James Marshall had not had too much luck in life. When he was a young

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1 7 The Gold Rush What James Marshall Found James Marshall had not had too much luck in life. When he was a young man, he left his home in New Jersey and traveled west. Eventually he wandered into Missouri and settled not too far from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. There he might have stayed, if he had not gotten very sick. Finding Missouri too unhealthy for him, Marshall joined a wagon train that was setting out for California. In July 1845, Marshall was hired to do carpentry at Sutter s Fort on the Sacramento River. In a very short time, Marshall became the owner of hundreds of acres of land and livestock. Then came the Bear Flag Revolt, and Marshall joined his fellow Americans and served under Frémont. When the war ended, Marshall returned to his lands to find that all his cattle had been stolen! He soon had to sell his lands and found himself as poor as he had been before. Failure, however, did not discourage Marshall. He and Sutter became partners in building a sawmill on the American River. Marshall would build the mill and run it for Sutter. In return, Marshall would get a part of the cut timber, which he could sell. It seemed like a good deal. Marshall built the sawmill, but he did not run it for very long before he found something that changed his life and the life of everyone in California forever. What did Marshall find? It was January 24, 1848, and Marshall was inspecting the millrace. While looking in the millrace, he said he saw something shining... I reached my hand down and picked it up. It made my heart thump, for I was certain it was gold. The piece was about half the size and shape of a pea. Then I saw another piece in the water. After taking it out I sat down and began to think right hard. Marshall did not think right hard all by himself. He took the gold to Sutter, and the two of them discussed what should be done next. Sutter decided to keep the discovery a secret, but he told some of the men who livestock: farm animals such as sheep, goats, cows, horses, and chickens that people raise and use millrace: a channel that carries a swift current of water to turn a large water wheel for grinding wheat or powering a saw for cutting lumber 93

2 94 A JOURNEY ACROSS AMERICA: California worked for him about it. The workers spread the word, and soon news of the gold find spread all over northern California. A reproduction of a ca daguerreotype showing James Marshall standing before the mill, where he discovered gold alcalde: [ahl-cahl-day] a mayor in a Spanish town. The United States kept these officials for as long as California was a territory. tapster: a person who pours drinks such as beer and wine in a tavern or pub litter: a covered bed or seat that is carried by long poles on the bottom; also, a frame with a bed used to carry sick or wounded people The Rush to the Gold Fields At first, the news of gold on the American River did not seem to stir up much interest. A couple of newspapers mentioned it, and one newspaper, the California Star, thought it was all a lie. But the Star s owner, Sam Brannan, soon learned that the discovery was not a lie. One day in May, he went through the streets of San Francisco, holding a bottle filled with gold nuggets over his head. He shouted, Gold! Gold! On the American River! The news of gold spread like a disease through San Francisco. Shopkeepers closed their shops. People abandoned their homes. All were off to the gold fields to strike it rich. The same thing happened in Monterey. Walter Colton, the alcalde of Monterey, said that people s excitement over gold was intense. He wrote that the blacksmith dropped his hammer, the carpenter his plane, the mason his trowel, the farmer his sickle, the baker his loaf, and the tapster his bottle. All were off to the mines, some on horses, some on carts, and some on crutches, and one went in a litter. Others soon joined in the rush to find gold. Soldiers left the army. Sailors abandoned their ships. California Indians flocked to the fields. Soon other gold discoveries were made on the Feather River and the Stanislaus River. News of the gold discoveries brought miners from Oregon and from as far away as Hawai i and Mexico. By the end of 1848, maybe 10,000 people had become miners. This was a large number, but it was small compared to the number of people gold would eventually bring to California. The Days of 49 At first, people in the eastern United States did not seem very interested in California s gold. They probably did not believe the news they heard, or they thought it was exaggerated. It was only when the U.S. government confirmed that gold had really been discovered that Americans were struck with gold fever. It suddenly seemed as if everyone in the eastern United States was packing his bags and heading for California. Of course, not everybody was; in fact, most Americans were quite happy to stay home. Nevertheless, so many Americans did set out for California that people noticed it. Since most of

