds of 49ers
Left the overcrowded goldfields

To look for untouched land

Miles away
From the nearest river.

Among them was William walker.

Since abandoning Boston Company,

Walker had found himself
In a much more hostile climate,

Where temperatures spiked
To 115 degrees

In the scorching sun.

Also braving
These harsh conditions

Were the only two members
Of Boston Company

To come with him --
Oliver martin and john fowler.

And together,
They were trying their luck

At a new method
For finding gold --

Dry mining.

Miners tossed dry earth
Into the air,

And as the wind
Blew away the lighter pieces,

Only the heavier material,
Like gold, was left behind.

I've done a little bit
Of dry mining over the years.

I didn't really like it.

The contents of the material
has to be so dry

in order to get a good recovery

that you're working
in a dust storm.

It just covers you.

It's just miserable.

Narrator:
Walker documented his experience

In his journals.

"We were unsuccessful again
Today,

Getting
But a few grains of gold."

After weeks
Of backbreaking work,

Walker, martin, and fowler
Had little to show for it.

Beaten down and exhausted,

They were no better off
Than they'd been before.

[ metal clangs ]

Oro!

Oro!

[ conversing in spanish ]

Oro! Oro!

[ laughs ]

Oro!

[ all cheering ]

Oro!

It spreads like wildfire when
You do find a strike of gold,

And before you know it,

You'll have five or six guys,
You know, coming here

And they're wanting to prospect

Or they're wanting
To do something.

Gold can bring out
The very worst in people.

[ speaks spanish ]

[ laughs ]

[ conversing in spanish ]

There were instances
Of people jumping claims.

When you staked a claim,
You would get

Your 15-square-foot area
That this was yours,

And you had the right

To whatever gold
Was discovered there.

But you had to enforce it
Yourself.

Otherwise, somebody would
Probably try to steal it.

[ men shouting ]

Claim jumping still happens.
There's no doubt about it.

You haven't eaten for 10 days

And you're struggling
Just to survive,

You're gonna take
Desperate action.

And sometimes, it ends up being
Survival of the fittest,

And it can be ugly.

[ twig breaks ]

[ both grunting ]

[ grunting ]

[ bird squawking ]

Brechin: gold has the power

To turn decent men and women
Into psychopaths.

People infected with gold fever

Simply become
Absolutely ruthless.

[ bird squawking ]

Narrator:
After months of coming up empty,

William walker had finally
Discovered his own method

For finding gold.

Narrator: by the fall of 1849,

Sam Brannan was the most
Powerful man in San Francisco.

He already had a stake

In everything
From hotels to saloons,

And now
He was taking in an income

Of nearly $4 million a month
In today's money.

But a new business
Was moving into town,

And Brannan saw an opportunity
To add to his empire.

[ wolf whistling ]

Howdy, ladies.

Hello, ladies.

How you doing?

Benemann: during the first year
Of the gold rush,

95% of the people who came
Were men,

And that 5% of the population
That was female

Was almost all prostitutes,

And there was a great demand.

Prostitutes
Could make a lot of money.

Brannan: I'm willing
To lease you one of my hotels,

But I want a cut of 50%.

So, do we have a deal?

Narrator:
Prostitution quickly became
The biggest moneymaker

In San Francisco.

[ laughter ]

Sam Brannan began importing
Women from around the world.

In just months,
Over 2,000 prostitutes arrived,

And each woman could command

The modern equivalent
Of $100,000 a week.

Brannan already owned
The waterfront.

Now he turned it into

The biggest red-light district
In the world

And a well-oiled moneymaker.

The girls brought the men

Directly from the bordellos
To the gambling halls,

Where they were easy targets
For Brannan's casinos.

Sam Brannan was raising the bar.

It wasn't enough
To own the house.

He was making sure
The game was fixed.

Brechin: in the gambling halls,
The decks are always stacked.

You know, the house wins.

And Sam Brannan comes in on that

Because the fortunes
That were really made,

The lasting fortunes,

Are made by those people

Who got control
By whatever means necessary.

Narrator: meanwhile,
Back in the goldfields,

Desperation was taking over.

Their gold washer was a bust,
So now,

Boston Company was forced
To dig for gold

Just like everyone else --
With a pan.

And after three weeks
Of backbreaking work,

They still hadn't
Found anything.

One of the things
That made the gold rush happen

Was that any idiot
Could mine gold.

In California,
There was so much of luck,

Good or bad,

In determining who made it
And who didn't.

Gold!

Gold!

[ men shouting ]

Beets: it's a business.

It's not a fairy tale out there.

Some people think
They can go out there

And pick it out the ground.

Well,
That's just not how it works.

Turin: if you're a gold miner,
You're gonna hit ups and downs,

And many times, the downs
Are really, really big.

I experienced
Some very difficult times.

I doubted myself,
I had fears of failure.

There was one time when I
Walked out on a piece of ground,

And I looked around, and I go,

"What in the hell
Am I doing here?

I have no idea how to do this."

Narrator:
With every passing day,

The company sank deeper
Into debt.

And with supplies running out,

They needed a game changer.

