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CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.5.3

Explain the relationships or interactions between two or more individuals, events, ideas, or concepts in a historical, scientific, or technical text based on specific information in the text.

Grade: 05

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.5.2

Summarize a written text read aloud or information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally.

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Do not click on this until you have completed all the questions. Trust me, I will know if you did. 

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1.The spark that ignited the gold rush occurred in May 1848 when Sam Brannan, a storekeeper in Sutter's Creek, brandished a bottle filled with gold dust around San Francisco shouting 'Gold! Gold! Gold from American River!'
2. James Wilson Marshall
3. New York Herald printed news of the discovery
4. May 1848
5. Ships, wagon trains, horses, walking
6. They would bite into it and see if was heavier than sand and stone.
7. The influx of people during the Gold Rush was in 1849.
8. They wanted to find a fortune.
9. At first, there were only two routes. The first entailed a six-month sea voyage from New York around the tip of South America to San Diego or San Francisco. Rampant seasickness, bug-infested food, boredom, and high expense made this route unattractive for many would-be prospectors. The second route brought travelers over the Oregon-California Trail in covered wagons—over rugged terrain and hostile territory. This journey also averaged six months' duration. By 1850, the length and difficulty of both routes had inspired the construction of the Panama Railway, the world's first transcontinental railroad. Built across the isthmus of Panama by private American companies to speed travel to California, the railroad helped to shave months off of the long voyage around South America.
10. Chinese
11. They looked at California and liked what they saw. Instead of returning home they sent for their families. For others, however, the gold rush was a catastrophe. The peaceful indigenous people were decimated. They perished in great numbers from starvation, disease, abuse, and massacre. Their society, habitat, infrastructure and culture were utterly destroyed. Other minorities suffered severe discrimination as well.

As miners continued to invent faster, more destructive methods of finding gold, the land was ravaged. Hillsides were washed away in torrents of water, and towns downstream were inundated by immense floods of mud. Water supplies were poisoned. Grand forests of oak and pine were leveled for mining timbers.

The gold discovery wrought immense changes upon the land and its people. California, with its diverse population, achieved statehood in 1850.
12. The independent, adventurous spirit that is such an important part of California’s economy today is a lasting reverberation of the great gold rush of 1849.

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11. What were some advantages and disadvantages that people encountered during the Gold Rush?
12. What is the main effect the Gold Rush had on California?

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After James Marshall discovered gold in Coloma, he tried to keep his discovery a secret. But the secret was too big to keep. The laborers at the sawmill had close friends working at Sutter's Fort. As soon as rumors began to circulate around the Fort, the first adventurers made the 40-mile trip to the sawmill. When these men returned to the Fort with samples of gold dust, Sutter's worst fears were quickly realized. Sutter described it this way: "Everyone left, from the clerk to the cook, and I was in great distress."

Nearly everyone, of course, went to the sawmill to dig for gold. But one enterprising Mormon merchant named Sam Brannan had a better idea. He bought all the mining supplies he could find, and filled his store at Sutter's Fort with buckets, pans, heavy clothing, foodstuffs, and similar provisions. Then he took a quinine bottle full of gold flakes to the nearest town, San Francisco. There he walked up and down the streets, waving the bottle of gold over his head and shouting "Gold, gold, gold in the American River!" The next day, the town's newspaper described San Francisco as a "ghost town." Sam Brannan quickly became California's first millionaire, selling supplies to the miners as they passed by Sutter's Fort. The rush was on!

Gold!

Even with the crudest of mining tools, the earliest Argonauts did well. All one had to do was to dig down into a placer, and wash the pay dirt. The entire gold country was open to all. No taxes were levied on what the miners found. No towns or roads existed in the gold country. Every miner was on his own, and nobody had to work for wages unless he wanted to. The individualist entrepreneurial spirit that pervades California to this day was born in the gold fields in the summer of 1848.

News of gold, free for the taking, continued to spread. By the end of summer the first gold seekers were arriving from outside California. The first immigrants were probably from Oregon, where American farmers had been settling since the early 1840s. Next came men from the Sandwich Islands (now Hawaii). In the autumn new arrivals were coming from northern Mexico, and during the winter large numbers came from Peru and Chile in South America. Still, there was plenty of gold for all, and fresh discoveries were made daily. The immense extent of the gold deposits was becoming clear.

The Gold Rush

Some 80,000 immigrants poured into California during 1849. They came overland on the California Trail and by ship around Cape Horn or through the Panama shortcut. The majority of them came in one immense wave during mid summer, as covered wagons reached the end of the California trail. At the same time, sailing ships were docking in San Francisco, only to be deserted by sailors as well as passengers. Competition for the gold grew fierce. New methods were invented to wash more pay dirt in less time. At the same time, merchants raised the prices of mining tools, clothing, and food to astronomical levels. A miner had to find an ounce of gold a day just to break even.

Digging for gold from early dawn until dusk was backbreaking work. The hope of "striking it rich" became an obsession with many of the Forty-Niners. Stories of others who had found their fortune in gold kept driving them on. A streak of bad luck could always be followed by a rich strike.

