The California Gold Rush: The History and Legacy of the

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The California Gold Rush: The History and Legacy of the Forty-Niners and America's Golden Dream

*Includes pictures.
*Includes primary accounts of the gold rush.
*Includes footnotes and a bibliography for further reading.
â€œAs the spring and summer of 1848 advanced, the reports came faster and faster from the gold-mines at Sutterâ€™s saw-mill. Stories reached us of fabulous discoveries, and spread throughout the land. Everybody was talking of â€œGold! gold!!â€ until it assumed the character of a fever. Some of our soldiers began to desert; citizens were fitting out trains of wagons and pack-mules to go to the mines. We heard of men earning fifty, five hundred, and thousands of dollars per day...â€ â€“ William Tecumseh Sherman
One of the most important and memorable events of the United Statesâ€™ westward push across the frontier came with the discovery of gold in the lands that became California in January 1848. Located thousands of miles away from the countryâ€™s power centers on the east coast at the time, the announcement came a month before the Mexican-American War had ended, and among the very few Americans that were near the region at the time, many of them were Army soldiers who were participating in the war and garrisoned there. San Francisco was still best known for being a Spanish military and missionary outpost during the colonial era, and only a few hundred called it home. Mexicoâ€™s independence, and its possession of those lands, had come only a generation earlier.
Everything changed almost literally overnight. While the Mexican-American War technically concluded with a treaty in February 1948, the announcement brought an influx of an estimated 90,000 â€œForty-Ninersâ€ to the region in 1849, hailing from other parts of America and even as far away as Asia. All told, an estimated 300,000 people would come to California over the next few years, as men dangerously trekked thousands of miles in hopes of making a fortune, and in a span of months, San Franciscoâ€™s population exploded, making it one of the first mining boomtowns to truly spring up in the West. This was a pattern that would repeat itself across the West anytime a mineral discovery was made, from the Southwest and Tombstone to the Dakotas and Deadwood. Of course, that was made possible by the collective memory of the original California gold rush.
Despite the mythology and the romantic portrayals that helped make the California Gold Rush, most of the individuals who came to make a fortune struck out instead. The gold rush was a boon to business interests, which ensured important infrastructure developments like the railroad and the construction of westward paths, but ultimately, it also meant that big business reaped most of the profits associated with mining the gold. While the Forty-Niners are often remembered for panning gold out of mountain streams, it required advanced mining technology for most to make a fortune.
Nevertheless, the California Gold Rush became an emblem of the American Dream, and the notion that Americans could obtain untold fortunes regardless of their previous social status. As historian H.W. Brands said of the impact the gold rush had on Americans at the time, â€œThe old American Dream ... was the dream of the Puritans, of Benjamin Franklin's â€˜Poor Richardâ€™... of men and women content to accumulate their modest fortunes a little at a time, year by year by year. The new dream was the dream of instant wealth, won in a twinkling by audacity and good luckâ€¦ [it] became a prominent part of the American psyche only after Sutter's Mill.â€ While the gold rush may not have every Forty-Niner rich, the events still continue to influence the countryâ€™s collective mentality.
This book comprehensively covers the history and legacy of the gold rush that took place from 1848-1855, analyzing how it affected the participants and the nation at large. Along with pictures and a bibliography, you will learn about the California Gold Rush like you never have before, in no time at all.

Country	USA
Author	Charles River Editors
Binding	Paperback
EAN	9781492760375
ISBN	1492760374
Label	CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Manufacturer	CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
NumberOfPages	50
PublicationDate	2013-09-18
Publisher	CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Studio	CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
ReleaseDate	0000-00-00

The California Gold Rush: The History and Legacy of the Forty-Niners and America's Golden Dream

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