Why Did The California Gold Rush
America’s population made a huge shift and people scattered west in the year of 1848. Why? The California gold rush was responsible for the population change.
James Marshall was the person who found the pea-sized nugget of gold, which started the rush. In the January of 1848 he was walking along the banks of the American River and he found the chunk. He tried smashing it between two rocks, for he knew gold would dent but not break. The nugget didn’t break, but it did dent. This was not a test that fully confirmed that it was gold.
Marshall knew that gold wouldn’t be destroyed in strong acids and chemicals, that is how he planned to confirm it was gold. So Marshall brought the few nuggets he found to the cook, hoping she had the chemicals to confirm it was gold. The cook placed the metals into a kettle filled with lye, a strong chemical, and baking soda. To their excitement, the metals didn’t get destroyed in the mixture. The word got out and the rush was on.
The real start of the rush was in May of 1848. Sam Brannan ran through San Francisco with a small, glass bottle filled with gold flakes yelling, “Gold, gold in the American River!” Brannan had a plan, he would sell mining tools at Fort Sutter to the people passing to get to the river. Brannan quickly became the first millionaire in California. People started moving in to mine for gold. …show more content…
Most of the people moving in were coming by land because it was the cheapest. People could also carry more gear, food. They could bring extra livestock along. Unfortunately, land travel was the slowest way, and many starved, fell ill, or drowned going across rivers. The other way of travel was two main sea routes. A seventeen thousand mile route around Cape Horn took about five to seven months with poor living. The quicker route was by steamship via Panama and also had poor living but it was more expensive. Then people started pouring
James Marshall was the person who found the pea-sized nugget of gold, which started the rush. In the January of 1848 he was walking along the banks of the American River and he found the chunk. He tried smashing it between two rocks, for he knew gold would dent but not break. The nugget didn’t break, but it did dent. This was not a test that fully confirmed that it was gold.
Marshall knew that gold wouldn’t be destroyed in strong acids and chemicals, that is how he planned to confirm it was gold. So Marshall brought the few nuggets he found to the cook, hoping she had the chemicals to confirm it was gold. The cook placed the metals into a kettle filled with lye, a strong chemical, and baking soda. To their excitement, the metals didn’t get destroyed in the mixture. The word got out and the rush was on.
The real start of the rush was in May of 1848. Sam Brannan ran through San Francisco with a small, glass bottle filled with gold flakes yelling, “Gold, gold in the American River!” Brannan had a plan, he would sell mining tools at Fort Sutter to the people passing to get to the river. Brannan quickly became the first millionaire in California. People started moving in to mine for gold. …show more content…
Most of the people moving in were coming by land because it was the cheapest. People could also carry more gear, food. They could bring extra livestock along. Unfortunately, land travel was the slowest way, and many starved, fell ill, or drowned going across rivers. The other way of travel was two main sea routes. A seventeen thousand mile route around Cape Horn took about five to seven months with poor living. The quicker route was by steamship via Panama and also had poor living but it was more expensive. Then people started pouring