3 Chapter 7 The Gold Rush 95 A sailing card, advertising transport to California by clipper ship these emigrants came to California in the year 1849, they came to be called the Forty-niners. Many gold-hungry people went by sea to California about 45,000 came this way by the end of Some of these took ship and sailed down the Atlantic coast, around Cape Horn, and up the Pacific coast to San Francisco. This was a rather easy voyage, though it was very long anywhere from six to eight months. It was for this reason that other Forty-niners sailed to Panama and then crossed the isthmus from the Atlantic to the Pacific side. If they could catch a ship on the Pacific coast, this was a rather quick way to get to California. But if they didn t, they had to wait in Panama, where they could catch such diseases as cholera and malaria. Many who chose this route died in Panama. Other Forty-niners came to California by land rather than by sea. About 35,000 to 50,000 traveled the various land trails to the gold fields. For their overland journey, some Forty-niners packed their belongings into covered Conestoga wagons, pulled by two to six mules or oxen. Others piled their belongings into push-carts and even wheelbarrows! The Forty-niners followed three main trails in their journey to California. Some followed the old trail that led to Santa Fé, New Mexico. From Santa Fé, they either followed the Old Spanish Trail, which passed through what is now Colorado, Utah, and Arizona, or they went south and traveled along the Gila River to the Colorado River. Though these trails passed mostly through desert, they were old and well-used. Emigrants could stop at settlements along the way where they could find refreshment. This was not true of the third trail, which mostly passed through regions where only beasts and free Indians roamed. This was the trail that the Bidwell Party and others had been taking since It is sometimes called emigrant: a person who leaves or goes out of one country to settle in another. (It is like immigrant, except that an immigrant comes into a country while an emigrant goes out of a country.) isthmus: a narrow strip of land that connects two larger areas of land cholera: a dangerous disease that brings on vomiting and diarrhea and can end in death malaria: a serious disease that is spread by mosquito bites and causes chills and fever

4 96 A JOURNEY ACROSS AMERICA: California A map from the time of the Gold Rush showing (in gold) the parts of California where gold was being mined. The map shows California stretching to the Rocky Mountains because no eastern boundary had been set for California. the Oregon Trail, since one could follow one part of it and end up in Oregon. When gold seekers came to the part of the trail where they could go either to Oregon or California, they turned south and followed the California Trail. The journey along the California Trail was the hardest of all, for it crossed hot deserts with little water. For a great distance, the trail followed the Humboldt River; but this river was not large, its water was very muddy, and too little grass to feed cattle and horses grew on its banks. Thousands The Donner Party Only three years before the big rush to California, a party of pioneers led by George Donner and James F. Reed set out from Independence, Missouri, bound for California. Having crossed the plains, the Rocky Mountains, and the parched desert, they arrived at the Sierra Nevada too late to cross the mountains safely before winter snows set in. It was November, and an early snow kept the party from crossing the final mountain pass. Of the 79 members, only 45 survived. Some of the members survived, it is said, by eating the bodies of their dead companions. An 1846 picture of Starvation Camp, with stumps of trees cut down by the Donner Party

5 Chapter 7 The Gold Rush 97 of animals died on this part of the trail. When the emigrants reached the Carson and Truckee Rivers, they had clean water and abundant grass. But then they had to face the Sierra Nevada. It was hard pulling the wagons over these heights; and if the travelers arrived too late in the season, they faced the threat of snow. Sometimes only help from California towns saved emigrants from freezing to death in the high mountain passes. The emigrants who came to California successfully often had experienced trappers as their guides. Others, however, were not so fortunate. Some of them believed false stories of short cuts, which turned out to be paths that led to greater hardships or death. One group took such a short cut and ended up in a place they called Death Valley in the California desert. If they hadn t been rescued, all of them would have died from heat, thirst, and hunger. Death Valley On the edge of the Mojave Desert stretches a valley that seems so lifeless that it is called Death Valley. Though very tall mountains surround it, Death Valley is very deep; in fact, much of it is below sea level. One place in what is called the Badwater Basin is 282 feet below sea level and is the lowest point in North America. Very little rain falls in Death Valley; in some years, no rain falls at all. Summer temperatures rise to about 120 degrees Fahrenheit, and sometimes higher. If you visit Death Valley, make sure you bring your own water. What water there is in the valley is so salty that it is undrinkable. Badwater Basin in Death Valley. The white crust covering the ground is alkali (salt).

