1. California Gold Rush
Gold! It’s shiny!!

2. Background story…. There was a saw mill (cuts wood) out in California.
This guy named James Marshall, who worked for the guy who owned the mill, found gold in the river.
This was 1848.

3. Manifest Destiny.
This occurred 9 days before the Treaty of Guadalupe officially gave us California.
It is total proof that God wanted America to spread to the West.
Murica!

4. Gold Fever
So, it takes a little while for this news to spread across America because these people were not smart enough to have made cell phones yet.
However, by 1849, America was consumed with the Gold Fever!

5. Three routes to California.
Sail down to Panama, cross the Isthmus.
Positives- It was the shortest way to get to there, 6 to 8 weeks.
Negatives- Malaria, Yellow Fever, Other Tropical Diseases.

6. Around Cape Horn That’s all the way at the end of South America.
Positives- Uh, no malaria…….?
Negatives- It took half a year. Crowded conditions. Terrible sea sickness. Awful storms around the Cape…

7. Overland Route
It was about 2,000 miles to California from the East Coast.
Positives- no sea sickness, 3-4 months.
Negatives- very rough terrain, the dysentery and other diseases, lack of supplies, all that stuff you ran into on the Oregon Trail Video game.

8. San Francisco This was the epicenter of the gold rush.
It had 600 people in 1848.
It had 25,000 people in 1849.

9. Life in the mining towns.
It was rough and the miners pretty much policed themselves.
There was about a 12 to 1 man to wo-man ratio, so there were not enough women to stop the men from acting all crazy.
Crime and violence were rampant.

10. Discrimination
Miners of all types of people flocked to California, including the Chinese.
The Chinese faced the most discrimination.
White miners were afraid the Chinese would take all their gold.
They also disliked them because they would work for low wages.
Typical America discrimination.

11. Effects
Thousands of people lose everything. They sold everything to get to California, and they didn’t find any gold.
Transportation got better and faster.
The Transcontinental Railroad was built.