By Preston Gray and Cary Rakin

The California Gold Rush

Mill property owner James Marshall discovered

gold in the American River on January 24, 1848.

This basically created the California Gold Rush as people from around the world flocked to try and profit from gold

The gold rush created an extremely large population increase as well as an increase in immigration

Background of the Gold Rush

The California Gold Rush primarily started at

Sutter’s Mill, (where James Marshall first discovered it)

Later, citizens that moved West and immigrants mainly stayed in Northern California and parts of the Sierra Nevada Goldfields

Places to mine gold in California

In an address to Congress, President James Polk

announced on December 5, 1848 that he confirmed there was gold discovered in the American River, this began the trek of the Forty Niners

The Forty Niners were basically the throngs of people that traveled up to Northern California

The Forty Niners consisted of Californians, Mexicans, US citizens, Europeans, and Chinese immigrants

In 1849, 85,000 people migrated to California!

Forty Niners

One of the most common styles of gold mining

was hydraulic mining With hydraulic mining, water was sprayed at

clumps of dirt on a conveyer belt, then which separated dirt and gold

This is a great example of the length that the Industrial Revolution had benefited America

Towards the 1880’s, an estimated 11 million ounces of gold (worth around 7.5 billion dollars) had had been recovered by hydraulic mining

Gold Mining Techniques

Most of the Forty Niners had made some sort

of extreme profit mining gold Gold went to nearly all purchases from food to

any sort of entertainment A lot of the gold profit helped stimulate the

expansion and the development of the West Gold also stimulated the global economy in

the long run as well

Profits/Economic Growth

Throughout American history, the Native

Americans had been constantly pushed back all the way to the West

As the immigrants slowly moved to Northern California, the Native Americans were succumbing to diseases such as smallpox and influenza killing off roughly 85% of their population

Also, a lot of Native Americans would ambush mining facilities, as would miners attack Native villages as well

Conflicts and the Native Americans

With the sudden increase in population,

California was introduced to statehood on September 9, 1850, after the land was handed over from Mexico during the previous year

California is now known as the Golden State Emphasized the American Dream and how any

immigrant can become successful in America NFL Football team called the San Francisco

49er’s

Long Term Effects of the Gold Rush

In 1854, a 195-pound mass of gold, the

largest known to have been discovered in California, was found at Carson Hill in Calaveras County. It cost roughly $109,000!

At one point, eggs (if any) were $3.00 each; whiskey was $16.00 a bottle, pills were $10.00 each without advice, $100 with.

Because of supply and demand, some areas of California reported that a glass of water was nearly 100 dollars!

Fun Facts

"The California Gold Rush." California's Natural Resources:

A Brief History of the Gold Rush. Web. 29 Mar. 2012. <http://www.ceres.ca.gov/ceres/calweb/geology/goldrush.html>.

"California Gold, Migration." Home. Web. 29 Mar. 2012. <http://www.duke.edu/~agf2/history391/migration.html>.

"Fun Facts and Interesting Information of the Gold Rush Era." ECashSavers- Home Page. Web. 29 Mar. 2012. http://www.ecashsavers.com/sites/goldrush/funfacts.html

Google Images/Wikipedia Pictures

The End