The main gold rush was in California in 1849.

A gold rush is where a lot of people come to a place where gold has been found.
In the U.S.A the first gold rush was in North Carolina in 1799. That gold rush started when a twelve year boy found a seventeen pound gold nugget in water. The boys family did not know that that gold was gold and they sold it for $3.50. They thought that was a good price for gold but they didn't
know it was actually worth about $350,000 in today's money.

Gold fever is when people leave everything and everyone to look for gold. And only care about the gold. People from close places came to mine for gold. About seven weeks after the first nugget was found the San Francisco news paper ran a small story about gold being found. About 800 people lived in San Francisco at that time so not very many people actually read the article. But the people who did read it were very curious about to believe it or not. When the people found gold or heard rumors about found gold they told a lot of people so the people who knew left everything to go mine for gold.

Being a prospector was boring. Miners were always excited to escape work and have some fun.
San Francisco was the closest place to all the gold. San Francisco became known as the as the Golden Gate.
Most miners always think that if they go to the place gold was recently found no matter what they will find gold. A boomtown is a place where ships and prospectors and sailors come to stay before looking for gold. boomtowns are usually found around a city where gold has been found.

most miners only found about $30 of gold in a day and back then that wouldn't even pay for a pair of worn out boots. Most lucky miners would find about $2000 dollars worth of gold. But most miners only found about $40 or $50 dollars worth of gold in a day.