Importance of the Gold Rush and Miners
During the 1840’s, the American West was already booming with people from the Oregon Trail, but what those people did not know, was that there was gold to be found. The miners that went west traveled the Oregon Trail starting in 1843. People that went to the west before word of the gold rush went because of the idea of a new life, although most stayed. Once the miners back in the east had found out about the gold rush in 1849, it took them six months to finally reach California after traveling the Oregon Trail. People went to the west because of resources such as land, and gold, which they didn’t know about it until 1849. When in the west, they mined for gold as well as worked on building their new lives.
About 250,000 people in the United States started minng gold after carpenter James Marshall was working in a small sawmill in northern California, where he had spotted gold in 1849. President James Polk, notified congress that gold had been discovered, and gold fever struck the nation, and enriched the west even more. The mill property was owned by John Sutter who employed Marshall to build his mill. The wave of gold seekers turned everyone's attention away from the mill which eventually fell into disrepair and was never used as intended. Neither Marshall nor Sutter ever profited from the gold discovery. News of the discovery soon reached around the world. The immediate impact for Marshall was negative. His sawmill failed when all his working men in the area abandoned everything to search for gold. Before long, flocks of prospectors forced him off his land. Marshall soon left the area in disgust and never made a profit.
There were many conflicts with the mining gold in the west including finding the gold, taxation on the Non United States citizens, and getting to the west. Finding a speck of gold was easy at first, but when everyone had gone out there, gold had become harder to find. Once there were 30,000 people, resources became limited. With the departure of foreign immigrants, the gold mines became more peaceful and structured. The taxation rate at one point in time was so high that it covered Fifty percent of California’s income. The immigrants that did not have a U.S. citizenship were forced out unless they had paid a tax of twenty dollars a day. For some, getting to the west was a long, harsh journey. Most traveled the Oregon Trail; others however took a ship that brought them around the South American coastline. I took people six months or sometimes a year to get to California. For the people that it took a year to get there, did not find much gold because of all the people that had already traveled out on the Oregon Trail.
This group connects to one of the key themes in history which is the settlement of the American West. Settlement of the west is important because without it, society would not be where it is today. The west prompted many new resources including, gold, silver, and many others. Without the exploration of the west, we might not have found those resources until lately.
I found it interesting that James Marshall, the man that found gold, did not receive any profits or gold from his property. Once gold had been found, the price went from twelve dollars to thirty six dollars an ounce. At one point eggs were three dollars per egg due to it not being common around the mines. There were 5 different types of mining included panning, sluicing, hydraulic mining, hardrock or quartz mining, and dredging. Although some struck it rich in the gold rush, some like James Marshall were ruiened.