The Gold Rush
By: Brendan
Made on: 11/27/2017
The Gold Rush was a big part of California’s history. From Start to finish it was a lot of gold for people, but not everyone.
The Beginning
It started at Sutter's Mill, California, on January 24th,1848. John Sutter was originally a merchant in Switzerland but came over to the United States. John Sutter started to work with James Marshall. One day James Marshall was around Sutter's Mill when he found a tiny chunk of gold. When he found out it was gold he went straight to John Sutter to tell him. These men wanted to keep this a secret from anybody else and make sure nobody else knew. Well it easily got out and without much time many people came to California.
The Journey
Before the Gold Rush their where about 14,000 people living in California but over time 300,000 people came to California for gold. If you were somebody that went to California to get gold you would be called a forty-niner. It would take many many months to get to California from most of the east. Most people that went were people that wanted to be rich or people that wanted a better life for them. People started moving west in about 1848-1849. It was a long journey and it was very dangerous.
At the Gold Rush
At the Gold Rush it was pretty difficult to get gold because most gold was already removed from the surface and if you tried to get gold, most people would just run out of money trying. Also, A big part of the goldrush was the boomtowns. Boom towns were towns that were made quickly. Boomtowns were made where mines, rivers and obstacles to get to California.
Getting the Gold
Now back then there wasn’t that many ways to get gold like we do today. It took a lot of patience to get gold. Their were mainly 2 ways to get gold you either mine it or you pan for it. It wasn’t as easy as it seemed to most people. A lot of people went to get gold and ended up with nothing or just a tiny chunk. Most people coming west thought that everywhere was going to get gold.
After the Gold Rush
After the Gold Rush their was about 350,000 people living in California. Since people had spent all their money trying to get gold they had to stay in California because they could not head back with no money. All of the gold was gone. After the Gold Rush other states were starting to found with gold in it. When People started hearing about other places with gold they started to move their and thought they would have a better chance.
The Gold Rush had a big effect on California’s history, if it didn’t happen then California would probably have not as many people. With many people moving west it made it so more of the west was explored.
Bibliography
Walker, Paul Robert. Gold Rush and Riches. Kingfisher, 2011.
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