’s

John A. Sutter Riches or Rags? “Instead of being rich, I am ruined, and the cause of it is the long delay of the United States Land Commission of the United States Courts, through the great influence of the squatter lawyers…but I hope that justice will be done me by the last tribunal —” Excerpt from John Sutter’s Diary.

The “Waves” of riches: Timeline of the Gold Rush Jan 1848: Gold discovered at Sutter’s new Sawmill on the American River in Coloma California. March 1848: The Californian runs the story of the discovery which started the first wave of the gold rush Pike’s Peak Gold discovery and hitting “pay dirt” at the Comestock mine Gold discovered in the Black Hills of SD. US Gov. went back on the Fort Laramie Treaty with the Sioux Indian’s so they could get the gold Gold discovered in Canada’s Yukon Territory.

As the waves of riches expanded, they created huge population shifts. Boomtown: A town that has a sudden burst of economic or population growth. “Did you hear? They found gold in Latham, NY.” “No way…we have to move out there now to look for some.” By the late 1890’s most of the mines dried up and the once busy boomtowns became ghost towns. Ghost Town: A suddenly empty town that was once thriving economically.

Very Few INDIVIDUALS Got Rich…WHY? Week 1: $2066 Week 2: $1045 Week 3: $1518 Week 4: $2808 Flour & Pork : $3112 Cheese : $38 Lard & Butter: $4979 Potatoes : $31 Molasses :$249 About $7500 About $8500 Difference of $1000/Month A letter from a gold miner, Placerville, California, March, 1850

Evolution of Gold Mining: Individuals To Companies Panning and sluicing are done at the surface. Individuals miners didn’t have the money to dig past the surface…so companies moved in. Companies used… o water cannons to blast away hillsides and expose the gold. o new chemical techniques like mercury washing to recover more metal from the same ground. o deep shafts, over 1000 feet deep, to create underground mines instead of staying on the surface. o paid labor to work the mines so that the owners wouldn’t be exposed to the many dangers. These new methods recovered a lot more gold and silver BUT… they were also very harmful to the environment.

Dangers of Mining Lung Damage Cave In’s Scurvy Mercury Poisoning

The Gold Rush inspired the belief that people could “Strike It Rich” h/sfeature/game_swf.html

Homework Write between ½ a page and 1 page to answer the following question: How do the effects of big company mining from the mid 1800s on society and the environment compare with the effects of hydrofracking on today’s society and environment?