The California Gold Rush Of 1849

This puzzled me...

“ It’s claimed that the people who got rich from the California gold rush of 1849 were the people who sold tools to the miners. Apparently 94% of the gold miners failed to find any gold, approximately 4% of the gold miners found some gold, but barely managed to make a living from it and less than 1% found enough gold to get rich. In contrast many of the non-gold miners, became rich by selling the picks, shovels and tools the gold miners needed in order to prospect for and mine gold. I suspect a fair few made their fortunes selling food and alcohol to the miners too.”

I did some online research concerning this matter & found out via wikipedia that.

“ gold worth billions of today’s dollars was recovered which led to great wealth for a few. However, many returned home with little more than they started with” 

 I find it strange that of all those people who traveled to California during the gold rush of  1849 only a handful of people striked it rich while the rest became poorer than they were before infact the traders who sold mining tools to the miners became tycoons.

WHEN THE DEAL SEEMS TO GOOD TO BE TRUE INDEED THINK TWICE.

website -  Wikipedia