6 98 A JOURNEY ACROSS AMERICA: California placer mining: a kind of mining where water is used to separate gold or other valuable minerals from gravel or sand shanty: a simple, small house or building made from sheets of wood or other material On to the Gold Fields Once the gold seekers reached California, they headed for the mountains along the paths of mountain streams. At first the miners panned for gold in the streams rushing down from the mountains. They used a shallow pan that they filled with gravel, dirt, and rocks and then swirled under water. The water washed away the lighter materials, leaving only the heaviest behind, especially gold, which is very heavy. Panning is slow business, and it was soon replaced by other methods. The method that uses water to mine minerals is called placer mining. Another method used by California s early miners seeks a mineral called quartz, which often contains gold. In this method, the quartz is gathered or chipped away from hillsides. It is then crushed in order to separate the gold from the quartz. California s miners worked long, hard hours in their search for the riches that very few of them ever found. Some miners lived alone, but others joined together in camps with such names as Murderer s Gulch, Whiskey Diggings, Hangtown, and You Bet. Very few women lived in these camps, and the men in them lived in uncomfortable canvas tent houses and crude shanties. All sorts of men lived in these camps. Most had been farmers or mechanics before coming to California, but some of them had been doctors, lawyers, and professors. The miners came from as far away as Hawai i, South America, Mexico, and even Europe. Black people, who were treated badly in other parts of America, were treated as equals in the mining camps. A depiction of placer mining in California

7 Chapter 7 The Gold Rush 99 Probably because the gold camps had so many different kinds of men, they offered very different kinds of entertainment. The men drank hard liquor, they gambled, and they danced. (Since there were few women, the men danced together.) They held horse races and cock fights. They sang songs. On Sundays, some miners organized debates, while a few held religious services. Actors and actresses (some of them famous for the time) came to the camps to perform plays. Very few of the men who lived in these camps became rich. Most of them lost money. Those who did succeed were those who found ways to get others to work for them, or were dishonest. Others left the gold fields and moved into towns and cities, where they became carters, opened boarding houses, or operated stores. A Home for All the World Hawai ians, Mexicans, South Americans, Americans from the East Coast and the Middle West, Europeans, Chinese all these people came to California during the Gold Rush. This brought on, of course, a large increase in California s population. Before the Gold Rush, less than 10,000 Californios and Americans lived in California. Five years later, the population of people who were not Indians had swelled to 223,856. The growing population also meant that old towns grew into cities and new towns were founded. For instance, in 1848, the little town of Yerba Buena on the San Francisco peninsula had only about 500 to 800 people. By 1850, Yerba Buena had not only changed its name to San Francisco but it had grown in population to over 40,000 people. The reason for this growth is simple San Francisco was the port to which most ships brought gold seekers. It became, too, the center to which miners brought their gold to keep it safe in banks and to spend it. Hotels, saloons, and stores were more than happy to do business with the miners. At first, the only housing in San Francisco was tents; San Francisco around 1848 carter: a person who transfers goods from one place to another in a cart or wagon boarding house: a house where people pay rent to live in a room and receive meals San Francisco around

