The discovery of gold in California brought in 300,000 goldseekers by 1850 bringing with them a variety of languages,religion, and social customs. Many came to only seek gold and notstay. The gold rush devastated California's native groups and theywent from about 150,000 in 1848 to 30,000 in 12 years. Foreignersmined, hunted, and logged Native American most remote areas theybegan to raid mining camps for food. This led to more violencesupported by the state government and organized parties to killentire native groups. To accommodate the miners gold mining townswere built all over the region ( many are still there today). Shops, saloons, brothels were created to serve the miners. Life was hardin the mining camps and they lived together in groups of 5-6 men inone tent or cabin, their diet was poor, disease was bad, and manydied. Some of the most enterprising people were the merchants whosold supplies to the miners. One of these was a butcher namedPhilip Armour who made a small fortune cutting meat in Placervilleand with his fortune he went back to Chicago where he and hisfamily became the largest meat packing company in the world.