Transcript Gold and Conflict - Centennial Middle School

Gold and Conflict
Created by: Betsy Jacobsen
Overview
Gold and Conflict played a big
role in our country’s expansion.
Without it, the rush to California and
the west wouldn’t have been as
significant and most of our
population would still be in the East.
So I am going to tell you about who
discovered the first gold in the
California Gold Rush and the
Colville Mines and the many
conflicts involved.
The California Gold Rush
California Gold Rush
The California Gold
Rush is one of America’s
best known gold strikes.
Located in California it
drew thousands of people.
San Francisco was once a
little town of 800, then
when gold was found it
soon became a bustling
city of over 100,000
people.
Native Americans
Natives to the land were greatly harmed by the
rush for gold. With all the new settlers came diseases
that the natives had no immunity to so they died. Also
miners needed land so they moved onto the native’s
land and killed them just for land. Some were also
enslaved by the miners who forced them to mine for
them.
Mexicans
Since gold was discovered only
a few days before the Treaty of
Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed
many veterans from the war took off
for California to try prospecting. A
Mexican rancher, Francisco Lopez,
found some gold deposits while
picking onions. He found gold
particles on the roots of the onions.
This influenced a minor gold rush to
this area, San Feliciano Canyon
present day Newhall.
John Sutter
John August Sutter was a
rancher who received two land
grants from the Mexican
government. He sent out James W.
Marshall, a thirty-five-year old
construction foreman, to set up a
sawmill located on the Coloma
Indian land on the American River.
In the final stages the workers
found that the stream was too
shallow for the wheel to spin so
they blew out part of the bottom.
John Sutter
After a little while particles of gold
began to appear. Immediately Marshall
took some gold nuggets the size of a dime
down to Sutter’s office to show him. He
could not obtain anymore land grants from
the Mexican government so he then
bargained with the Coloma natives to
lease a portion of land.
John Sutter
He paid them
$150 worth of
supplies for the land.
This was in January
1848 so it was winter
and cold so the
supplies were mostly
clothes and food
which they needed.
First Gold Rush
The first rush to this gold was small. It was really only
the locals who went after the gold. Permanent mining
towns were set up that would later accommodate the
larger rush the next year. With all the mining store
owners made a nice profit because of all the supplies
they were able to sell to the miners.
President’s Encouragement
In December, 1848,
President James Knox
Polk's annual State of the
Union message
encouraged the people to
move to California and
settle there due to all the
gold. The final result was
that Northern California
became a well-organized
settlement.
Guide Books
In the East gold fever was beginning to take
root. People even wrote guide books on how to get
to the gold then how to mine it. The most
successful guide book was written by Lansford
Hastings. The book was called “The Emigrant's
Guide to the Gold Mines.” Published in New York in
December 1845 it became an instant best seller.
The Donner Party used this book.
Donner Party
The Donner party found out how worthless
the book’s shortcuts were when they got lost in
the Sierras. In order to survive they had to resort
to cannibalism. This proved that you needed
experience to survive in the unsettled
wilderness. If you had no or little experience
then you will have a very difficult job just to
survive.
National Diversity
Many nationalities were
attracted to the gold fields. The
mining camps tended to be
separate ethical groups. Though
cities like San Francisco had the
luxury of many diverse foods.
Females were also very few in
the gold rush. In San Francisco
only 2% of the population was
female before 1850. After 1850
the female pop. grew to only 8%.
Statehood
California wanted to become a state and so
the newspapers pressed for a state constitution
that would enable them to apply for statehood.
Many were against it though because of the
possible high tax rate for those with large
amounts of land, and the possible development
of California with federal money.
Slavery?
When California was thinking about applying
for statehood the delegates were wondering if
California should be a free state or not. The end
result was that California would be a free state.
Even though some of them were from the south
they realized that being a slave state would slow
the process down in Congress because they were
already fighting for freedom in the South.
Colville Mines
James Houston
James Houston was a man who was credited with
finding gold and triggered a gold rush into British
Columbia which over 30,000 miners took part. He first
tried the California Gold rush but failed to get anything so
he boarded a ship and came here to the Puget Sound in
1856. He heard of gold at Fort Colville so he found a
partner, Eldridge, and with a herd of cattle headed for Fort
Colville.
James Houston
Upon hearing of savages in
the area Eldridge turned back but
Houston pressed on with the
cattle. He made it safely to Fort
Colville and then sold the cattle
for a nice profit to the miners. He
then found a new partner and
started to mine along the Pend
Oreille River. They had high
hopes for they found some
promising signs of gold.
James Houston
Indians soon found their camp and killed all
the men. Houston alone escaped with a couple
arrows in his back. In the morning he packed up
and headed north because there he had heard
the white men and the natives left each other
alone. He got within a couple miles of the border
when Indians overtook him.
James Houston
He told them he was with a company that
was peaceful with the natives but they didn’t
believe him and robbed him of all his
possessions. He then set out for Fort Kamloops
where a prospector found him almost dead. He
recovered and then in 1857 he started to
prospect again. He found some gold at
Tranquille Creek. He then paid Donald McLean,
the man who cared for him.
Yakima Natives
When gold was discovered on the
Colville River miners flocked toward
the new gold strike. One obstacle lay
in there way, the treaty granting the
land to the Yakima natives. The
miners trespassed on Indian lands
and stole horses and killed the
natives. Soon the military came and it
became an all out war. It was known
as the Yakima Indian War, it lasted
about 3 years.
The End