Gold Rush Capitalists

"Sacramento, California, was one of the largest cities in the West during the latter half of the nineteenth century. Situated between the bay and the Sierra foothills, Sacramento seemed to fit a pattern of natural urban growth that capitalized upon natural resources and transportation routes. The city was also the capital of one of the most powerful states in the nation, but oddly, it has received little attention from urban historians.". "Eifler takes the reader on a journey into early western urbanization with this study. He examines the earliest founding of the city by speculators looking to cash in on gold rush trade, uncovering the rampant competition between a handful of men intent on creating a city that would dominate the mining trade. The arrival of thousands of miners into the region, who had their own ideas about what role a city should play in an isolated mining frontier, provides another complication in Sacramento's growth as miners and city founders clashed on nearly every civic issue. Rising tensions between these groups erupted into open warfare just twenty months after the city's founding.". "In the aftermath of the riot, Sacramento's residents sought to create stable urban institutions that might safely negotiate the travails of unrestricted commercialism. Gold Rush Capitalists is an engaging, valuable glimpse of western urban development through the eyes of classes and individuals often at odds with each other but never completely divorced."--BOOK JACKET.