Immigrant Gold Seekers

An 1862 report on the Eighth Census included data on occupations of passengers arriving in the United States between 1820 and 1860. A total of 39,087 miners arrived in that 40 year period. The vast majority (96% or 37,523) arrived in the 1850s. No doubt many were bound for the gold fields. Source: The Preliminary Report of the Eighth Census, Census Office, Department of Interior, Washington, May 20, 1862, page 17