California Gold Rush Research Paper

The California gold rush of 1848 changed California, the lives of thousands of people, and history. The goldrush started on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W.Marshall in the Sacramento Valley in San Francisco. People all over the world came to California to prospect for gold. Many people made big money, but a lot more people lost everything. Margins actually made a lot more money than the minors did. They provided the minors with overpriced food, supplies and services. Directions to Mandarin the early years was Samuel Brannan. People came by to sea or came on the Oregon Trail or the Santa Fe Trail. By the end of 1848, $6 million in gold was taken from the American River. Whenever gold is found in a new place, miners would move their camp. They lived in either

James W. Marshall was the man who found the first pieces of gold. he was out working for a man call John Sutter, building a sawmill in the Sacramento Valley in California. John Sutter and James Marshall tried to keep it a secret, but Samuel Brannan, a storekeeper in Sutters Creek, showed a bottle filled with gold dust around San Francisco, showing proof of the gold it to the people. News spread fast that gold was found. On August 19,1848, The New York Herald was the first major newspaper on the East Coast to report to discovery. Soon, the death valley 49ers, a group of pioneers from eastern United States, came to California to prospect for gold. Call native societies were attacked and pushed off their lands by them. they got the gold from streams and riverbeds by using techniques like panting. The goldrush had many impact on many things. This was the largest mass migration in American history because it brought about 300,000 people to California. People came from all around the world; Latin America, Europe, Australia, and China. That's how California got so many different cultures. It also helped California developed very