Speaker Recap for May 7, 2012

EUREKA!  We all struck it rich last Monday with the entertaining and educating keynote address from historian/librarian Mr. Gary Kurutz!  Gary enlightened us with amusing and amazing anecdotes from Sacramento circa 1849, and reminded us how “that thar’ gold in them thar’ hills” changed the face of our fair City and State forever.

Award winning author and tireless worker and advocate for our State’s library system, Gary F. Kurutz has served as Director of the Special Collections Branch of the California State Library (CSL) in Sacramento since 1980.  He has written extensively on the California and Western subjects including The California Gold Rush: A Descriptive Bibliography of Books and Pamphlets Covering the Years 1848-1853; California Calls You: The Art of Promoting the Golden State; Knights of the Lash: The Stagecoach Stories of Major Benjamin C. Truman; The Architectural Terra Cotta of Gladding McBean; California Books Illustrated with Original Photographs, Recollections of the War with Mexico (editor);  and several dozens of articles, introductions, and forewords.  He also serves as Executive Director of the California State Library Foundation. 

A native of La Cañada, California, Mr. Kurutz received a B.A. in history from the University of San Diego, and a master’s degree in Library Science from U.S.C.  With sixteen books about Californian antiquities and thirty-two articles and introductions in scholarly works of California history, Kurutz is, in State Librarian Emeritus Kevin Starr’s words, not only one of the leading experts on Gold Rush history, but also “the leading bibliographer of California history.”

Using vivid quotes from several books from the CSL’s vast collection, Mr. Kurutz provided us with a rare glimpse back in time to the era of 1849 and the “gold rush” days of Sacramento before it even became a State in 1850.  It is estimated that almost 90,000 people arrived in California in 1849-about half by land and half by sea. Of these, perhaps 50,000 to 60,000 were Americans, and the rest were from other countries. By 1855, it is estimated at least 300,000 gold-seekers, merchants, and other immigrants had arrived in California from around the world. 

With the vast majority of the roughly 10,000 inhabitants of Sacramento in 1849 being male, and with money from the local and Placer area gold finds literally “flowing” into town, Gary recounted the interesting blend of  bars, brothels, and boarding houses that made for an inherently “wild-west” time.  (Can you imagine what the “dive bar tour” might have looked like back in those days?!)  Gary reminded us how the gold-rush era presented a new model for the American dream for California’s immigrant population – one where the emphasis was on the ability to take risks, through hard work, and with the willingness to gamble on the future.  We thank Gary for taking time out from his busy schedule to share this slice of history with us all; and we commend him on his tireless dedication to our State’s library system.  We hope he will return soon with other fascinating tales from California’s rich past.