By the 1850s miners were coming from places all over the world-Britain, Europe, China, Australia, North and South America. But gold was getting harder to find. The peak production of placer gold occurred in 1853. Every year after that, less gold was found, but more and more men were in California to share in the dwindling supply. Thousands of disillusioned gold seekers returned home with little to show for their time. They were glad to escape with their health.

Legacy of the California Gold Rush

Some weary miners, instead of heading home, took a second look at California and liked what they saw. Instead of returning home they sent for their families. These hearty pioneers found the land unbelievably productive, and ultimately California's great wealth came not from its mines but from its farms.

For others, however, the gold rush was a catastrophe. The peaceful indigenous people were decimated. They perished in great numbers from starvation, disease, abuse, and massacre. Their society, habitat, infrastructure and culture were utterly destroyed. Other minorities suffered severe discrimination as well.

As miners continued to invent faster, more destructive methods of finding gold, the land was ravaged. Hillsides were washed away in torrents of water, and towns downstream were inundated by immense floods of mud. Water supplies were poisoned with mercury, arsenic, cyanide, and other toxins. Grand forests of oak and pine were leveled for mining timbers.

The gold discovery wrought immense changes upon the land and its people. California, with its diverse population, achieved statehood in 1850, decades earlier than it would have been without the gold. The state's vibrant strength can be traced back to the hearty fortitude of those exuberant optimists of 1849. The independent, adventurous spirit that is such an important part of California's economy today is a lasting reverberation of the great gold rush of 1849.

Excerpted and condensed from Discover Coloma: A Teacher's Guide, by Alan Beilharz, available from the Gold Rush E-Mercantile. All proceeds go toward supporting and enhancing Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park.

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The California Gold Rush of 1849 | Coloma, California

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The California Gold Rush of 1849 on Coloma, California | After James Marshall discovered gold in Coloma, he tried to keep his discovery a secret. But the secret was too big to keep. The laborers at the sawmill had close friends working at Sutter's Fort. As soon as rumors began to circulate around the...

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7.  How did the miners get their name the 49ers?
8. Why did so many people rush to mine gold?
9. How many routes were there? Name and describe them.
10. Besides Americans, what was the next largest group of miners?

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This digital collection of historical materials from Harvard's libraries, archives, and museums documents voluntary immigration to the United States from the signing of the Constitution to the start of the Great Depression.

Concentrating heavily on the 19th century, the collection includes:

over 400,000 pages from more than 2,200 books, pamphlets, and serials

over 9,600 pages from manuscript and archival collections

more than 7,800 photographs

By incorporating diaries, biographies, and other writings capturing diverse experiences, the collected material provides a window into the lives of ordinary immigrants.

The collection also includes contextual information on voluntary immigration and quantitative data.

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Immigration to the United States, 1789-1930

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This digital collection of historical materials from Harvard's libraries, archives, and museums documents voluntary immigration to the United States from the signing of the Constitution to the start of the Great Depression.

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4.What year did the Gold Rush start?
5. What all types of transportation was used to  get to California?
6. How did the 49ers know if they found gold?

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1. How did the Gold Rush Begin?
2. Who discovered the gold first?
3. There was no technology at the time so how did people find out about the gold so fast?

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In January 1848, James Wilson Marshall discovered gold while constructing a saw mill along the American River northeast of present-day Sacramento. The discovery was reported in the San Francisco newspapers in March but caused little stir as most did not believe the account.

The spark that ignited the gold rush occurred in May 1848 when Sam Brannan, a storekeeper in Sutter's Creek, brandished a bottle filled with gold dust around San Francisco shouting 'Gold! Gold! Gold from American River!' The residents of the city now had proof of the discovery and the stampede to the gold fields was on. San Francisco's harbor was soon cluttered with derelict ships deserted by their crews. Workers abandoned their jobs - San Francisco's two newspapers were forced to close their doors as their staffs were struck by gold fever. The populations of many of the coastal towns were depleted as prospective prospectors headed to the gold fields.

The New York Herald printed news of the discovery in August 1848 and the rush for gold accelerated into a stampede. Gold seekers traveled overland across the mountains to California (30,000 assembled at launch points along the plains in the spring of 1849) or took the round-about sea routes: either to Panama or around Cape Horn and then up the Pacific coast to San Francisco. A census of San Francisco (then called Yerba Buena) in April 1847 reported the town consisted of 79 buildings including shanties, frames houses and adobes. By December 1849 the population had mushroomed to an estimated 100,000. The massive influx of fortune seekers Americanized the once Mexican province and assured its inclusion as a state in the union.

S. Shufelt was one of those gold-seekers. All that we know about Mr. Shufelt is contained in a letter he wrote from the gold fields to his cousin in March 1850. We don't know if he struck it rich or whether he ever returned to his wife and home - we don't even know his first name. On May 11, 1849 he boarded the steamer Panama in New York City along with about 200 fellow fortune hunters risking all on a gamble in California. Behind him he left a wife and child in Windham, NY near the Catskills.

Mr. Shufelt reveals his motivation when he tells his cousin that: "I have left those that I love as my own life behind and risked everything and endured many hardships to get here. I want to make enough to live easier and do some good with, before I return." These same thoughts no doubt inspired the majority of those who made the trek to the gold fields - they were not intending to stay, but planned to make some money and return to their origins.