8 100 A JOURNEY ACROSS AMERICA: California vigilance committee: a group of vigilantes. Vigilantes are people who are not police officers but who try to find, arrest, and punish lawbreakers and criminals but it was not long before settlers began building schools, churches, theaters, and a public library. San Francisco was becoming a respectable city, like those in the eastern United States. Other cities and towns were springing up in northern California. Sacramento was one such town; Stockton was another. Both became important in the coming years. Other towns were basically mining camps. These grew in population during the Gold Rush but shrank or ceased to exist after the rush was over. Nothing much changed in southern California because there were no gold rushes there. San Diego and Los Angeles stayed pretty much the way they were before California s cities and towns were lawless places. In San Francisco, robberies and murders were of daily occurrence, wrote one Amos Delano. In Sacramento, criminals purposely set off fires that killed over 300 people and left thousands homeless. In 1851, San Francisco decided to deal with crime by setting up vigilance committees. Basically, if someone was caught committing a crime, he was given over to a group of citizens who decided on the spot whether he was guilty or not. If guilty, he was immediately hanged. This was not a good way to carry out justice, for innocent people could very easily be killed; but it worked. Crime in San Francisco went way down. Towns like Sacramento, Oakland, and San José soon followed San Francisco s example and set up vigilance committees. Life in the mining camps, however, stayed as lawless as ever. What Happened to Spanish California? We have said that the Gold Rush brought people from all over the world to California. If nothing had changed, California probably would have ended up having as many different races and nationalities then as it has today. But things did change in California. People coming to California from the east coast of the United States were not happy finding so many foreigners among the miners. The Mexicans, especially, were very good miners, and this made the Americans envious. To keep Mexicans out of California, a law was passed that said all foreigners had to pay a tax of $20 a month or leave California. Twenty dollars was a lot of money in the 1850s, and most miners could not afford to pay it. Instead, most Mexicans left California. The California government also passed laws limiting the number of Chinese and Japanese people coming into California. The old Californio inhabitants did not have to leave California, but they felt like their country was being stolen from them. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo that ended the Mexican-American War said that Spanish-speaking people living in conquered areas could keep their land and property. The problem was that Mexican ways of describing property boundaries confused United States officials. The old ranchos were enormous (they had to be, to feed cattle in such a dry place as California), and it was hard for the

9 Chapter 7 The Gold Rush 101 California s First American Bishop In May 1850, Father José Sadoc Alemany heard unwelcome news: Pope Pius IX had named him bishop of Monterey in the far-off wild lands of California! Alemany did not want to be a bishop; he wanted to remain a missionary. A member of the Dominican Order, he had spent ten years as a missionary in Ohio, Tennessee, and Kentucky. It was this work he wanted to continue, but he was obedient to God s will. Reluctantly, he accepted the office the pope had offered him. Though Bishop Alemany was not born in America, but in Spain, he was a bishop California needed in those wild Gold Rush days. He could speak Spanish, of course; but he was fluent in English, too, as well as Italian, French, and Latin. Inspired by great charity, one of his first concerns in California was to provide affordable education to Catholic children and youth. He brought in religious orders such as the Jesuits, the Dominicans, and Christian Brothers to form schools. These orders eventually founded colleges and universities that still exist today in California. In 1853, the pope divided California into two dioceses, the archdiocese of San Francisco and the diocese of Monterey, and Alemany was appointed the first archbishop of San Francisco. During his years in San Francisco, the Church in California grew to about 300,000 people served by priests and sisters, some of whom came to the state by Alemany s invitation. After 34 years serving the Church in California, Archbishop Alemany resigned. He returned to his native Spain, where he died on April 14, Californios to keep Americans from squatting on rancho lands. In 1851, the United States government began trying to figure out what parts of the ranchos really belonged to the Californios. The problem was that the government sometimes favored Americans over Californios. The Californios, too, had to spend a good amount of money to pay lawyers to defend them M14_06.eps 130 W 50 N squat: to live in a building or on land without the owner s permission and without paying rent 50 N 130 W 40 N 30 N 120 W OREGON Great Britain, 1846) CALIFORNIA WASHINGTON OREGON COUNTRY (by treaty with NEVADA IDAHO ARIZONA UTAH MEXICAN CESSION 1848 Note: Modern state boundaries and names are shown. Pacific Ocean 120 W MONTANA GADSDEN PURCHASE 1853 Gulf of California 110 W 110 W WYOMING COLORADO NEW MEXICO M E X I C O 100 W 90 W 80 W Ceded by Great Britain 1818 C A N A D A Ceded by Great Britain 1842 NORTH DAKOTA SOUTH DAKOTA NEBRASKA LOUISIANA PURCHASE KANSAS OKLAHOMA TEXAS ANNEXATION W TEXAS MINNESOTA IOWA MISSOURI ARKANSAS WISCONSIN LOUISIANA Lake Superior ILLINOIS MISSISSIPPI INDIANA TENNESSEE KENTUCKY ALABAMA Lake Huron OHIO 1803 UNITED STATES Lake Michigan Lake Erie WEST (Treaty of Paris, 1783) VA. Gulf of Mexico 90 W M I C H I G A N GEORGIA Lake Ontario NEW YORK PENNSYLVANIA VIRGINIA NORTH CAROLINA SOUTH CAROLINA FLORIDA 0 FLORIDA 0 CESSION (ceded by Spain, ) 80 W 70 W VERMONT MASS. CONN. R.I. 40 N DELAWARE MARYLAND MAINE NEW JERSEY NEW HAMPSHIRE 70 W ORIGINAL THIRTEEN STATES and Controlled Territories Atlantic Ocean 30 N 250 miles 250 kilometers Map showing all the new territories added to the United States, including the ones ceded from Mexico

