The San Francisco Gold Rush
The Gold Rush era in San Francisco lasted almost two decades, between the years 1846 and 1864. Gold was first discovered 120 miles away at Sutter's Mill. Sam Brannan, a tabloid publisher at the time printed as fact his suspicions about the gold present in Sutter's Mill, hoping to draw attention from the East.
His newspaper folded when people emptied San Francisco and rushed to Sutter's Mill. But when other newspapers started printing stories about gold in the mountains surrounding San Francisco, the city soon filled with migrants from as far as Australia and China, as well as Europe.
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/usa/san-francisco/history
http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist2/gold.html
