The 1849 California Gold Rush

Seth Sells

Historical Paper

Junior Division

Paper Length: 2,355

The 1849 California Gold Rush led to the overall growth of the United States. The

Mexican American war ended in 1848, and California was given to the U.S, which then

became the 31st state in September of 1850. The miners came from all over the world,

some trying to escape debt and others for the money and thrill of travelling across the

ocean. They traveled through harsh landscapes and conditions to get to California as

this was their first encounter with a new land. They exchanged threats with other

miners, and they exchanged feelings and ideas to their families through letters. They

also exchanged threats with the Native American populations throughout California. In

the Fall of 1849, gold was discovered in the rivers by John Marshal when they were

attempting to build a saw mill. John Marshal took the gold to Sutter's fort to show John

Sutter, but before that John decided to test to make sure the gold was real. First he

hammered the gold upon a rock. Next he put the gold piece in soap, and the next day

he took the gold out of the soap and found that it was shining and was clean. Marshal

decided that he should consult with Sutter on whether or not to let the public know about

the gold. Sutter decided to tell the men that they had a saw mill to complete and that

when they were off of work they could find gold. All miners went to California for the thrill

of wealth and adventure. Not only that but some left to escape debt and to find a new

life to live.

Exploration

The Westward Expansion to California from 1849­1857 led to the overall

expansion of the United States and to the exploration of the frontier known as California

at this time, and it led to California’s admission into the Union. This also led to one of

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the largest mass immigrations from all over the world. California becoming a free state

led to the 1850 compromise. The state is home to the Sierra Nevada, a large stretch of

mountains and valleys. This topography led to many deaths of travelers who came to

California in the cold and snowy months of December to February. Many got trapped on

the mountains and froze or starved to death. John Fremont, a well known explorer who

explored the Oregon trail, was sent to California to try and discover an overland route to

make it easier for travellers trying to get to California. His wife Jessie Fremont left with

their son and daughter and went to California by ship and foot. They first traveled

around Cape Horn, and then had to walk by foot to a dockyard. A large number of

people went to California to escape debt, including John Sutter; he left Europe to get

away from debtors, but as it turns out, he started collecting debts in America as well.

Most of the miners went there for gold and other things, but most of the time the miners

wouldn’t even collect enough gold to even get back to their homes, and therefore had to

stay in California for a long period of time. Another problem is that with the abundance

of men in these small mining towns, violence soon erupted, which led to murders and

some arrests. One such miner, Mr. Shufelt, and his team came across Sutter's fort of 1

their way to the mines:

Ten miles from the river we passed Sutter's fort, an old looking heap of buildings surrounded by an high wall of unburnt brick, & situated in the midst of a pleasant fertile plain, covered with grass and a few scattering oaks, with numerous tame cattle & mules. 2

1J. S. "Rush for Riches: Gold Fever and the Making of California Paperback – June 8, 1999." Rush for Riches: Gold Fever and the Making of California: J. S. Holliday: 9780520214026: Amazon .com: Books. N.p, n.d. Web. 12 Jan. 2016. 2 Shufelt, Sheldon. "A Letter from a Gold Miner, Placerville, California, October, 1850." Letter to Sheldon Shufelt. Oct. 1850. Library of Congress LCCN Permalink for 44005704 . N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Jan. 2016.

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Mr. Shufelt's team also traveled up some of the mountains to get to their location,

and he described his experiences travelling across these mountains.

After leaving the plains we passed over some hills that looked dry & barren being burnt up by the sun & the long droughts that we have here. We reached this place at night on the fourth day, & in the morning found ourselves in the midst of the diggings, being surrounded by holes dug. 3

Mr. Shufelt later took a schooner down the Sacramento, and he experienced for the first

time what it was like to almost sink on a sandbar.

We took passage on a small schooner, crossed the bay with a gentle breeze and soon were winding our way up the crooked Sacramento. We soon entered Soosoon bay & our Capt. not being acquainted with the channel ran on the ground at high tide & a stiff breeze, so that we were fast in reality. As the tide fell our little schooner fell also on her side & filled with water. We clung to the upper side, but were so thick that as night drew on the Capt. thought some of us had better go on shore. Some of our party went, myself among the rest. We came very near getting swamped with water. 4

A large portion of those going to California didn’t know what to expect, and find.

