Did people actually get rich?
Did individuals just turn in gold from gold panning and were rich or were a select few rich because they found gold in a mine they owned?
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Getting rich by mining gold was just as much luck as skill. Most people who went out West during the Gold Rush had very little initial idea of what they were doing and most made very little money or lost everything.
Only a handful of people made it rich mining gold either because they had the required skills to find and mine the Gold in the first place, or because they just got lucky.
The old saying goes that the sure fire way to make money mining gold, is to be the one selling the picks and shovels.
The people that went out West and started selling equipment, open bars, and hotels, and ran other essential services were the ones that made the real money.
They also frequently took advantage of the gold miners, because a lot of them weren’t particularly bright to begin with.
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