When did the gold rush slow down?
This is a real interesting piece of history, and if you have even a little bit of interest you should look it up and read all about it. As is the case in most of the gold rushes in the West, at first people were able to simply look down into the water and see large gold nuggets. They didn’t have to do any digging or panning, but just picked up gold nuggets. That doesn’t last very long, and as those easy pickins are cleaned up the real gold prospecting begins. At first there were few people panning because they didn’t really believe there was gold anywhere near them. As it happens today and back then as well, as soon as someone shows up with a few big nuggets or a pile of gold dust so there is visible proof, the rush is on. Little tent and shack villages swelled to populations of tens of thousands in a few months. People were rushing from back east to try and make thier fortunes in the gold fields. Rumors had all of them believing that there was so much gold laying around that everybody
