When the miners did find any source of income, they did not save it for back home. They squandered their findings on brothels, alcohol, gambling and other temptations (Thorton, Stuart: After the Gold Rush). Perhaps it was because of the vast majority of the miners were young males, and had habits of making poor decisions. The miners were waiting to strike a mother lode and then head home; instead the gold came in a small flow that was wasted (The West: A Ken Burns Documentary).
Companies such as Levis Straus quickly gained popularity among the miners for overalls. Levi was one of the most successful companies that prospered during the gold rush (Hitell, Theodore Henry: History of California Vol. III 1897). With the mining settlements, other professions became available, such as hunting, prostitution, carpentry and others (The West: A Ken Burns Documentary). $25,000 was sold out by the government for scalps of American-Indians (Hitell, Theodore Henry: History of California Vol. III 1897). The riches of the gold rush did not just affect Northern California; it had an impact on all of America. San Francisco had an estimated four million dollars sent from San Francisco to Washington D.C. in the first year of the gold rush (Hitell, Theodore Henry: History of California Vol. III 1897).
In the later years of the gold rush, after the gold nuggets from the streams that were retrieved by hand had gone, other methods of getting gold were used. Companies bought gold fields, and hired workers to use machines to retrieve the gold buried in the mountains and ground. Hydraulic mining was the most popular method used by prospectors (The West: A Ken Burns Documentary).
Other success came from a man who saw opportunity in California without mining. Kit Carson bought sheep from American-Indians and herded them to California. He purchased them for fifty cents, and sold them for over triple the profit (Monore, Judy: The California Gold Rush, page 43). But most men who went searching for gold did not come out successful, like William Swaim. Swaim recalls the various prices of necessities and others economic aspects (Swaim, William: Archives of the West: William Swaim Letter). The California Gold Rush impacted everyone directly involved economically, either positive or negative. But it changed the rest of the economic structure of America as well.