Historically Speaking 77e qdd ku, is by STAN RUBENSTEIN LTHOUGH California had prac- immense profits. Fraud and deception A tically no means of wide com- were rampant. Involved in the maze of munication in 1848, that did not pre- land fever was Harry Meiggs who, fol- vent the spreading of news about the lowing the real estate collapse in 1854, discovery of gold in Sutter's sawmill. became the most ambitious railroad Somehow this single event was echoed builder in South America. James Lick, from coast to coast and even reached who profited from the purchase of acres the continental shores of Europe. Never of worthless sand dunes adjacent to the thereafter did California, or in par- village of Yerba Buena, also realized ticular, San Francisco, return to the fortunes in and around San Francisco. primitive frontier-like atmosphere that The Lick observatory is a memorial to had characterized the sparsely settled his role as an early settler. west. In addition to wealth gained from Gold loomed large in importance speculation in city lots and other real and California was admitted to the estate, numerous large estates were ac- Union as a free state. The westward carded Mexican grants comprising movement served as the prime example about one quarter of the arable land. of land which attains value as a direct This was an opportune time for shrewd result of increasing population. lawyers and speculators, for many of Probably no single event in American these grants were verbal and undefined history has had a more electrifying and legal records had never been made effect than the discovery of precious or were missing. Fraudulent land grab- metal had in the middle of the last cen- bing operations became common fol- tury. Hordes of adventurers left their lowing the gold rush, and for decades homes, mortgaged farms, or sold busi- federal officials were swamped in their nesses to emigrate in search of gold in efforts to determine the legitimacy of the river beds. Little did they realize various claims, such as the Limantour that while millions of dollars might be claim which involved more than 600,- realized from the gold nuggets a much 000 acres. larger fortune was awaiting investors As California's population multi- via increases in land values. Few of the plied and fortunes were made and lost new arrivals were alert to the possibility it is interesting to note the effect all of amassing wealth through the pur- this had on the principal character, chase and sale of land, but local in- John Sutter. After the early rush had habitants soon recognized and under- subsided his property seemed to attract stood the influence that increased popu- many idle squatters, so that a once suc- lation exerts on business ventures and cessful colony there was destroyed. An real estate. important San Francisco street bears his A boom ensued about this time and name today but few will recall that con- city lots in San Francisco rose sharply trary to the usual success pattern, Sutter in value. Local politicians became spent many years attempting to pay off deeply involved in various manipula- debts incurred by the discovery of gold tions, and the land grabbers enjoyed in his sawmill. 6HENRY GEORGE NEWS .