California Gold Rush Effects

The True Impact of the Gold Rush The reason why the California Gold Rush was so popular was mainly because no matter what time period, almost everyone has the desire to achieve instant wealth. It was almost like a lottery that anyone could become rich with and the only risk to take is to move to California, which isn’t that big of a price for many to pay. This all sounded great and almost too good to be true to people of the world, not only Americans, and everyone wanted to see it for themselves. With the news of the Gold Rush spreading like wildfire, the population of California shot up in an instant and the former residents, Native Americans, were violently forced out. Miners discovered more efficient ways of getting gold by the day and many of these techniques absolutely destroyed the environment. Overall, the California Gold Rush had a negative impact on the U.S. in the short and long term with effects such as, overpopulation, indian cruelty, and environmental

First, massive amounts of earth was blown away from hydraulic mining. Hydraulic mining uses high-pressured water jets to blow away sediment/earth and was a very efficient way of finding gold. The great power of the water blew threw bedrocks, destroyed mountainsides, led to deforestation, and caused debris flows and flooding in nearby towns. The hydraulic mining also caused major runoffs of sediment, which completely covered fertile farmland in valleys. The landscape was not only destroyed by hydraulic mining, miners also used dangerous chemicals that still leave effects on California today. Miners used chemicals, such as mercury, to extract the gold from quartz and stone. However, mercury is very hazardous and leaves behind toxic chemicals that threaten people today. The mercury can get in water sources and poison the people. Miners during the Gold Rush were never thinking about the