A Story about Miner Struggles

Miner Struggles

     When the gold miners arrived in california, mining was extremely dangerous and delicate. There was no guarantee for success. Many of them never even found gold after they had spent most all of their life savings, left their homes, friends and families. Many even said One of every five miners who came to California died within 6 months." Political instability and revolution, class tension, economic depression and repression are some of the world-wide events and conditions that set the stage. These tensions also caused crime, recklessness, and racism in California. Wars and other kinds of fightings were also caused by the Gold Rush.

 (four men gathering gold from the American River)

Getting There

     Living back in the old days was hard, especially during the 1800's. Over this period the earth shaped. The people during this time there was a gold rush and people took a journey to Sacramento, California. At this time California had 86,000 inhabitants. From all over the world in 1848 all brave men came to seek their fortune in California. Almost like the Oregon trail they traveled by wagon or foot. It was a struggle for people. It took over 9 months to get to California.

     California was admitted as the 31st state of the Union in 1850. John Sutter found the gold but it made his life worse in his words, He would've been the wealthiest man on earth. Instead of being rich he was ruined.

     I have my own story, I just heard about the fortune in California. The California Gold Rush was a huge deal at the time and I was very poor at this time as well. I went by wagon to seek my fortune and tried. I eventually made it somehow and the fortune as most people wanted was there but not in the way most people thought it was going to be.

I wish I got the fortune but I didn't.

  (people ready for the journey)

Levi Strauss and Co.

Vocabulary

Boom Town: a town undergoing rapid growth due to sudden prosperity.

Claim: state or assert that something is the case, typically without providing evidence or proof.

Claim Jumping: a person who seizes another's claim of land, especially for mineral rights.

Ghost Town:a deserted town with few or no remaining inhabitants.

Forty-Niners:a prospector in the California gold rush of 1849.

Pay Dirt: ground containing ore in sufficient quantity to be profitably extracted.

(People running their findings through the water)

6th Period

"California presented to people a new model for the American dreamone where the emphasis was on the ability to take risks, the willingness to gamble on the future."

-H.W. Brands

The Gold Rush     The California Gold Rush was the largest human movement in US history. It brought over 300,000 people across the states to California. The Gold Rush dates to the morning of January 24, 1848 to 1855. Even though some did not succeed at finding gold, some did, and were made rich because of it. Sam Brannan made a lot of money .Actually he made the most. The Gold Rush brought a total of 750,000$. Native Americans who lived in these areas were affected because their populations were getting overpopulated.They was moving in beside the American River.

Samuel Brannan

Samuel Brannan was a Mormon, settler  and businessman. In 1846 he and over three-hundred other Mormons traveled to California in hopes of building a peaceful kingdom. Instead, he found gold and shunned his church to become a businessman. When Brannan found the shiny metal, he opened a second store in addition to his original to make more profits. After he opened his store, Samuel went to San Francisco and spread the fact that he found gold in California. This was so he could get more business by selling mining products like pickaxes and other items. This method was also widely used by other manufacturers in the 1890's.

Cite this page