20 Fun Facts About The Gold Rush

Did you know that part of San Francisco was built on top of ships from all over the world that were abandoned during the Gold Rush? Even the most reluctant readers will love discovering history through these strange, awesome, and unbelievable tidbits about the hundreds of thousands of people who left their lives behind and trekked out to California to strike it rich. Incredible early photographs and vivid illustrations bring each factoid into sharp focus, while captions add extra information to each page.

Pioneer women faced hard winters, few supplies, and loneliness once they settled on the American frontier—and that doesn’t even account for the months-long journey to their new home! During the mid-1800s, hundreds of thousands of Americans moved west as the United States expanded. From the women settling in Ohio to those striking out on their own during the California gold rush, pioneer women were a strong, courageous group. In this volume, readers encounter fun, surprising facts about pioneer women’s unique place in history. Historical images enhance this fun spin on an often overlooked era of women’s history.

Did you know that no one really knows how many men it took to build the Transcontinental Railroad? Or how many died while building it? This book fills young readers heads with fascinating tidbits, all the while teaching them about the people, places, and events that not only changed the size of our country, but also shaped its character forever. Each spread is packed with accessible text, vivid art that compliments the narrative, and captions that add even more information.

Pioneer women faced hard winters, few supplies, and loneliness once they settled on the American frontier—and that doesn’t even account for the months-long journey to their new home! During the mid-1800s, hundreds of thousands of Americans moved west as the United States expanded. From the women settling in Ohio to those striking out on their own during the California gold rush, pioneer women were a strong, courageous group. In this volume, readers encounter fun, surprising facts about pioneer women’s unique place in history. Historical images enhance this fun spin on an often overlooked era of women’s history.

The gold rush seems like a romantic time, full of everyday people following a dream to California and striking it rich. The reality was that most people lived in poor conditions, ate bad food, and found just about nothing. In this book, readers find out what life was like for the forty-niners and immigrants that headed to California to seek their fortune as well as the causes and effects of the gold rush. The main content and fun fact boxes support the social studies curriculum and are paired with historical photographs and illustrations that show life during the gold rush.

"Explores the California Gold Rush by examining the causes leading up to it and the immediate and lasting effects it had on the people and places involved"--

*Includes pictures *Includes accounts of the gold rushes written by participants *Includes bibliographies for further reading *Includes a table of contents One of the most important and memorable events of the United States' 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 country'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. Mexico'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 1848, the announcement brought an influx of an estimated 90,000 "Forty-Niners" 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 Francisco'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. As historian H.W. Brands said of the impact the gold rush had on Americans at the time, "The old American Dream ... was the dream of the Puritans, of Benjamin Franklin's 'Poor Richard'... 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 luck... [it] became a prominent part of the American psyche only after Sutter's Mill." While the gold rush may not have made every Forty-Niner rich, the events still continue to influence the country's collective mentality. When gold was discovered in the Yukon and Alaska almost 50 years after the rush in California, it drew tens of thousands of prospectors despite the unforgiving climate. Mineral resources had gone a long way in the United States acquiring Alaska a generation earlier, but the lack of transportation kept all but the most dedicated from venturing into the Yukon and Alaska until the announcement of the gold rush. For a few years, the attention turned to the Northwest, and thanks to vivid descriptions by writers like Jack London, the nation became intrigued with the idea of miners toughing out the winter conditions to find hidden gold. Of course, despite the mythology and the romantic portrayals that helped make the Klondike Gold Rush, most of the individuals who came to make a fortune struck out instead.