Gold Rush: 1848–1860: "I Saw the Elephant"

Click image to zoom in.
Or view larger version. Murphy’s Camp. 1853. Isaac W. Baker, photographer. Daguerrotype. Collection of Oakland Museum of California.

This photograph shows the town of Murphys. Murphy's Camp is one of the best-known gold mining encampments of the "Southern Mines" region. The camp developed after June 1848, named for John M. Murphy, who had come from Canada in 1844 as part of the first immigrant party to bring wagons across the Sierras to Sutter's Fort.