Entrepreneurship

Not everyone in the Gold Rush tried to make money by mining. Some made lots of money with their entrepreneuring ideas.

There were many inventions designed to bring people to California. You've already seen one example of a flying machine invented by Rufus Porter, editor of the Scientific American. He had another idea to fly migrants toward the west on propeller-operated balloons that were powered by steam engines. Pictured here is the "wind wagon," another invention of entrepreneur Wind-Wagon Thomas, that was kind of like a sailboat and a wagon in one. It was advertised to go 15 miles per hour, because after all it could be very windy in the West, but after its first few moments of glory, it crashed. The inventor never suceeded, but kept on trying for many years.

From Idaho State University's link to PBS Online "Weird Ways West"
In the Gold Rush era, people like Sam Brannan would buy all sorts of goods (including food, clothes material and mining supplies) and then sell them at inflated prices to the miners. Sam Brannan made $36,000 in nine weeks! That amount of money would have be worth millions today. The Mormon church claimed that Brannan had taken tithe money to his entrepreneurial activities, and expelled him from the church when he refused to return it. Entrepreneurship with a greedy overtone prospered because people like Brannan knew that the migrants were so desperate for supplies that they would spend all of their hard-earned money for one little inadequate meal. Maybe you wouldn't spend $100 for a glass of water, but some 49ers coming to California did. As they said in the PBS documentary, "Because of poor planning, many western-bound 49ers were unprepared for the hot, dry deserts of Nevada." A few entrepreneurs knew this and traveled with barrels of water to the sites where wagons were passing. They charged the 49ers $5, even $100, for a glass of "precious" water, even if the water was rancid.
From the PBS West Film website
"Samuel Brannan (1819-1889)"

Many miners were broke, when the entrepreneurs made big money. James Marshall and John Sutter both died poor and sour people.

Read about other ideas associated with the Gold Rush:

Statehood: Lawlessness to Justice
Diversity

 Ideas

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