Brands: as the gold became
Harder to find,

People began
To try to figure out

Other ways of getting gold.

The tools became
More sophisticated.

What is that?

It's a sluice.

How much earth
Could you turn over?

1,000 buckets a day.

Principle of the sluice box

Was essentially the principle
Of the wash pan,

Except it was sort of ramping up
The operation.

Narrator: it was a simple
But ingenious concept.

A series of boxes
Lined with wooden strips

Were locked together.

The boxes were filled with dirt,

And as river water
Rushed over it,

Lighter particles washed away,

And the strips caught
The heavier gold.

With a sluice box,

A miner could process
16 times as much dirt

As he could with a pan.

It was a major leap forward
In gold-mining technique,

As companies
All over the goldfields

Stopped panning

And started building
Massive sluices.

After weeks of backbreaking work
Carried out in sweltering heat,

Boston Company's sluice box
Was finally complete.

The sluice box is still
Our main way of getting gold,

Even now,

Just like they did
150 years ago.

It hasn't improved that much.
Pretty incredible.

[ whistles ]
Boys.

[ all cheering ]

Man: gold!

Narrator:
Boston Company was sure they'd
Found their ticket to fortune.

Just as their luck
Seemed to be turning...

...Something deadly
Hit the goldfields.

Narrator:
By late october of 1849,

The gold rush
Was just over a year old,

And already,
Over 76 tons of gold

Had been pulled
From California --

More than double
The amount of gold

That had ever been discovered
On north American soil.

All that gold
Was traveling back east,

Injecting billions of dollars
Of new wealth

Into the American economy.

But for the tens of thousands
Of miners in California

Who were trying to dig it up,

Life wasn't getting any better.

In fact, it was about to get
A whole lot worse...

...As a new menace

Was sweeping through
The crowded goldfields --

One that threatened
To destroy everything.

I'm dying, ain't I?

Cholera.

At the time,

It was one of the deadliest
Diseases on the planet.

In just 50 years,

The disease had made its way
From asia to europe

And now to the United States,

Spreading across the continent

Faster and further
Than any epidemic before it.

Within the past year alone,

Cholera had killed the president
Of the United States,

James k. Polk,

And his successor,
Zachary taylor.

By the end of the pandemic,

Over 12 million people
Would be dead.

In the 1840s, no one knew
What caused the disease

Or how to cure it.

The one thing they did know

Was that cholera
Seemed to be most prevalent

In crowded areas

Where there was little or no
Sanitation,

Like cities or the goldfields.

Brands:
These mining camps that were
Bunched really close together

Very often
Were visited by cholera

And other infectious diseases.

You'll get 10,000, 15,000 people
In this small valley.

You had all of the problems
Of urban life

Without any
Urban infrastructure.

Folks in California had no time
To dig wells or to dig latrines,

And so, the local stream
Became both simultaneously.

Narrator: for these cramped
And filthy conditions...

[ coughing ]

...It took just days
For the disease

To take over
The Boston Company camp.

Cholera strikes fast,
Attacking your intestines

And causing severe dehydration

That could quickly lead
To organ failure and death.

Eymann:
It was a horrendous disease.

You're vomiting.
You have diarrhea
You can't control.

You become dehydrated.

It was a horrible way to die.

Narrator: there wasn't much
A doctor could do

Except ease the suffering.

Bagley: most doctors believed

You wanted to
Try to counter the symptoms,

Which were free-flowing
At both ends.

One of the ideas
Was give them opium

To stop them up

And alcohol
To make them feel better.

A lot of these treatments
Kill more people than they cure.

But some physicians recognize

That body's
Losing a lot of water

And you better get it back in.

[ coughing ]

Narrator:
If it hadn't been for cholera,

Dr. Charles Robinson
Wouldn't have come to California

In the first place.

Just two years earlier,

The disease
Had attacked his family.

He frantically tried
To find a cure.

But in the end...

...He was forced to bury
His daughter and his wife.

California was supposed to
Be a fresh start,

But now,
He was reliving the nightmare.

This time, Charles Robinson
Was determined to find a cure.

Narrator: after weeks
Of hiding out in the hills,

William walker, john fowler,
And oliver martin

Had arrived in San Francisco.

It had been months since they'd
Last set foot in a major city,

And these guys knew
Exactly what they wanted.

Think we're gonna like it here,
Boys.

[ piano music plays ]

♪ I wander today to the hill,
Danny ♪

♪ to watch the scene below *

♪ the creek and the creaking
Old mill, danny ♪

♪ used so long, long ago *

♪ the creaking old wheel
Is now still, danny ♪

♪ used so long, long ago *

[ applause, whistling ]

Kurutz: people were coming in
From the foothills

With their pile of gold.

They wanted
To blow off some steam.

"Let's have a good time."

You know,
"I'm a king, I've made it."

Narrator: the cholera epidemic
That had hit the goldfields

Showed no signs of letting up.

One out of every three miners
Contracted the disease.

One out of every 12 died of it.

Neither Dr. Charles Robinson
Nor anyone else in the world

Had any idea
How to stop the epidemic.

