k-taking economy and society in the nation. Maybe in the world.”Historian Sylvia Sun-Minnick, author of “Samfow”“Because from this Gold Rush we had other Gold Rushes. It is only here in California we had a Gold Rush called Hollywood. Only here in California we had a Gold Rush called Silicon Valley or here that we went from Charles Lindbergh to aerospace.” J.S. Holliday, author of “The World Rushed In”:“The image of California, the spirit, the psyche of California, was shaped by the 49ers—who were vigorous, lustful, energetic, dynamic young men. And they became the founding fathers. Compare that to the Pilgrims. San Francisco, a lustful, romantic, rambunctious, robust, dynamic place, became the mother city of California—quite unlike Philadelphia, for example.”John Sutter never saw the opportunity of gold. He couldn’t alter his vision—and left the state. But as Sutter and those like him departed, the new Californians came and kept coming. People who could adapt to constant changes; people who saw opportunity at every corner; people who longed for a more exciting life, and weren’t afraid to grab it. J.S. Holliday, author of “The World Rushed In”:“It was a romantic time. It was a highly adventurous time. It was like a war. A war for all its tragedies, all its horrors, all it’s anguish, all of its utter misery and stupidity—every war has about it a dynamic romantic quality, because there is some high purpose. There’s some great goal;, there is some great victory; there is some great justification. And the Gold Rush had a victory, a great justification, a great ending. When a man could come home with the means to put his arm around his wife and say ‘I made it. I did it. I can take care of us now. We can buy that section of land over there. We can move, we can do what you want. I’ll buy you that dress, I’ll...
