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Gold-rush Town: True, the gold-rush towns were socially unstable and economically unbalanced. They existed only to serve an impatient crowd of men-women represented but a tiny portion of the population. Thus composed, many a gold-rush community proved ephemeral and is today a ghost town. In the absence of more enduring pursuits such as agriculture and stockraising, there was little to support a gold-rush region once its mineral deposits had ceased to yield a profit at the prevailing cost of wages, capital, and transportation.
When news of the finding of gold in the Sierra foothills on Jan. 24, 1848 first reached the town it aroused little interest. However, once the richness and extent of the new goldfields were realized, a concerted rush got under way. Business came to an all but complete standstill and remained so for several months. Then as the advance guard of the thousands who presently joined the rush began to arrive, San Francisco entered the most eventful period of its history. The Argonauts appeared in such numbers that supplies and services of every sort were quickly exhausted.
SAN JUAN DEL SUR, soor', town, Nicaragua, in Rivas Department, 14 miles south of Rivas with railway connection, is a seaside resort and port on the Pacific, exporting coffee, sugar, and lumber. During the 1849 California gold rush it was the Pacific terminus of the transisthmian route to the gold fields. It has |
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