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What do you think of when you hear the term “Gold Rush”? The 1849 gold rush in California?
As most folks do, when I think of the term “Gold Rush”, it conjures up images of the West! Images of cowboys and crusty old miners ruthlessly and savagely staking their claims. Immigrants coming by boat, folks on foot, horseback, and covered wagon form all over the US to rape and pillage the land that was newly acquired from Mexico through the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo… California. But let me tell you about a gold rush of another kind, in another place, even more significant. It was the actual first documented discovery of gold in the United States! Fifty years earlier…in North Carolina!
In 1799 young Conrad Reed, a 12 year old boy, found a big shiny rock in Little Meadow Creek on the family farm in Cabarrus county North Carolina. Conrad lugged it home but the Reed family had no idea what it was and used it as a clunky door stop. Thinking that it must be some kind of metal, John Reed, Conrad’s father, took it to Concord North Carolina to have a silver smith look at it. The silver smith was unable to identify it as gold. John Reed hauled it back home. Three years later in 1802 he took the rock to Fayetteville North Carolina where a jeweler recognized it for what it was right away. The jeweler asked him if could smelt it down to a bar for him, John agreed. When John returned to the jeweler had a gold brick measuring six to eight inches long. It’s hard to believe but John Reed had no idea of the metals worth. The jeweler asked him what he wanted for it and John thought that a week’s wages would be fair so he sold it to the jeweler for $3.50. It is rumored that John purchased a calico dress for his wife and some coffee beans with his wi...
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(Lewis, 2006) (cite in text) Tar Heel Junior Historian 45, no. 2 (Spring 2006) copyright North Carolina Museum of History.
North Carolina Gold Foundation - http://www.ncgold.org/
Mint Museum of Charlotte – personal visit -Personal visit. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.mintmuseum.org/
The North Carolina Gold Rush
First in the Nation - Boitnott , D. W. (n.d.). The north carolina gold rush first in the nation . Retrieved from http://dboitnott.home.mindspring.com/Articles/nc_gold_rush.html
History Chanel – California gold rush http://www.history.com/topics/gold-rush-of-1849 Metamorphosed melange terrane in the eastern Piedmont of North Carolina
Morton, J. W. (n.d.). Metamorphosed melange terrane in the eastern piedmont of north carolina. Retrieved from http://geology.geoscienceworld.org/content/14/7/551.abstract
Stroud, M.M., Markwort, R.J., and Hepburn, J.C. (2009) Refining Temporal Constraints on Metamorphism in the Nashoba Terrane, Southeastern New England, Through Monazite Dating. Lithosphere, vol. 1, p. 337-342.
John Augustus Sutter was born in Baden, Switzerland on the 15th of February in 1803. Sutter is the reason for the California Gold Rush that began in 1848. Sutter had a fort called “New Helvetia” beginning in 1842 that ended quickly in 1844. A man named James Wilson Marshall was planning to build John Sutter a water-powered sawmill, when he came across flakes of gold in the American River near Coloma, California in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. This Discovery happened on January 24th in 1848 causing the town to have no till afterwards. Once the discovery got out it was soon the center for merchants and miners. In John Sutter’s earlier years, he claimed to have had a military background being a captain in the Royal Swiss Guard to the French King.
These two passages “There’s Still Gold in These Hills” and “Letter From a Gold Miner” help the reader understand the history and process of gold mining in the US. Both passages give detailed information, specific instructions, and an interesting background about gold mining. These passages use different strategies to help the reader perceive the history and process. These strategies may include using specific dates of when the gold rush took place, information to help the reader picture the setting of where to find gold, and also teaches the process step by step.
There are many ways in which we can view the history of the American West. One view is the popular story of Cowboys and Indians. It is a grand story filled with adventure, excitement and gold. Another perspective is one of the Native Plains Indians and the rich histories that spanned thousands of years before white discovery and settlement. Elliot West’s book, Contested Plains: Indians, Goldseekers and the Rush to Colorado, offers a view into both of these worlds. West shows how the histories of both nations intertwine, relate and clash all while dealing with complex geological and environmental challenges. West argues that an understanding of the settling of the Great Plains must come from a deeper understanding, a more thorough knowledge of what came before the white settlers; “I came to believe that the dramatic, amusing, appalling, wondrous, despicable and heroic years of the mid-nineteenth century have to be seen to some degree in the context of the 120 centuries before them” .
Correspondence of John C. Calhoun. J. Franklin Jameson, ed. Annual Report of the American Historical Association 1899. II. 1900.