Some who rode ships to get down to San Francisco, as stated in the quote above, had

captains who were completely or somewhat inexperienced in the streams and rivers of

California.

Exchange

During the gold rush different letters, threats, feelings, and help were exchanged.

A large portion of people during the gold rush couldn’t have made it without the help of

other people. Jessie Fremont, for instance, couldn’t have made it to California if it wasn’t

3 By Geoffrey C. Ward, Published 1996 by The West book project. INC.(Book) Ward, Geoffrey C., and Dayton Duncan. The West: An Illustrated History . Boston: Little, Brown, 1996. Print. 4 Swain, William. "Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library." PBS.org . Courtesy Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, 2001. Web. 15 Jan. 2016.

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for her stubbornness and the hope of seeing her husband again. Miners often sent

letters to their families before crossing into California, which was still a wilderness by

1849 and didn’t have a vast postal system to send letters to far away states such as

New York or Massachusetts. During the Gold Rush’s peak many things happened;

many stores were opened, and prices were inflated so that the store or the owners of

the items were paid a large amount of money. Natives would sometimes raid diggings

for food, because as time went on miners would hunt the tribes’ main food sources

(deer, bear, etc) until near extinction. This caused relations between miners and Natives

in California to deteriorate.

Encounter

As William Swain quoted in a letter to Sabrina Swain, on January 4, 1849:

Apples, peaches, coffee, sugar, tea, rice, flour, bacon, was often brought and presented. The writer here observes truly what one of the ancients said that the love of money is the root of all evil. It was the love of it that has caused thousands to leave their pleasant homes & comfortable fireside and thus plunge themselves into unnecessary suffering and distress. 5

At this time William Swain was leaving for California, and was with a company

going to California with about thirty men or so. In the mining towns around the diggings,

many men from different occupations came to California for different reasons. Sailors,

gamblers, outlaws, and fugitives running from the law mixed in with the miners came,

which led to problems because no one knew what the other person's background was

or where they came from. Often men spent their nights in saloons, where most of the

drinking and socializing took place. At most times many men would have too much to

5 S., and William Swain. The World Rushed In: The California Gold Rush Experience . New York: Simon and Schuster, 1981. Print

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drink and get into drunken rages and start fights with the other miners. During the Gold

Rush there were many green miners who didn’t know how to mine. Some miners would

watch other more seasoned miners and learn how to mine from them:

We pitched our tents, shouldered our picks & shovels & with pan in hand sallied forth to try our fortunes at gold digging. We did not have very good success being green at mining, but by practice & observation we soon improved some, & found a little of the shining metal. 6

When the miners didn’t find any gold at one time they would find clay, and sometimes

the clay would fetch a good price as shown here from a written entry by Mr. Shufelt:

We sometimes have to dig several feet deep before we find any, in other places all the dirt & clay will pay to wash, but generally the clay pays best. If there is no clay, then it is found down on the rock. All the lumps are found on the rock­­& most of the fine gold. 7

This quote by William Swain on the way to the diggings in the later part of 1849 shows

how crowded these encounters could be:

The road was so lined with wagons that one would be scarcely be out of sight of another wagon. Destruction of property along the road were beyond description, consisting of wagons, harnesses, tools of every description, provisions, etc. Very frequently some 20 to 30 persons would surround my wagon and plead for a moment's instruction, some of them with consternation depicted on their countencases. 8

6 Shufelt, Sheldon. "A Letter from a Gold Miner, Placerville, California, October, 1850." Letter to Sheldon Shufelt. Oct. 1850. Library of Congress LCCN Permalink for 44005704 . N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Jan. 2016. 7 Shufelt, Sheldon. "A Letter from a Gold Miner, Placerville, California, October, 1850." Letter to Sheldon Shufelt. Oct. 1850. Library of Congress LCCN Permalink for 44005704 . N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Jan. 2016. 8 Holiday, J. S. "Rush for Riches: Gold Fever and the Making of California Paperback – June 8, 1999." Rush for Riches: Gold Fever and the Making of California: J. S. Holliday: 9780520214026: Amazon.com: Books . N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Jan. 2016.

