The California gold rush was something that got our country’s back then. In 1848, James Marshall had discovered gold in California right along the American River. Once people found out about it, they started moving to California in hopes of finding gold as well. I was one of those people who decided to venture there hoping against all doubt and be one of the lucky few to find any. It took me a few months to save up money to go on the trip to California but once I did, I began my journey. It took me about two months to get to California and another week to find a spot to start mining. Once I found my spot, I set all my tools and equipment up that way in the morning I could start. I was set up by a river called “Rio de los Mercedes, abbreviated into “Mercy” (California Gold-rush English, pg.452). The other miners around me had given it that name but wouldn’t tell me why they did. During my first day, I was unable to find anything but that was expected so I just hoped that I would eventually get lucky. …show more content…
Throughout the next few days, people would come by and disturb us while we were mining. I guess these people didn’t know about the law where “a person disturbing a miner’s claim on the public domain could be charged with trespass.” (Disorder, crime, and punishment in the California Gold Rush, pg. 2). At times, we just ignored them but other times they annoyed us so much that we had to ask them just to leave so we could get back to work. They eventually stopped showing up after a few days then we were able to get back to work without being disrupted