The California Gold Rush started in 1848 when a man named James Wilson Marshall found gold flakes in the American River near his job site in Colma, California. Marshall and his boss, John Sutter, tried to keep the gold a secret, but word traveled throughout the area. Townspeople began quitting their jobs in hopes the gold would make them rich. Then word spread to people all over America, and they began traveling to California to join the “quest for gold.” By the end of the first year of the Gold Rush, the population of non-native Californians grew by 80,000. By the end of the entire California Gold Rush era, the state had a population of about 380,000 people (History.com Editors, 2010). Though the population boom was impactful for the future …show more content…
An engineer by the name of Theodore Judah began looking for investors to help him begin building the railroad that would stretch all the way to the Pacific Ocean. After finding investors from Sacramento, California, he created the Central Pacific Railroad Company. After forming the company, Judah went to Washington in search of Congressional approval for the daunting task of building what is now known as the Transcontinental Railroad. He gets approval from not only Congress but also from President Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln signed the Pacific Railroad Act, meaning the government would assist the Central Pacific Railroad Company on its building journey. What Judah did not realize is that another railroad company was going to compete for their government funding. In 1866 The Union Pacific Railroad, run by Dr. Thomas Durant, started building the Transcontinental Railroad started building westward from the Missouri River. The Central Pacific Railroad Company began its building in Sacramento, California, and continued east toward the Sierra Nevada. For every mile of railroad track that a company built, they would receive 6,400 acres of land and $48,000 in government bonds (History.com Editors, 2010). Incentivizing the building of the Transcontinental Railroad caused the two companies to race to complete more of the railroad than the other could so they could receive more government …show more content…
What people do not realize is that the agricultural industry was also very, if not more, successful than the mining industry. Not everyone who moved to California in hopes of finding gold was successful. In fact, most people who moved to California specifically to mine gold never even found any. After mining was unsuccessful for many people, they had to find new ways to make money. Many of these settlers began to start farms or get jobs on farms. Because of the population boom in California, these farmers became successful. The land in California was rich in nutrients and the climate was perfect for the growth of many fruits, vegetables, and
How did the discovery of gold change California? Think about population, economics, and
The scenery described by the author made you wish that you were there so that you could get some for yourself. Also the accounts of the different races living together in peace was astonishing, something that you wouldn’t see until the end of the next century. This was truly something you could not duplicate or make up on your own. During the time of the gold rush as expected as people began to come, the population would increase and towns would be built. Many of the major cities in California that still exists today started of being gold mine towns were the labor would settle after a hard day out in the fields searching for their illustrious treasure.
Many of the people who planned on traveling to the territory wanted to become wealthy by mining gold and then return to their homes and family. However, life during the gold rush was difficult and many Native Americans and prospectors experienced hardships Native Americans were deeply affected by the California gold rush in a negative manner. They
Joshua Gillingham Humanities Jorge Cerna May 8th, 2023 “How did the Gold Rush change the course of the development of California?” A minor but substantial find in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California in the winter of 1848 ignited a frenetic rush of fortune seekers, turning the formerly quiet frontier into a frenzied epicenter of gold fever. The promise of wealth and opportunity attracted a varied group of migrants from all over the world, forever altering the direction of California's growth and leaving an enduring legacy that still influences the state today. What happened next was a turning point in American history.
Thousands of people came to California in look for gold and Braman had thousands of tools to sell. In the beginning of the California gold rush in 1848, thousands and thousands of people came from all over the world. It was described as migration towards California. Mar-shall was the man to make the discovery of gold in January. The news of gold brought people like prospectors, immigrants and new technology that would become known as the Golden State and fostered an entrepreneurial vibe that still exists today.
This gold rush is what increased the population in California. People came from all over to dig for gold. At the time of the gold rush there were many of other issues going on in the union, also known as the United States, such as different territory wars, other compromises being debated out, and slavery. Slavery was a major controversy during this time and eventually led to other major events.
Gold, gold, gold in California! It lasted barely a decade. However, the California Gold Rush was a grand adventure for a generation of brash young men, most of them citizens of a brash young nation. The journey to California for finding gold was hard and dangerous—the forty-niners had a tough time.
(United States 1849)people mostly men borrowed money for property or spent their life 's saving to make the arduous journey to California. The gold miners, (49ers)have traveled across the mountains to panama or even around to Cape Horns. After 1850 ,the surface gold in California disappeared. Gold started to get more difficult for
In conclusion, the westward expansion was one of the most important times in American history but one of the hardest for those who made the journey. The settlers had to go through a lot of hardships to get a new life in the west. The Gold Rush helped bring people to the west and populate California so it became a state. People such as Sacagawea helped Lewis and Clark helped explore the new terrain and make maps so people could live there. Even though the pioneers got diseases, had conflicts with the Native Americans, and had to travel for long periods of time in a ship or covered wagon, they never gave up hope.
After President Polk confirmed the rumors of gold in California in 1848 (Oakland Museum Staff), around 250,000 people came to California in seek of the soft metal that could lead to a fortune: gold (The forty-niners). The California Gold Rush not only presented fortune, it presented a new idea of the American Dream: “‘one where the emphasis was on the ability to take risks and the willingness to gamble
The Gold Rush, beginning in 1848 and ending in 1855, was a period in American history which opened the doors of opportunity to a new group of immigrants, the Chinese. The discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill, California, in 1848 was the cause of mass Chinese immigration that would last for decades to come. When James Marshall discovered gold in 1848, there were fifty-four recorded Chinese in California, this number quickly rose to 116,000 by 1876. Title (Chinese Immigration During the Gold Rush: The American Encounter) The California Gold Rush allowed for immigrants, such as the Chinese, to encounter the various beliefs and suspicions of the American society.
Americans were able to make thousands of dollars off of gold and immagrants and foreigners from all over the world came to California. Citizens became richer and all different cultures learned to
The California Gold Rush is a unique point in history that helped to shape the U.S. Without the gold rush, California may not be considered a part of the U.S. because it could easily have been acquired by Mexico. With the gold rush the U.S. wanted to obtain California both for its gold and to expand its growing population. Obtaining California was a benefit for many reasons. However, the part of the landscape of California was ruined in the process because many of its rivers were diverted destroying much of its natural landscape.
The California Gold Rush was a rush of people in search of gold in California. The gold was discovered in the Sacramento Valley in early 1848 which sparked the gold rush. The rush was a huge influence in how America was shaped into what it is today. It shaped California into what it is today. Without this gold rush California would be like it is today but it would have taken way more years and it wouldn’t be such a diversely populated state.
In between California and the rest of the country were the Great Plains which were not heavily populated so there was no easy way of trade and transportation to the growing western territories. A group of men called the “Big Four” which consisted of Collis Huntington, Leland Stanford, Charles Crocker and Mark Hopkins, decided what the country needed was a transcontinental railroad. Their company, The Central Pacific Railroad company would hire 15,000 Chinese men to work on constructing the railroad due to the fact that they would work for less than the average American. This made transportation cheaper and quicker than ever