In 1828, the discovery of gold in the state of Georgia produced a mass exodus north to Blairsville, a small town located south of the Appalachian Mountains, in the heart of Cherokee territory.

The California Gold Rush was a social phenomenon that occurred in the United States between 1848 and 1855, characterized by the large number of immigrants who came to the vicinity of San Francisco in search of gold. This phenomenon began when gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill, near the town of Coloma. As soon as news of the discovery was discovered, it spread to more than three hundred thousand people who emigrated to California from the rest of the United States and other countries.

Many of the immigrants were Americans, but the gold rush also attracted tens of thousands of people from Latin America, Europe, Australia and Asia. Initially, gold seekers collected gold in streams and river beds using simple techniques such as panning, but later developed more sophisticated methods of gold extraction that were adopted around the world.

The effects of this sudden migration were spectacular. Before the gold rush, San Francisco was a tiny village, and with the gold rush the village became a city. Schools, roads and churches were built, and other towns were founded. A legal and government system was created, leading to the admission of California as a state of the Union in 1850. New means of transportation, such as the steamboat, came into service in the state, and railroad lines were laid. The agriculture business was also started, the second fastest growing industry in California.

The gold rush also had other effects: the natives of the region were attacked and driven from their traditional lands. The environmental impact that mining produced was also important.

On the morning of January 24, 1848, James W. Marshall approached the river and began to observe the reflections of the sun in the crystalline water. When his fingers pulled out of the water, a metal similar to copper shone brightly under the bright morning. Marshall came out of the river soaked and ran to one of the men at the sawmill, named Scott, and told him that he had found gold and thus, the gold rush began.