The Gold Rush did indeed make a lot of people wealthy. Not the gold itself, but rather land speculation and the business bubble. When I randomly recall old wea

The Gold Rush did indeed make a lot of people wealthy. Not the gold itself, but rather land speculation and the business bubble. When I randomly recall old wealth families that I’m aware of, they pretty much all started from local business tycoons (newspapers, railroads, essential consumer products, etc.) that usually diversified through real estate. No different than the rest of the US.