By Preston Gray and Cary Rakin The California Gold Rush
Mar 31, 2015
By Preston Gray and Cary Rakin
The California Gold Rush
Mill property owner James Marshall discovered
gold in the American River on January 24, 1848.
This basically created the California Gold Rush as people from around the world flocked to try and profit from gold
The gold rush created an extremely large population increase as well as an increase in immigration
Background of the Gold Rush
The California Gold Rush primarily started at
Sutter’s Mill, (where James Marshall first discovered it)
Later, citizens that moved West and immigrants mainly stayed in Northern California and parts of the Sierra Nevada Goldfields
Places to mine gold in California
In an address to Congress, President James Polk
announced on December 5, 1848 that he confirmed there was gold discovered in the American River, this began the trek of the Forty Niners
The Forty Niners were basically the throngs of people that traveled up to Northern California
The Forty Niners consisted of Californians, Mexicans, US citizens, Europeans, and Chinese immigrants
In 1849, 85,000 people migrated to California!
Forty Niners
One of the most common styles of gold mining
was hydraulic mining With hydraulic mining, water was sprayed at
clumps of dirt on a conveyer belt, then which separated dirt and gold
This is a great example of the length that the Industrial Revolution had benefited America
Towards the 1880’s, an estimated 11 million ounces of gold (worth around 7.5 billion dollars) had had been recovered by hydraulic mining
Gold Mining Techniques
Most of the Forty Niners had made some sort
of extreme profit mining gold Gold went to nearly all purchases from food to
any sort of entertainment A lot of the gold profit helped stimulate the
expansion and the development of the West Gold also stimulated the global economy in
the long run as well
Profits/Economic Growth
Throughout American history, the Native
Americans had been constantly pushed back all the way to the West
As the immigrants slowly moved to Northern California, the Native Americans were succumbing to diseases such as smallpox and influenza killing off roughly 85% of their population
Also, a lot of Native Americans would ambush mining facilities, as would miners attack Native villages as well
Conflicts and the Native Americans
With the sudden increase in population,
California was introduced to statehood on September 9, 1850, after the land was handed over from Mexico during the previous year
California is now known as the Golden State Emphasized the American Dream and how any
immigrant can become successful in America NFL Football team called the San Francisco
49er’s
Long Term Effects of the Gold Rush
In 1854, a 195-pound mass of gold, the
largest known to have been discovered in California, was found at Carson Hill in Calaveras County. It cost roughly $109,000!
At one point, eggs (if any) were $3.00 each; whiskey was $16.00 a bottle, pills were $10.00 each without advice, $100 with.
Because of supply and demand, some areas of California reported that a glass of water was nearly 100 dollars!
Fun Facts
"The California Gold Rush." California's Natural Resources:
A Brief History of the Gold Rush. Web. 29 Mar. 2012. <http://www.ceres.ca.gov/ceres/calweb/geology/goldrush.html>.
"California Gold, Migration." Home. Web. 29 Mar. 2012. <http://www.duke.edu/~agf2/history391/migration.html>.
"Fun Facts and Interesting Information of the Gold Rush Era." ECashSavers- Home Page. Web. 29 Mar. 2012. http://www.ecashsavers.com/sites/goldrush/funfacts.html
Google Images/Wikipedia Pictures
The End