the gold rush
California Geography
Due October 10, 2013
The Gold Rush During the 1800s was a time for California to show the world about its qualities. California became U.S property in1848. Only two months prior a Gold nugget was found on John Sutter’s property in California. John Sutter new the worth of gold and new how many people it would attract having a thought that there was gold in California so he kept it a secret. He was more interested in farming and agriculture even though gold could potentially yield a greater profit. What Sutter didn’t know was that in the near future, the Secret of gold laying in California would get out. Samuel Brannan was a shop keeper in California and had customers from John Sutter’s saw mill come in and use gold for payment. Brannan caught on to this very quickly and realized gold was being found in California, so Brannan kept quiet for a while and bought every gold mining tool he could find. After that was done he took some gold that was in a glass jar and ran down the streets of San Francisco yelling “Gold Gold” and telling everyone gold was being found in the American River. All of San Francisco practically emptied leaving only 20 men in the small city at the time. They all left to Sutter’s fort to find gold. Of course every miner needed shovels and pic-axes and Brannan had all the tools in California so he sold each one for $250 or even $300 apiece. In only two months Brannan made over $250,000. There were only about 20,000 people in California during 1848, and most of them were Indian, Hawaiian, and Chinese. All the rivers near the Sierra Nevada were being mined and people were striking it rich, but it wasn’t until 1849 that all of the U.S new there was gold in California. Before then people didn’t know too much about it and what they should believe but then the president broadcasted that there was enough gold in California to pay for the Mexican war 100 times over. That was it, the word was out and it spread like wildfire.
Due October 10, 2013
The Gold Rush During the 1800s was a time for California to show the world about its qualities. California became U.S property in1848. Only two months prior a Gold nugget was found on John Sutter’s property in California. John Sutter new the worth of gold and new how many people it would attract having a thought that there was gold in California so he kept it a secret. He was more interested in farming and agriculture even though gold could potentially yield a greater profit. What Sutter didn’t know was that in the near future, the Secret of gold laying in California would get out. Samuel Brannan was a shop keeper in California and had customers from John Sutter’s saw mill come in and use gold for payment. Brannan caught on to this very quickly and realized gold was being found in California, so Brannan kept quiet for a while and bought every gold mining tool he could find. After that was done he took some gold that was in a glass jar and ran down the streets of San Francisco yelling “Gold Gold” and telling everyone gold was being found in the American River. All of San Francisco practically emptied leaving only 20 men in the small city at the time. They all left to Sutter’s fort to find gold. Of course every miner needed shovels and pic-axes and Brannan had all the tools in California so he sold each one for $250 or even $300 apiece. In only two months Brannan made over $250,000. There were only about 20,000 people in California during 1848, and most of them were Indian, Hawaiian, and Chinese. All the rivers near the Sierra Nevada were being mined and people were striking it rich, but it wasn’t until 1849 that all of the U.S new there was gold in California. Before then people didn’t know too much about it and what they should believe but then the president broadcasted that there was enough gold in California to pay for the Mexican war 100 times over. That was it, the word was out and it spread like wildfire.