Golden West!

By: Ella Turley

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Chapter Pages

Chapter One Pages 3-5

Louisiana Purchase

Lewis and Clark

Move West and Why

Chapter Two Pages 6-7

What is the Gold Rush?

What is it like to be a miner?

Chapter Three Page 8

Impact-Theme

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Chapter One Louisiana Purchase

Have you ever heard of the Louisiana Purchase? In 1803, the Louisiana Territory was owned by Napoleon

Bonaparte, the French ruler. A man named, Thomas Jefferson purchased the Louisiana Territory for fifteen

million dollars. It was then called the Louisiana Purchase. The Louisiana Purchase stretched from

Mississippi to the Rockies. It was a big deal. Thomas Jefferson doubled the size of the United States of

America overnight.

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Lewis and Clark With the new land purchased and unexplored, Thomas Jefferson sent Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to explore. Thomas Jefferson told Lewis and Clark three key instructions. The first one was to try to find a water route to the Pacific Ocean. The second was to keep a

detailed journal of the geography of the land, record the resources they found and to keep track of the plants and animals they saw. They were off May fourteenth

with The Corps of Discovery. On the way they met several Native American tribes, they traded to make peace. They also asked French trader, Charbonneau

and his Native American wife, Sacagawea as an interpreter. Sacagawea helped them cross the Rockies; a long hard journey. They arrived back home September twenty-third, 1806.

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Move West and Why After Lewis and Clark returned, people began moving to

this western region. Many who believed in Manifest Destiny began moving their families west by wagon. They traveled in conestoga pulled by an oxen. They could have traveled on several different trails. One is the, Oregon Trail which was two thousand miles long.

They would choose that trail if looking for rich farmlands and religious freedoms. Or they could have

taken the Santa Fe Trail which was eight hundred miles long. On that trail they would most commonly be

looking to trade with the Spanish for furs, horses and gold. Both trials began in Independence, MO. Over three

hundred, thousand wagon trains left in the springtime due to weather. Many felt like it was “For the time I

knew not which way to go nor whom to follow” -Lavinia Honeyman Porter.

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Chapter Two What is the Gold Rush?

In eighteen forty-eight James Wilson Marshall discovered gold, while creating a saw mill. Most believe

the gold rush was caused by a small bottle filled with gold dust that Sam Brannan spread out. The gold rush

occurred in May eighteen forty-eight. That is what led to the gold fever. The gold fever is basically greed. Many people abandon their homes, families and belongings

to go to the gold rush. They were off; on their journey to get to CA. Back then they had to go all the way around South America to get to the gold rush. They had many delays along the way. People camped on those delays

and every night they were riding the boats. On their way they hired ox teams to carry their baggage, as many people were moving in hope to be rich soon. Some; including John L. Sullivan thought “ It is our Manifest Destiny to overspread the

continent allotted by the Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying Texas is now ours and

California will, probably be next to fall away from [Mexican Control]”

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What is it like to be a Miner? A miner played a big part in the gold rush. Miners

spread many rumors but the first was true, there was gold. In fact it really was a “gold rush”! In March

eighteen fifty Dr. Thaddeus Hildreth found thirty pounds of gold. Which meant going in some tunnels hundreds of feet below ground level. A miner’s daily basis meant sleeping on the ground or on cots. Most only had one

set of clothes as they had left in such a hurry. Food was expensive. A normal dinner would consist: beans,

biscuits, and some preserved such as beef or jerky. No one bothered to dig toilets so in the end many people

died. Unbalanced diets also lead to death but of scurvy. Men worked hard constantly which made them tired. So

the men hired teams to blow up mountains with dynamite. After a while the men get tired again from using pick-axes to tear open deep shafts. They also

removed big pieces of quartz using buckets and small railcars. An even more tiring type of mining is hydraulic

mining which is using water cannons to break open hillsides. Gold was worth a lot, Miner Hiram Pierce wrote

in a letter to his wife. “Some get one, two or even five hundred dollars some days. But half an ounce is about

eight dollars-is the average. You see how grossly things have been misrepresented.”

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Chapter Three The Impact of the Gold Rush

The impact of the gold rush in the westward expansion was families, children, farms, homes, clothes and

supplies; EVERYTHING they owned. It affected their families by being abandoned or becoming rich if the

miner found gold. Their children could die if they were abandoned with no supplies to live on. Their crops

could die and people would start to starve. Homes were left and pipes could freeze and necessary house chores

would not get done. Their clothes would sit there getting dirty, dusty and too small. Miners had to be

brave! Many years ago the gold rush came to an end.

Today, California has become a busy and fun place and home to many different cultures.

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Glossary ( all bolded words )

Scurvy - a deadly disease caused by a lack of vitamin C; scurvy produces swollen limbs, bleeding gums, and

weakness.

Manifest Destiny - the belief that people were destined to settle throughout the North American continent, and

was their duty to so!

Native Americans - settled here before us, some helped and some were enemies.

Thomas Jefferson - was the third president and a very

important one as you have learned.

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Bibliography

Missouri Studies Weekly- Week 13 “Heading West”

American Legacy Publishing Company, 2011

Porter, Lavinia Honeyman.-

“ It Was Like Tearing Our Heartstrings Asunder” www.ci.independence.mo.us

Uschan, Michael.

The California Gold Rush. Milwaukee, WI: World Almanac, 2003.

“The California Gold Rush, 1849”

Eyewitness to History www.eyewittnesstohistory.com

(2003.)

Hall, Brianna. Strike It Rich.

Stevens Point, Wisconsin: Capstone Press, 2015

Perritano, John.

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The Lewis and Clark Expedition. New York: Children’s Press, 2010.

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