Getting to the California amber fields after the find of the wanted metal at Sutter ’s Mill in 1848 was n’t soft - by land or by sea . That ’s where this satiric 1849 print from Currier and Ives comes from . It ’s call “ The elbow room They Go to California , ” and tweaks the ore - madden “ Forty - Niners ” who rushed to claim a stake and prospect for gold . Currier and Ives depicted the 49ers taking some alternating form of transportation to California . . . like a personal rocket , which you see in the upper right . Click through for a tight look at what , a C later , would no doubt have been a jetpack .
[ Library of Congress LC - USZ62 - 104557 . ]
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