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On the way to the mines, a lot of miners experienced downpours, snowfalls, and

many other dangerous elements of the weather. William Swain was one of those men.

He spent many days in a claustrophobic position which he would then leave to search

for another place to sit or lie. William Swain and his party endured 50 miles of treeless

sagebrush. The ground itself was dotted with alkaline water fatal to oxen. Dead animals

lay everywhere, filling the air with a disgusting stench. So, on September 21st the

Wolverine Rangers, Swain’s Company, joined the stream of Gold seekers starting down

Lasser’s Cutoff. The cabins that the miners lived in were not small by any means, but

they were crowded. A single cabin could accommodate six miners; the cabins also had

a fireplace and stove. Many contracted sickness and died in the mines and on their way

to the mines.

(We) proceeded up the river in canoes rowed by the natives, and enjoyed the scenery & howling of the monkeys and the chattering of parrots very much. We pitched our tents at Gorgona & most of our party stayed there several weeks. S. Miller & myself went on to panama to look out for a chance to get up to San Francisco. Of our ill success you have probably been informed and consequently of our long stay there, & of the deaths in our party. Yes, here Mr. Crooker, J. Miller & L. Aiden yielded up their breath to God who gave it. 9

In the camps some sicknesses were spread very quickly from miner to

miner and from camp to camp. Here is a letter from William Swain talking about

what he has experienced so far:

Many, very many, that come here meet with bad success & thousands will leave their bones here. Others will lose their health, contract diseases that they will carry to their graves with them. Some will have to beg their way home, & probably one half that come here will never make enough to carry them back. But this does not alter the fact about the gold being plenty here, but shows what a poor frail being man is, how liable to disappointments, disease & death. 10

9 Holliday, J. S., and William Swain. The World Rushed In: The California Gold Rush Experience . New York: Simon and Schuster, 1981. Print. 10 Ward, Geoffrey C., and Dayton Duncan. The West: An Illustrated History . Boston: Little, Brown, 1996. Print.

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In some of the mining camps it was not unlikely to find miners and town folk

gambling, Much gambling took place in town gathering places such as saloons. As Mr.

Shufelt put it, a good deal of “sin and wickedness” was going on in the mining towns

and the mines themselves: gambling, drinking, stealing, and fights happened almost all

the time in town.

In this quote, Swain shows how some of the men (and boys) would spend five or

ten dollars and then gamble all the money away, then the next day go to the mines and

dig a larger amount of gold.

Men make & lose thousands in a night, & frequently small boys will go up & bet $5 or 10 (Equivalent to $115­$225 today) ­­ & if they lose all, go the next day & dig more. We are trying to get laws here to regulate things but it will be very difficult to get them executed. 11

The Transcontinental Railroad helped to shave off months of travel time for

miners arriving in California, although this railroad was mostly owned by private

companies. This railroad was known as the Panama railway, which connected across

the Panama isthmus. This helped virtually end the travel around South America, and it

also helped to end many back breaking miles of hauling tools . The Chinese exclusion 12

act was enacted on May 6, 1882 to control and stop the overall large immigration from

China. This was enacted because the Chinese immigrants were still coming in large

numbers even when the California gold rush ended and died down. There were a 13

11 Holliday, J. S., and William Swain. The World Rushed In: The California Gold Rush Experience . New York: Simon and Schuster, 1981. Print. 12 Graham, Barbara. "California Gold Rush (1848–1858)." Open Collections Program: Immigration to the US, California Gold Rush, 1848­1858 . Harvard University, 1998. Web. 25 Jan. 2016. 13 Hanzen, Dan C. "Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)." Open Collections Program: Immigration to the US, . Harvard University, 2001. Web. 25 Jan. 2016.

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large number of Chinese immigrants going to California, not to stay in the U.S but to get

as much gold as possible and then return to China richer than what they were before.