While isolated
In the middle of nowhere,

Robinson knew
He couldn't cure the disease,

But he could try
To treat its symptoms

Using whatever he found
Around him.

As Robinson
Carefully documented,

To relive painful muscle spasms,

He tried camphor from the bark
Of an evergreen tree.

To stimulate
The body's circulation,

He tried herbs
Made up of ground-up capsicum,

And finally, to dull the pain,
He added a little opium.

By focusing on the symptoms,

Robinson hoped to keep
The patient alive long enough

For their body
To fight off the disease.

Incredibly, it worked.

Word quickly spread
Throughout the goldfields,

And miners traveled
From miles away

To be saved by the doctor
In Boston Company.

Kurutz: to have
A bona fide doctor with you

Was just a tremendous resource
And a tremendous advantage.

Dr. Robinson was a man that
People will seem to respect,

And he was able to gain
The confidence of people, too.

Morning, doc.

Narrator:
After years of torment,

Charles Robinson
Had finally beaten cholera.

Doc.

And in the process,

He'd made a name for himself
In the goldfields.

The cholera crisis
Had been averted,

But many of the men
Who'd contracted the disease

Had had enough.

Miners by the hundreds gave up
Their dream of finding gold

And headed home,

Among them, Captain John Webber,

Who after months of watching his
Control over his men crumble,

Finally realized

He was no longer the true leader
Of Boston Company.

I want to wish you all
The best of luck.

I hope at least some of you
Come back rich men.

Eymann:
When Webber makes the decision

And probably after being sick
Like that,

Decides to turn back.

I think that knowing
Who Charles Robinson was

And also the fact

That he had just helped them
Through an illness,

That he would've been a natural

For the group to turn to
As a leader.

What do we do now, doc?

Narrator:
William walker may have felt
Like the king of the goldfields,

But he didn't realize that he
Was just like everyone else --

An easy mark who had played
Right into Sam Brannan's game.

Just you and me.

If you bet
The rest of your gold,

I'll double your stake.

If you win,
You'll be a very rich man.

I think we should go.

Shut up, fowler.

Damn it! This thing's fixed!
I want my money back.

Okay. Okay! Okay!

Okay.

[ grunts ]

Aah!

You'll pay for this!

I'll get you, son of a bitch!

[ indistinct shouting ]

Narrator:
During the California gold rush,

The greatest threat to the 49ers
Wasn't the harsh conditions.

[ gun cocks ]

It was each other.

[ gunshot ]

Brechin: it was a violent
And a dangerous culture

In which could lose your life
Very, very easily.

And one of the sad things is
When these men,

Who had wives and families
Back home,

They might suddenly
Just stop writing,

And their families
Would never know what happened.

Narrator:
In the goldfields, nine out of
Every 10 prospectors were armed,

And on average, there was
A murder every five hours,

Making California
The deadliest place in America.

Narrator: William walker
Had cheated and robbed

To get ahead in the goldfields,

But now he was the one
Being conned by Sam Brannan.

You'll pay for this!

I'll get you, son of a bitch!

Narrator:
But walker had finally realized
The game was rigged.

And he was going to take matters
Into his own hands.

Meanwhile,
It had been over two months

Since they survived
The cholera epidemic,

And Boston Company was back
At work with their sluice.

But they were having
No better luck

Than they were while panning.

It was clear.

The problem
Wasn't with the technology

But the land.

Some people make a mistake about
Digging and digging and digging,

Thinking, well, that's the only
Claim they've got,

And they'll work themselves
To death

On a claim
That's got nothing on it.

It's just no pay dirt.

4 ounces.

Turin: you really don't know
You've got a bad claim

Until you're into it too far.

A poor miner,
Which is usually the case,

Tries to overcome the losses

That he's already encountered
On a bad piece of ground,

And they never make it up.

A smart miner walks away
And cuts his losses.

Let's pack up
And go to San Francisco.

It's Christmas. It's about time
We celebrate something.

Yes, sir.
Yes, sir. Whoo!

Get the gear.

Narrator:
Charles Robinson decided

It was time
They abandon their claim.

He knew his men needed a break.

So, Boston Company
Set out for San Francisco...

...And it seemed like everyone
In California had the same idea.

By the end of 1849,
As Christmas approached,

75,000 miners
From all over California

Flooded into the city.

It was the biggest party
San Francisco had ever seen

As miners packed into
Brannan's bars and bordellos

Looking for an escape.

But across town...

One man was looking for revenge.

With Sam Brannan preoccupied,
Walker broke into his mansion...

...To take back what was his.

Hey.

Hey, fowler.

There's a big fire
Outside.

What are you doing?
[ gasps ]

Who are you?
Uh...

What's the combination
To the safe?

Fowler: walker, there's a fire.
We should go.

Tell me.

Please, god.
Please.

Shut up!
We need to go now.

Tell me.
I don't know.

Walker,
We are gonna burn alive.

[ gasps ]

[ crying ]

Narrator: it started
In a gambling hall downtown,

But in no time,

What would come to be known
As the great fire of 1849

Had spread across
San Francisco...

...Destroying everything
In its path.

By the time Robinson
And Boston Company arrived,

The city that gold built
Had burned to the ground.