10 102 A JOURNEY ACROSS AMERICA: California impoverish: to be made poor territory: an area of land controlled by a government. In the United States, territories are not states, and states are not territories. U.S. territories have legislatures elected by the people of the territory, though the president of the United States appoints the territorial governor. Territories may send a representative to Congress, but the territorial representative has no vote in that body. constitution: a system of ideas and laws that govern a country; also the document that contains these ideas or laws Senator Henry Clay introduces the Compromise of 1850 into the Senate. Among other matters, the compromise allowed California to become a state. in court. To pay the lawyers, the Californios had to sell off larger portions of their lands. In this way, many of the old Californios became impoverished. The Indians, however, had a harder time than the Californios did in the new California. Of course, the Indians were very badly treated under Mexican rule, especially after the fall of the missions. Still, Indians had played an important role in Californio society. They were the workers in the fields and the vaqueros on the ranchos. Americans, however, thought the Indians were lazy and useless. They lived on land the Americans wanted, so they were thought to be in the way. In the Sacramento Valley, miners murdered Indians, often for no reason at all, except that they were in the way. The law did not punish such killings because Indians were not allowed to testify in court. When tribes like the Mojave, Yuma, and Apache raided white settlements, settlers fought back by destroying whole native villages. A New State When the United States conquered California in 1847, it set up a government for the region. In its first government, the people of California did not elect their leaders because a military general was the governor for all of California, while the towns had alcaldes. These alcaldes had all the same powers they had when California was part of Mexico. They had too much power, according to the Americans in California. Americans wanted a government more like what they were used to in the United States. When the United States gained a new land, such as California, the United States Congress had to set up a territorial government for it. A territory is land that belongs to the United States but which is not full-fledged state. The Americans in California were eagerly awaiting a territorial government, but it did not come. Exasperated, some Californians decided that they needed to call a gathering called a constitutional convention to draw up a constitution for California. But by the summer of 1849, they did not wish to write a constitution for a territory, but for a state. Normally, a region like California had to be a territory before becoming a state because there would not be enough people living in it to make it a state. The Gold Rush, however, brought so many people to California that in 1849 there were enough people to

