The famous California Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill in California, and it peaked in the early 1850s.

Quick Scoop

  • The California Gold Rush is usually what people mean by “the” Gold Rush. It started with James W. Marshall’s discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill on January 24, 1848.
  • The rush drew hundreds of thousands of people (the “forty-niners”) in 1849 and the early 1850s, with activity peaking around 1852.
  • Historians often date the broader California Gold Rush era from about 1848 to the late 1850s, when the richest, easiest deposits were exhausted.

In short: when someone asks “when was the gold rush,” the classic answer is 1848–1850s, starting with the 1848 Sutter’s Mill discovery in California.

TL;DR: It kicked off in 1848 in California and was at its height around 1849–1852.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.