San Francisco - Alison Bing [7]
Spain wasn’t especially sorry to hand over the troublesome settlement to the newly independent nation of Mexico, but Mexico soon made this colony a profitable venture with a bustling hide and tallow trade at Yerba Buena Cove, where the Financial District now stands. Yankee trappers arrived to make their fortunes, and the trading post became a desirable destination for freed African Americans after Mexico outlawed slavery in Alto California.
Meanwhile, US-Mexico relations steadily deteriorated, made worse by rumors that Mexico was entertaining a British buy-out offer to take California off its hands. News was slow to arrive from Washington, DC, and Mexico City, leaving locals in a state of wary uncertainty. US commodore Thomas Catesby Jones actually invaded Monterey on the assumption that the US and Mexico were at war; two days later he realized his mistake, hastily apologized and returned to his ships. The Mexican-American War broke out for real in 1846, and dragged on for two years before ending with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. This treaty formally ceded California and the present-day southwestern states to the USA – a loss that was initially reckoned by missionizing Church fathers in souls, but within months could be counted in ingots.
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‘GOLD! GOLD! GOLD!’
Say what you will about Sam Brannan: the man knew how to sell a story. In 1848, the real-estate speculator and Mormon tabloid publisher of the California Star published sensational news of a find 120 miles from San Francisco at Sutter’s Mill, where sawmill employees had taken to gold-panning duty after flakes had surfaced downstream. Brannan had his reasons for publishing what was then pure speculation as fact: he was hoping it would excite some interest back East in some swampland he was trying to sell, not to mention scooping rival San Francisco newspaper the Californian. San Franciscans ignored Brannan’s bluster at first, preoccupied with news of the handover of California to the US from Mexico. To prove his point, Brannan traveled to Sutter’s Fort, where news of the find was verified under conditions of strict secrecy. Brannan kept his word for about a day. Upon his arrival, he ran through the San Francisco streets, brandishing a vial of gold flakes and shouting, ‘Gold! Gold! Gold on the American River!’
But Brannan’s plan backfired. Within weeks San Francisco’s population shrank to 200, as every able-bodied individual headed to the hills to pan for gold. Both newspapers folded; there was no one around to read, write or print them. Good thing Brannan had a backup plan: he’d bought every available shovel, pick and pan, and opened a general store near Sutter’s Fort. Within its first 70 days, Brannan & Co had sold a whopping $36,000 in equipment – about $949,000 in today’s terms. Initially Brannan charged big-spending Mormon buyers a special tax he claimed was for the church. But, when Mormon founder Brigham Young reportedly requested a cut for the church, Brannan retorted that he’d like a receipt from God.
Luckily for Brannan’s profit margins, other newspapers around the world weren’t that scrupulous about getting their facts straight either, hastily publishing stories of ‘gold mountains’ near San Francisco. Within months, boatloads of prospectors arrived from Europe, Australia and China,