In a small town named Kaloma, California, approximately 132 miles from where we're gathered

today, something happened in 1848 that changed history.

James W. Marshall, a carpenter and sawmill operator, reported the finding of gold on the American

river.

Even with the dial-up internet that everyone used back then, word traveled fast.

Over the next four years, up to 300,000 people came west in search of gold.

The majority of them arrived in 1849, and were known as 49ers.

Now you're probably not surprised to hear that most of these prospectors didn't strike

at rich, but some did, and the people who strike at rich fit into one of three groups.

The people in the first group were lucky.

They found themselves in the right place at the right time.

To be clear, they still had to take some kind of action.

Even though the odds of winning the lottery are very low, you can't win at all without

buying a ticket.

So they did something.

The second group that saw good results overall was the 48ers, who arrived ahead of the masses

that followed.

When they heard about the gold rush, they didn't hesitate, they didn't wait for proof,

they speculated, and at least for many of them, their boldness paid off.

Even ordinary prospectors could earn 10 to 15 times the daily wage of a laborer on the

East Coast.

A person could work for six months and save the equivalent of six years' wages back home.

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