"View of San Francisco...in 1846-7, Before the Discovery of Gold"

The changes brought to California by the discovery of gold were nowhere more apparent than in San Francisco. The city in 1847 numbered only about 800 residents, featuring little but a few buildings, streets, and small wharves, as shown by this lithograph. As gold fever swept the world, fortune seekers descended on the city by the thousands, drastically altering the sleepy pioneer town. Identification Information: Ephemera Collection, California State Archives.