Since many bandits preyed on foreigners, most of the Chinese immigrants melted down

the gold into pots, and other household goods, which upon arrival to China they would

unmelt the gold and wash off the black soot that they put of the gold to make it look like

regular household utensils. As California was admitted into the Union, tensions soared

between pro­slavery supporters and anti­ slavery supporters, so in a last ditch effort to

close these tensions, Congress to enact the Compromise of 1850.

In conclusion, the California Gold Rush led the overall largest land and sea

migration to the west, also know as the Western Expansion. It also paved the way for

many different acts and bills to be amended. Also it helped add a long standing railroad

and postal system in California. The Gold Rush would lead California to enact the

foreign miners tax. California would become one of the largest U.S states next to Texas.

California would also boast the largest geographical change in that time period all of this

happened because a large number of people wanted to better their lives through

exploration, encounters, and exchanges, as they searched for gold.

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Annotated Bibliography

Primary Sources

Holiday, J. S. "Rush for Riches: Gold Fever and the Making of California Paperback –

June 8, 1999." Rush for Riches: Gold Fever and the Making of California: J. S.

Holliday: 9780520214026: Amazon.com: Books . N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Jan. 2016.

This account should me how many men got to California but it also should me a few

different account of miners, I decided to not use all of them but the did mention William

Swain.

Shufelt, Sheldon. "A Letter from a Gold Miner, Placerville, California, October, 1850."

Letter to Sheldon Shufelt. Oct. 1850. Library of Congress LCCN Permalink for

44005704 . N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Jan. 2016.

I learned about the miners living conditions, food sources, and health. A lot miners

suffered from cholera, and suffered badly from it. I also learned that some who went to

the mines, never made it out, or they didn’t make enough money to get back to the

states. Or they didn’t make any money at all.

Swain, William. "Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library." PBS.org . Courtesy

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Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, 2001. Web. 15

Jan. 2016.

I learned how miners sent letter to their families, but some of them never reached the

family, or they took months to get to the states alone. I also learned about Kit Carson,

and how he played a key role in the Gold Rush. From the same site different entry

Swain, Sabrina. "Beinecke MS 481.1­50." Beinecke MS 481.1­50 . PBS.org, 2001. Web.

15 Jan. 2016.

I used this man's encounters in several different sources because they gave me a lot of

different views. I do believe this should help me a lot.

Swain, William. "Robot Check." Robot Check . PBS.org, 2001. Web. 15 Jan. 2016..

Holliday, J. S., and William Swain. The World Rushed In: The California Gold

Rush Experience . New York: Simon and Schuster, 1981. Print.

I used this to help me get an understanding of what it was like in the mines, and the

living conditions of the camp.

Ward, Geoffrey C., and Dayton Duncan. The West: An Illustrated History . Boston: Little,

Brown, 1996. Print.

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I learned a great deal from this book, what the conditions of travel were like, how some

families or miners turned back. Sometimes you would find cattle and other things

scattered on the side of the road. Dead or they are inanimate objects. I also learned

how some mines would capture Indians and basically make them slaves, also known in

California as Apprenticeships, because Slavery was banned by the California

Constitution.

California­ Brands, H. W. The Age of Gold . Place of Publication Not Identified: Arrow,

2006. Print.

This book taught me how many people went to california for a life changing experience

and that they came from all over the world. This taught me more in depth about who

was affected by the gold rush, and how some specific peoples life were changed. Such

as John and Jessie Fremont, or William Tecumseh Sherman when he had to travel

through and around California.

Secondary Sources

Graham, Barbara. "California Gold Rush (1848–1858)." Open Collections Program:

Immigration to the US, California Gold Rush, 1848­1858 . Harvard University,

1998. Web. 25 Jan. 2016.

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This harvard website helped me find out a good deal of information of the

Transcontinental Railroad and broadened my understanding of how some miners got to

and sometimes from California.

Hanzen, Dan C. "Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)." Open Collections Program:

Immigration to the US, . Harvard University, 2001. Web. 25 Jan. 2016.

This chinese exclusion did not take place in the 1849, but the California Gold Rush did

lead up to this become enacted, to stop the flow of immigrants. This man’s well done

account helped me understand what the consequences were for the overall large

chinese immigrants.

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