California Gold Rush By Yasemin Sonel

A Quick Backround James Marshall and several workers found gold while working in a ditch near Sutter’s mill James Marshall agreed to keep quiet about his findings but news got out anyway James Polk confirmed the rumors of gold being found in his farewell address to congress The gold was found in northern California James Marshall found the gold in Coloma, Calirornia

Where The gold was found at first on land such as in ditches but later found in rivers and streams causing prospectors to migrate north People came from all around the world to find gold They came from Oregeon, sandwich islands, and later Europe, Eastern America, Latin America, Australia, and China.

“Staking a Claim” Many miners would band together to find gold agreeing to share their findings When miners found somewhere they wanted to prospect they would “stake a claim” or claim the entire area for themselves Since California was a new part of the U.S courts weren’t really established so it grew very lawless “staking a claim” could sometimes result in very bad arguments

Money Since it was lawless banks weren’t very balanced either A man could find gold and be rich one day and be heavily in debt the next Many miners went back home with little more then they had to begin with Tens and billions of today’s dollars of gold was recovered in the California Gold Rush A man once found two-pounds of gold after prospecting for 15 minutes The gold was found in small pieces called nuggets

The End Thank you for listening

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