California fur rush
Early fur trade that opened California to world commerce.
Wikipedia / Wikimedia Commons
The California fur rush was a period of intensive hunting and trapping that drew American, English, and Russian fur hunters to Spanish and then Mexican California before the 1849 gold rush. Exploiting the region's enormous fur resources, these hunters targeted southern sea otters, fur seals, beavers, river otters, and other fur-bearing species along the northern and central California coast, the San Francisco Bay Area, and the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta. This early fur trade, more than any other single factor, opened up the West and the San Francisco Bay Area to world trade.
- start_year
- 1778
- end_year
- 1841
- field
- Fur trade
- region
- California
- key_species
- Southern sea otter, fur seal, beaver, river otter
- known_for
- Opening the West to world trade; near extinction of many fur-bearing species by 1911
Lore & Background
The California fur rush began in 1778 with Captain James Cook's third voyage, when otter skins obtained at Nootka Sound were sold in China at an 1,800% profit. By 1785, just ten years after Juan de Ayala sailed through the Golden Gate, the Spanish issued regulations to govern otter skin collection. In 1786, French explorer La Pérouse obtained about a thousand sea otter skins in California and sold them in China for ten thousand dollars. The Spanish, initially unaware of the furs' value, soon mounted a major commercial otter hunting enterprise under Vicente Vasadre y Vega, who shipped 1,060 otter skins to the Philippines in 1786.
Reader's Guide
The California fur rush was a pivotal but destructive episode in the state's history. It was the first major economic activity to connect California to global trade networks, particularly with China, and it enabled New England merchants to recover from the economic collapse following the American Revolutionary War. The massive increase of hunting and trapping in the 19th century caused the near extinction of many species by 1911, including the California golden beaver and California sea otter. The US government began to manage sea otters as a valuable natural resource in 1911, but recovery was uncertain. The legacy of the fur rush is complex: it opened the West to world trade while devastating native wildlife populations. In 2019, California passed a law banning the manufacture, import, and sale of new fur products, effective 2023. Today, California golden beavers are recolonizing the Bay Area, a sign of partial recovery.
Did You Know?
- The earliest record of fur traded with Europeans in California was in 1733, when Spanish missionaries traded with tribes for sea otter pelts.
- Captain James Cook's men made an 1,800% profit selling otter skins in China in 1778.
- By 1817, sea otters in the San Francisco Bay area were practically eliminated due to overhunting.
- The California fur trade ended as fur-bearers of all kinds were depleted in the first half of the 19th century.
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