How the Gold Rush of 1848 impacted the growth of California.

How the Gold Rush of 1848 impacted the growth of California.
Name
Institution
Date

 
Outline
How the Gold Rush of 1848 impacted the growth of California?
I. Indroduction
a. John Sutter and James Marshall
b. “something shining”
c. Rumors start to spread
II. The population before and during/after the Gold Rush
a. 1850’s more than 300,000 new arrivals
III. Difference of prices of necessities before and during
a. Raised prices of “everyday things”
b. Example: $100 for water
IV. Impact it had on the job market
a. Mining town sprung up all over
b. San Francisco grew
c. 31st state
V. Conclusion
a. “Golden State” “Land of Milk and Honey”
b. Gold rush = Land of opportunity
c. Highest state population today

How the Gold Rush of 1848 impacted the growth of California.
James Wilson Marshall stumbled upon “something shining” on January 24, 1848 while working on a lumber mill on the waters of American River. Marshall took what he had found to the owner of the mill named John Sutter and after testing the shining piece of object they discovered that it was gold. After the discovery, Sutter made attempts to keep it a secret because he feared a massive search for gold in the area would crumble his plans of setting up an agricultural empire on the adjacent land. Rumors however spread quickly and on March 1848, the rumors were confirmed to be true by Samuel Brannan, a San Francisco merchant and newspaper publisher. Confirmation of the rumors sparked a worldwide rush to California .
In the late winter of 1849, Gold seekers went to California in droves and settled around the goldfields. They were nicknamed the “forty-niners” . Those from eastern United States arrived in California via three major routes. The routes included crossing through the Isthmus of Panama, sailing around Cape Horn, or following the overland trail. Initially, the most popular route was the sea route which entailed sailing then crossing the Panamanian isthmus . It was a voyage of 18,000 nautical miles and averagely took around five to eight months to arrive at the coastline of San Francisco. The California bound ships were often crowded and very uncomfortable. Violent storms encountered at Cape Horn continuously posed danger even to the very experienced mariners. Travelers also risked contracting tropical diseases like yellow fever and malaria. Around two-thirds of the travelers were Americans and most of them were young white males from New England. Many experienced miners came from Mexico’s region of Sonora and others from Australia, China, Europe and South America. Many of the Chinese miners were small scale farmers fleeing from a countryside region that had experienced multiple crop failures .
Although most travelers preferred to reach California by sea in the early days marking the gold rush, travelers later on opted for overland routes in the American heartland. The journey was 2000 miles for those coming from the eastern seaboard and it took an average of three to four months to complete. The journey meant crossing incredibly harsh terrains and fighting off diseases. Diseases were the biggest killers and out of every ten deaths they were responsible for nine . The greatest scourge for the travelers was Cholera, dysentery, typhoid fever and scurvy . Fatal accidents like reckless or careless use of firearms also contributed to a number of deaths, as did drowning while trying to cross swollen rivers. During the start of the gold rush in 1848, San Francisco was just a tiny settlement of around 1000 people but by 1850 its population had exploded to 25000 residents. The town boomed as merchants and gold seekers arrived from all over the world .
The huge migration that California witnessed during the gold rush period brought with it economic gains. The sea port San Francisco was a center of economic boom with manufacturing, banking, trade and shipping companies pitching tent there. The region of Sacramento was the center of productive farming. Mining life however was hard due to a number of reasons. Camp gossip reported of how some miners became rich overnight after finding gold nuggets of eight pounds but in reality such a find was rare. Miners spent most of their days standing in the icy waters and sifting through tons of sand and mud just to find small bits of gold. In the end of it all, exhaustion, disease and poor nutrition all contributed in damaging a miner’s health . Ethnic conflict was also common among the miners. Native Americans involved in the mining often fell prey to genocidal campaigns and on many occasions were hunted down and killed. The Anglo-American belief that they stood in the path of progress was one major reason they were hunted and killed. Their population by 1870 fell to about 58000 from 150,000 before the gold rush . Foreign miners were also subjected to discriminatory taxes and compelled to pay extra mining fees. The Foreign Miners Tax Act imposed a monthly tax of $20 to miners from foreign countries. This was an amount most of them could not afford so they left as the tax collectors arrived at the mine fields .
Finding gold was a brutally difficult task. In addition, miners also had to pay exorbitant prices for them to get basic supplies. Furthermore, con artists and gamblers arrived in droves at the mining camps for a chance to swindle the miners their money . Few miners became rich in the long run. Mining camps and towns served as supply and entertainment centers. Sacramento and Stockton were the largest interior towns with Sacramento being a getaway to northern and central mines while Stockton the supply hub for settlers in the mining regions of the south. San Francisco remained the greatest boom town of all. It was the point of entry for all supplies and seaborne Argonauts arriving from other parts of the world. Through hard work and good fortune, a number of businessmen reaped profits in shipping, entertainment, lodging transportation and retail businesses. Food preparation, boarding houses, laundry and sewing businesses were also profitable and mostly run by women who had come to the realization that men were willing to pay double for services delivered by women. Gaming houses and saloons also made a tidy sum from the miners .
The economic climate in California however changed drastically in 1855. The mining of gold was now only profitable when done by a large group of workers, either through employment by a company or partnerships. Those who owned gold-mining companies were the ones able to rake in a profit by the mid-1850s. In a bid to eliminate competition, American miners forced foreigners such as the Chinese and Mexicans out of the gold fields once easy to find gold was exhausted. The economy and population of California had also become bigger and diverse and it was now possible to make money from other conventional businesses. The foreigners especially the Chinese that were sent from the mines opted to open shops, laundries and restaurants. Many of them started businesses in San Francisco which subsequently prompted their neighborhood to be called Chinatown. The major effect of the gold rush however was when California applied to be part of the Union without passing through the territorial stage. In 1850, California gained admission into the union as a free state .

Bibliography
Goldfield, David R. “The Way West 1815-1850.” In The American Journey: A History of the United States, 357-358. 7th ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1998.
“GOLD RUSH – Fourth Grade.” – LiveBinder. Accessed June 22, 2015.
“Main.” History Net Where History Comes Alive World US History Online. Accessed June 22, 2015.
“The Gold Rush of 1849.” History.com. 2010. Accessed June 18, 2015.
“The Impact of the California Gold Rush.” The Impact of the California Gold Rush. Accessed June 18, 2015.