The California Gold Rush

January 24, 1848 • The California gold

rush began when gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill

• As the news of discovery spread, some 300,000 people came to California from the rest of the United States and abroad

These early gold seekers called “49ers” traveled to California by sailing ships and covered wagons across the continent.

• Most “overlanders” began their journey on the Mormon or Oregon trails. The major trailheads for these routes were in Council Bluffs, Iowa, St. Joseph, Mo., or Independence, Mo. The overland trip typically took five to six months. Ten to 15 miles of travel in one day would be a good day.

Journey By Land

Journey By Land

Journey By LandSupplies might include:

Cooking stove made of sheet metal, cows, bacon, ham, rice, dried fruit, molasses, packed butter, bread, coffee and tea, tools for mining, farming and repairing wagons, vegetable and flower seeds, medicines, quilts, musical instruments, guns, ammunition, awls, needles strengthened for mending clothes and tents, bedding, including buffalo robes, waterproof india rubber blankets to keep things dry, lock chains to hold wagons back on steep hills.

Journey By Land

• Sail around South America and up the Pacific coast or sail to Panama and cross the Isthmus by mule train and wait for a ship on the Pacific side.

• If the many diaries kept are to be believed, as many as nine out of 10 captains were incompetent and the promised travel time of 30 days was rarely met. In spite of this, and the unavoidable crowding of travel by sea, 15,000 people took this route in 1849 and investors for the journey were easy to find. Total per-person documented costs ranged from under $600 to over $1,200.

Journey by Sea

Journey by SeaSupplies might include:Salt pork, salt beef, ham, hard bread, salt, 40 pounds of butter and cheese, tea, sugar and spices.

Problems with supplies:

Salt meat often went bad. Wine turned to vinegar. Bottles of fruit juice blew up. Candles melted near the

equator. Rats ate cheese. Butter and lard went rancid. Weevils got into flour, rice and

hard bread.

Journey by Sea

Diseases common to the Panama routeYellow feverMalariaDysenteryCholera - an epidemic in Panama City killed many as they waited.

Diseases common tothe Cape Horn route

Scurvy - due to lack of fresh fruit and vegetables.

Cholera

Techniques for Retrieving Gold • At first, a technique called panning was used to

retrieve gold from streams and riverbeds.• “Long Toms” were

developed to speed up the extraction of gold from the land.

Techniques for Retrieving Gold • Hydraulic mining was later invented

in California. This technique was created for larger scale gold mining

Samuel Brannan• Samuel Brannan was the first

millionaire because of the California gold rush

• Brannan established the first newspaper in San Francisco called the California Star and also established the first school in San Francisco

• Brannan was elected to the California State Senate in 1853. He was also credited with developing banks, railroads, and telegraph companies.

The Negative Effects of the Gold RushNative Americans became the victims of disease, starvation, and genocidal attacks.-The Native American population in 1845 was 150,000

-The Native American population in 1870 was less than 30,000.

Chinese and Mexican workers faced discrimination.

Environmental impact

Many people that journeyed to California from around the world never made it.

-The Donner party- A total of 87 people from various families set out for California and became snowbound in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Only 48 of the original 87 pioneers survived.

The Positive Effects of the Gold Rush

• As the population grew, towns and cities expanded.

• Roads, schools, and churches were built.

• Improved transportation developed between California and the east coast

All of these developments led to the statehood of California on September 9th, 1850. California was admitted as the 31st state.