Mr. Shufelt's letter was discovered at an auction in 1924 and is now part of the collection of the Library of Congress.

On May 11, 1849 Shufelt sailed out of New York harbor headed for the Isthmus of Panama (at the time a part of Columbia). Although he experienced a few days of sea sickness, he describes the voyage as enjoyable. We pick up his story as he makes his way across the isthmus to the Pacific Ocean hoping to find passage on a ship bound for San Francisco:

"(We) proceeded up the river in canoes rowed by the natives, and enjoyed the scenery & howling of the monkeys & chattering of Parrots very much. We pitched our tents at Gorgona & most of our party stayed there several weeks. S. Miller & myself went on to Panama to look out for a chance to get up to San Francisco. Of our ill success you have probably been informed & consequently of our long stay there, & of the deaths in our party. Yes, here Mr. Crooker, J. Miller & L. Alden yielded up their breath to God who gave it.

On the 85th day out we hove in sight of an object that greatly attracted our attention & ere long the green hills of San Francisco bay began to show their highest points, & soon we were gliding smoothly along between them, down the bay, & when the order came to let go anchor, we brought up directly in front of the City amidst a fleet of vessels, of all kinds & sizes."
"We took passage on a small schooner, crossed the bay with a gentle breeze & soon were winding our way up the crooked Sacramento. We soon entered Soosoon bay & our Capt. not being acquainted with the channel we ran on the ground at high tide & a stiff breeze, so that we were fast in reality. As the tide fell our little schooner fell also on her side & filled with water. We clung to the upper side, but were so thick that as night drew on the Capt. thought some of us had better go on shore. Some of our party went, myself among the rest. We came very near getting swamped on the water.

"We hired an ox team to carry our baggage & started for this place then called Hangtown, from the fact that three persons had been hung here for stealing & attempting to murder. Ten miles from the river we passed Sutters fort, an old looking heap of buildings surrounded by an high wall of unburnt brick, & situated in the midst of a pleasant fertile plain, covered with grass and a few scattering oaks, with numerous tame cattle & mules. We walked by the wagon & at night cooked our suppers, rolled our blankets around us & lay down to rest on the ground, with nothing but the broad canopy of the heavens over us & slept soundly without fear or molestation. After leaving the plains we passed over some hills that looked dry & barren being burnt up by the sun & the long droughts that we have here. We reached this place at night on the fourth day, & in the morning found ourselves in the midst of the diggings, being surrounded by holes dug.

"It is found along the banks of the streams & in the beds of the same, & in almost every little ravine putting into the streams. And often from 10 to 50 ft. from the beds up the bank. We sometimes have to dig several feet deep before we find any, in other places all the dirt & clay will pay to wash, but generally the clay pays best. If there is no clay, then it is found down on the rock. All the lumps are found on the rock--& most of the fine gold. We tell when it will pay by trying the dirt with a pan. This is called prospecting here. If it will pay from six to 12 1/2 pr pan full, then we go to work. Some wash with cradles some with what is called a tom & various other fixings. But I like the tom best of any thing that I have seen.

Shufelt lived in a cabin with six other miners. The cabin had windows, a fireplace and an oven. The miners' diet was poor with the result that many suffered from disease, particularly scurvy. Shufelt himself fell seriously ill, became deranged and was not expected to live but recovered in a week's time. He describes life in camp:

"Many, very many, that come here meet with bad success & thousands will leave their bones here. Others will lose their health, contract diseases that they will carry to their graves with them. Some will have to beg their way home, & probably one half that come here will never make enough to carry them back. But this does not alter the fact about the gold being plenty here, but shows what a poor frail being man is, how liable to disappointments, disease & death.

There is a good deal of sin & wickedness going on here, Stealing, lying, Swearing, Drinking, Gambling & murdering. There is a great deal of gambling carried on here. Almost every public House is a place for Gambling, & this appears to be the greatest evil that prevails here. Men make & lose thousands in a night, & frequently small boys will go up & bet $5 or 10 (Equivalent to $115-$225 today) -- & if they lose all, go the next day & dig more. We are trying to get laws here to regulate things but it will be very difficult to get them executed."

References:
Mr. Shufelt's letter is part of the collection of the Library of Congress A letter from a gold miner, Placerville, California, March, 1850; Holliday, J.S. Rush for Riches: Gold Fever and the Making of California (1999).

How To Cite This Article:
"The California Gold Rush, 1849" EyeWitness to History, www.eyewitnesstohistory.com (2003).

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In January 1848, James Wilson Marshall discovered gold while constructing a saw mill along the American River northeast of present-day Sacramento. The discovery was reported in the San Francisco newspapers in March but caused little stir as most did not believe the account.

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The discovery of gold nuggets in the Sacramento Valley in early 1848 sparked the Gold Rush, arguably one of the most significant events to shape American history during the first half of the 19th century. As news spread of the discovery, thousands of prospective gold miners traveled by sea or over land to San Francisco and the surrounding area. A total of $2 billion worth of precious metal was extracted from the area during the Gold Rush.