The Gold Rush "Gold! Gold! Gold from the American River!“—Samuel Brennan

The Beginning… January 24, 1848—A few gold nuggets are found by John Marshall in the American River near Sacramento, CA. News of the discovery soon spread by newspapers—around 300,000 men, women and children from the US and abroad flocked to California. These people were called “The Forty-niners.”

Travel Routes:  People came to California by land and sea.  A sailing journey around Cape Horn, South America. This took 5-8 months and covered 15,000 miles. Disadvantages: diseases like Cholera and Scurvy. Cramped and long journey.  The Panama Shortcut: Covered 7,000 miles and took 2-3 months. Disadvantages: diseases like yellow fever and malaria. High cost for passage.

Travel Routes Continued… The California Trail: in 1849 almost 32,000 gold-seekers travelled in covered wagons, pulled by mules or oxen. Advantages: cheaper than by ship. Disadvantages: extreme weather, diseases: cholera, diphtheria, animals dying of exhaustion/thirst.

Locations of Mining Towns:

Methods of Mining Gold: Initially, 49ers simply panned for gold on a small scale. Eventually groups of miners used more efficient methods:  Hydraulic mining—high pressured jets of water would move the sediment.  Then, loosened gravel and gold would pass over sluices, with the gold settling to the bottom where it is collected. Sluice: an artificial channel that quickly filtered out gold with water. Similar to a sieve.

Characteristics of Boomtowns: Areas that experienced rapid population and economic growth due to the discovery of a natural resource: gold. Began with a few tents around mining sites. As more people learned about the presence of gold, merchants and mining companies increased. A general store, saloons, hotels, and restaurants would be quickly established. (not properly built) No real law and order in the boomtowns—vigilante committees kept the peace. (e.g. Wyatt Earp in AZ)

Economics in Mining Towns: Miners weighed out the gold and paid merchants and vendors for food, supplies, and lodging Frequent entertainment for miners included drinking, gambling, traveling theater, and prostitutes. Merchants and vendors then used the gold to purchase their supplies from ship captains packers bringing goods to California.

Effects of the Gold Rush: Ecological: sediment and toxic substances from the Sierra Nevada Mountains washed into the San Francisco Bay by mining activities. Sediment smothered plants and animals living at the ocean’s bottom. The wealth and population increase led to significantly improved transportation between California and the East Coast.  The First Trans-Continental Railroad was completed in  The Panama Railway was created to span the Isthmus of Panama.

Trans-Continental Railroad Photo

More Effects of the Gold Rush… The rapid population increase allowed California to become a state in Attacks on Native Americans by gold-seekers. The Native American population dropped from 150,000 in 1845, to less than 30,000 by Racist laws, taxes, and attacks occurred with the aim of driving out Chinese and Latin American immigrants.