Three pieces of evidence from the text that shows the motivation behind the “gold fever” is that at the time many Americans were earning low wages or either had no work. This means that people with a job or that earned a little bit of money wanted to find gold to be kind of rich. Another piece of evidence that I found was that people were rushing to the grocers, hardware merchants, and the clothiers. This means that the people wanted to get ready to go find gold, so they went to different shops to go get stuff like materials like footwear, gold pans, buckets, and more items. The thing that gave the people a reason to travel to Alaska in search of fortune is that when
The gold rush not only attracted miners but people in search of new starts, whether that was from love affairs gone wrong, or debts. Some see this rush as a way to make an easy profit or fortune and settle down with new everything. Pikes Peak Gold Rush is one of the most known features in the region. It became a stepping stone that drew as many as 100,000 prospectors. With these prospectors, they brought over the slogan, “Pikes Peak or Bust,” in 1859–60.
Vigilantism is the black eye on the history of the American frontier. During the 19th century due to a lack of trust, competence, or unreliable law enforcement, the settlers on the frontiers took it upon themselves to provide security and safety for their newly progressing cities. Life in the developing American west was difficult and created many problems for everyone involved. Texas’ history is riddled with skirmishes, wars, and feuds that called upon the local civilians to turn to vigilantism. So to, Arizona and New Mexico, while struggling to gain their statehood, saw instances of civilian uprisings to quell local violence. Of course, however, neither Texas nor the American Southwest saw the hotbed of violence and destruction that was seen in San Francisco following the introduction of the Gold Rush. The descriptions that were used to describe the excitement that the discovery of gold created could also be just as easily applied to the ways it affected the peoples mentality. “In 1848 and 1849 it was usually known as the ‘Gold Fever,’ the ‘California Fever,’ the ‘Yellow Fever,’ the ‘California Mania,’ and the ‘Gold Mania.” People from all over the globe were abandoning their responsibilities and duties for the chance of striking it rich and making a big splash. This dramatic influx of people, cultures, and beliefs into one location created the right mix of hope, frustration, anger, and pride that would lead to chaos and even though “San Francisco had the most efficient, most professional police department in the United States [during the 19th century]” it could not quell the need for vigilantes to rise up and provide order amongst lawlessness.
When Robert Henderson found the gold in Klondike, the region of northeast Canada, he called the site “Gold Bottom”. After, men from the United States and Canada started to fly in to get their hands on some gold, which they call the “great stampede”. When men started arrive prices went up and supplies became limited(
California, the place to turn cant’s into cans and dreams into plans. The same situation and scenarios apply to today and even over one hundred and sixty five years ago. Then and now are not so different, people are thriving or failing from the land of plenty, supplying themselves with knowledge, wealth, or skill to either spread their wings and take flight or crash and burn. Each state in the United States of America has a correlating nickname to either why it’s famous or an explanation of its history. California’s state name is The Golden State, and going all the way back to 1849 is why this was such an influential time for California and all of America. This is the period of the Gold Rush. Reasons why this event was so impeccable, to the development of California, are the years leading up to the discovery, the first findings, the journey, and so much more.
The Reed Gold Mine is a North Carolina historical site located in Midland, NC approximately 20 miles from Charlotte. In 1966, the Reeds Gold Mine became a National Historical Landmark. In December of 1971, the Kelly family heirs who owned the mine after John Reed’s death donated seventy acres and the mine to the people of North Carolina. The historical site opened to the public in April of 1977 (North Carolina Historical Sites, n.d.).
The news did spread, and with the news began the California Gold Rush. The California Star newspaper was the first to report on the discovery of gold in the Sacramento valley of California. Of course, California was the place to know, but the news of the gold discovery took a long time to spread. This delay was due to two reasons; the discovery of gold excited the Californians so much that everyone just up and left what they were doing; ships were abandoned, bustling towns became ghost towns, and homes were left behind completely untouched. Nearly the whole population had gone to the mines. “The whole country from San Francisco to Los Angeles, and from the seashore to the base of the Sierra Nevada, resounds to the sordid cry of gold! Gold!!
Moundville has been the focus of a large amount of archaeological interest due to its impressive earthworks. Clarence B. Moore produced well-publicized works. During his time in Moundville in 1905 and 1906, Moore pierced the mounds with “trial holes,” finding numerous burials and related artifacts. Unlike many treasure hunters, Moore donated the majority of his find...
The Gold Rush was one of the most influential times in California History. During the four years from 1848-1852, 400,000 new people flooded into the state. People from many countries and social classes moved to California, and many of them settled in San Francisco. All this diversity in one place created a very interesting dynamic. California during the Gold Rush, was a place of colliding ideals. The 49ers came from a very structured kind of life to a place where one was free to make up her own rules.
However, there was something else going on in the world. The mass migration of typically young single men making their way to California to look for gold. This was known as the gold rush. Thousands upon thousands of men showed up from all over the world to strike it rich. In august of 1849 some two hundred ships clogged the waterways due to men abandoning them. This led to California creating a trade network linking the pacific coastlines. This opening up the market for new trades. That of cereal from Chile, Mexican coffee and cocoa, potatoes from Australia, and even sugar and rice from china. It was a more even trade because everyone involved had a singular mission, find gold. These mass migrations saw not only natives from san Francisco but