Loeser arrived at New Orleans on November 23, whereupon he immediately telegraphed the War Department of his arrival and then set out for Washington. After reviewing Mason s report and examining the dramatic evidence that accompanied it, President Polk was prepared to speak with authority on the question of gold in California. The newspapers reported the President s words and added to the growing excitement by citing reports of immense gold nuggets and rich paying claims. Letters home from the mines were reprinted which told how easy it was to find gold in California. By a sudden and accidental discovery, the ground is represented to be one vast gold mine.
Gold is picked up in pure lumps, twenty-four carats fine.
Soldiers are deserting their ranks, sailors their ships, and everybody their employment, to speed to the region of the gold mines. The President s confirmation of the richness of the gold fields and the wild, imaginative reporting of the newspapers combined to banish any remaining skepticism concerning the gold mines. Now it was time to go. Companies and associations were formed, businesses were closed, men said good-bye to their families. Setting sail or breaking trail, it didn t matter how you traveled or when you arrived since there was gold enough for everyone.