The California Gold Rush (1848–1855) was a gold rush that began on January 24, 1848, when James W. Marshall found gold at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. Golden News brought about 300,000 people to California from the rest of the United States and abroad. The sudden influx of money into the money supply restored the American economy, and the sudden increase in population allowed California to quickly become a state, in the Compromise of 1850. The impact was severe. California. Nature. and accelerated the decline of Native Americans from disease. , The Famine and the Genocide in California.