11 Chapter 7 The Gold Rush 103 make a state. California s military governor, General Bennet Riley, saw that Californians would not stop until they had a constitutional convention. So he gave in and called for a constitutional convention to meet in Monterey in September The convention had 48 members, made up mostly of those who had lived in California for a long time. A very few Californios, including Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, came to the convention; still, the constitution the convention drew up said that all laws in California had to be published in English and in Spanish. The convention drew up a constitution for California and sent it to Congress for approval. Meanwhile, the Californians held elections for governor, state legislature, and for representatives and Senators to sit in the United States Congress. It took almost a year before Congress approved California s constitution, and California entered the United States as a state on September 9, Chapter 7 Review Summary On January 24, 1848, while inspecting a sawmill on the American river, James Marshall discovered gold. Though Sutter tried to keep the discovery of gold a secret, some of his workers whom he told about it spread the word. Soon news of the gold find traveled all over northern California. Californians were the first to join the rush to find gold. Soon other gold discoveries were made, and news of them spread to Oregon, Hawai i, Mexico, and the eastern United States. A very large number of Americans set out for California. Since most of these emigrants came to California in the year 1849, they came to be called the Forty-niners. Many Forty-niners took ship and sailed down the Atlantic coast, around Cape Horn, and up the Pacific coast to San Francisco. Others sailed to Panama and then crossed the isthmus from the Atlantic to the Pacific side. Other Forty-niners came to California by land rather than by sea. They followed three main trails in their journey to California. Very few of the miners became rich. Most of them lost money. Those who did succeed were those who found ways to get others to work for them or were dishonest. Others left the gold fields and moved into towns and cities where they became carters, opened boarding houses, or operated stores. The population of California grew very rapidly during the Gold Rush. Old towns grew into cities, and new towns were founded. The new cities were founded in the north, where the gold fields were. Nothing much changed in southern California, because there were no gold rushes there. California s cities and towns were lawless places. In 1851, San Francisco decided to deal with crime by setting up vigilance committees. A group of citizens would decide the guilt or innocence of someone caught committing a crime. If guilty, the person could be executed. Americans who came to California from the east coast of the United States were not happy finding foreigners among the miners. Because of discriminatory legislation, most Mexicans left California. The California government also passed laws limiting the number of Chinese and Japanese people coming into California. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo had said that Spanish-speaking people living in conquered areas could keep their land and property; but Mexican ways of describing property boundaries confused United States officials. In 1851, the United States government began trying to figure out rancho

12 104 A JOURNEY ACROSS AMERICA: California Chapter 7 Review (continued) boundaries, but tended to favor Americans. In defending their property claims, many of the old Californios became impoverished. The new American settlers of California did not respect the Native Americans living there. In the Sacramento Valley, miners murdered Indians. The law did not punish such killings because Indians were not allowed to testify in court. When tribes like the Mojave, Yuma, and Apache raided white settlements, settlers fought back by destroying whole native villages. California s first American government was a military government; a general was the governor while the towns were governed by alcaldes. When the United States Congress delayed setting up a territorial government for California, some Californians called a constitutional convention to draw up a state constitution for California. The convention met in Monterey in September The convention drew up a constitution for California and sent it to Congress for approval. Meanwhile, the Californians held elections for governor, state legislature, and for representatives and Senators to sit in the United States Congress. A year later, Congress approved California s constitution. California entered the United States as a state on September 9, Chapter Checkpoint 1. What important discovery did James Marshall make at Sutter s Mill? 2. Through what areas did the Old Spanish Trail take travelers on their way to California? 3. Explain why one gold-mining method involves miners looking for quartz. 4. If you were a California gold miner in 1849, were the odds of getting rich in your favor? Please explain. 5. What would be one problem with a town using vigilance committees to administer justice? 6. How did Californian laws prevent foreigners from staying during the Gold Rush? 7. Why was José Sadoc Alemany a good choice for the first bishop of California? 8. Why couldn t Indians take to court the miners who murdered their fellow tribespeople? 9. Why did some Californios become poor in American California? 10. Describe California s first American government. Chapter Activities 1. Back in 1849, money was worth a lot more than it is today. For example, $1 was worth the equivalent of about $30 or more today. In San Francisco at the time of the Gold Rush, however, supplies and food were extremely expensive: in today s money, you could have paid $90 for a dozen eggs, $1,500 for a pick axe, and $3,000 for a pair of boots. Using this information, and the information you learned by reading Chapter 7, discuss with your classmates who was getting rich during the Gold Rush. Why were stores able to charge such high prices? 2. A placer is a deposit of sand or gravel in a lake or riverbed that also contains bits of precious minerals. Recreate a placer deposit by mixing your teacher-provided sand, pebbles, bits of gold (or copper BBs), pyrite, and other minerals in the bottom of a large plastic container that will stand in as your lake. Place the container on a tarp to protect the floor, and add about three inches of water. Using pie pans, experiment with panning for gold by filling your pan with the gravel mixture and shaking it underwater. What happens to the larger rocks? How can you remove the gravel to best reveal the gold and minerals? Can you identify the pyrite, or fool s gold? Discuss why this type of mining would have taken a lot of time.