1. The Gold Rush!
4 FIGURES a b
4 CAUSES
4 DETAILS c d
4 EFFECTS

2. The Gold Rush! 4 CAUSES 4 FIGURES 4 DETAILS 4 EFFECTS
Using a blank piece of paper, make four boxes, each with four boxes inside of them.
Label the boxes like this, follow along, and list 4 causes, 4 figures, 4 events & 4 effects.
4 CAUSES 1 2
4 FIGURES 2 1 3 4 3 4
4 DETAILS 1 2
4 EFFECTS 1 2 3 4 3 4

3. The Gold Rush! 4 CAUSES 1) Manifest Destiny
Manifest Destiny means “obvious fate”. In other words, many white settlers believed it was their duty or calling to expand across the North American continent, all the way to the west coast.

4. The Gold Rush! 4 CAUSES 2) Wagon Trails a
The Oregon Trail, California Trail and Mormon Trial were all being utilized to bring settlers out west in the decades leading up to the Gold Rush. It was these same trails that would later bring the first forty-niners to the California Gold Rush.

5. The Gold Rush! 4 CAUSES 3) Mexican-American War
All of California was annexed from Mexico during the Mexican-American War just one year before gold was found in California. This meant that the gold rush would occur on American soil, not Mexican soil.

6. The Gold Rush! 4 CAUSES 4) Gold Found in Coloma
The most immediate cause of the California Gold Rush is the fact that gold was found at Sutter’s Mill in Coloma, California. When word spread, prospectors and settlers came from around the globe to the foothills of Northern California.

7. The Gold Rush! 4 FIGURES 1) John Sutterb
4 FIGURES
John Sutter owned the mill where gold was first found in Coloma, CA. Also, Sutter established Sutter’s Fort in what would later become Sacramento, the capital of California.

8. The Gold Rush! 4 FIGURES 2) James Marshallb
4 FIGURES
James Marshall is the man who first found gold at Sutter’s Mill, sparking the California Gold Rush.

9. The Gold Rush! 4 FIGURES 3) Bennett C. Riley
Bennett C. Riley was a general who served as the military governor of California in the years before it became an official state of the United States. Riley’s term as governor was during the first years of the gold rush.

10. The Gold Rush! 4 FIGURES 4) Peter Burnett
In the years immediately following the gold rush, California became a state. Peter Burnett served as California’s first governor in 1850.

11. The Gold Rush! 4 DETAILS 1) Donner Partyc
4 DETAILS
The Donner Party is perhaps the most famous group to travel by wagon to California. This group struggled to cross the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the winter of Those who survived were settled in California just two years before the gold rush.

12. The Gold Rush! 4 DETAILS 2) Forty-ninersc
4 DETAILS
Prospectors who came to California in search of gold in 1949 (and in the years following) became known by the title ‘forty-niners’, referring to the first year of the California Gold Rush. This title later became the name of San Francisco’s professional football team.

13. The Gold Rush! 4 DETAILS 3) Boomtownsc
4 DETAILS
To serve the influx of settlers, boomtowns appeared all over the west. Boomtowns appeared quickly and usually had places such as banks, general stores, and saloons. Some boomtowns became permanent cities, but others simply disappeared.

14. The Gold Rush! 4 DETAILS 4) California Statehood
In 1850, California became a state of the United States. This only added to the number of American settlers from the east coast that came over to the west in search of fortune.

15. The Gold Rush! 4 EFFECTS 1) Population Boom
California not only brought over tens of thousands of settlers in the mid 1800s, but continued to expand its population. Due to favorable climate and farming potential, California is now the most populated state in the United States.

16. The Gold Rush! 4 EFFECTS 2) Environmental Issues
Certain mining techniques were very devastating to the environment. For example, dynamite or toxic chemicals were sometimes used to extract gold. This killed fish in rivers and damaged habitats downstream.

17. The Gold Rush! 4 EFFECTS 3) Native Epidemics
Smallpox, influenza and measles epidemics wiped out 80-90% of the Native American populations in California. massacre natives. The state of California even legalized slavery for Native Americans for a time and offered rewards for scalps.

18. The Gold Rush! 4 EFFECTS 4) Chinese Exclusion
Despite Chinese immigrants being part of the Gold Rush and building railroads in the West, the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act was a law suspending Chinese immigration for 10 years. The law continued to be renewed for the next 60 years.

19. The Gold Rush!
4 FIGURES a b
4 CAUSES
4 DETAILS c d
4 EFFECTS

20. John Sutter