A history of the california gold rush event of 1848

The Gold Rush was a male-dominated event. Hundreds of thousands of people flocked to California to make their fortunes in the Gold Rush, but almost none of them were women.

The Gold Rush was a male-dominated event.

8 Things You May Not Know About the California Gold Rush - HISTORY

Hundreds of thousands of people flocked to California to make their fortunes in the Gold Rush, but almost none of them were women. In92 percent of the people prospecting for gold were men. The few women who did travel to the west eked out a living in the growing boomtowns, working in the restaurants, saloons and hotels that seemingly popped up every day.

Few took them up on this offer. The percentage of women in gold mining communities did eventually increase somewhat, but even in they numbered fewer than 10,—just 19 percent.

Early sections of San Francisco were built out of ships abandoned by prospectors. As the formerly tiny town began to boom, demand for lumber increased dramatically, and the ships were dismantled and sold as construction material. Hundreds of houses, banks, saloons, hotels, jails and other structures were built out of the abandoned ships, while others were used as landfill for lots near the waters edge.

Today, more than years after the Gold Rush began, archeologists and preservations continue to find relics, sometimes even entire ships, beneath the streets of the City by the Bay.

Prospecting for gold was a very costly enterprise. Most of the men who flocked to northern California arrived with little more than the clothes on their backs. Stuck in a remote region, far from home, many prospectors coughed up most of their hard-earned money for the most basic supplies.

At the height of the boom inprospectors could expect prices sure to cause sticker shock: More fortunes were made by merchants than by miners.

As the boom continued, more and more men got out of the gold-hunting business and began to open businesses catering to newly arrived prospectors. Phillp Armour, who would later found a meatpacking empire in Chicago, made a fortune operating the sluices that controlled the flow of water into the rivers being mined.

One of the biggest mercantile success stories was that of Levi Strauss. A German-born tailor, Strauss arrived in San Francisco in with plans to open a store selling canvas tarps and wagon coverings to the miners.

California Gold Rush

John Sutter, the man whose land would become synonymous with the California Gold Rush, was a Swiss immigrant who fled Europe in the s, leaving behind piles of unpaid debts. After several years of travelling throughout North America, he finally settled in the tiny outpost of Yuerba Buena modern-day San Francisco in Sutter, initially more interested in maintaining control over his property, tried to keep the discovery quiet, but the news quickly leaked out.

Within months, most of his workers had abandoned him to search for gold themselves, while thousands of other prospectors overran and destroyed much of his land and equipment. Faced with mounting debts, Sutter was forced to deed his land to one of his sons, who used it to create a new settlement called Sacramento.

Nearly bankrupt, he began a decades-long campaign to have the U. While thousands became rich off his former land, a bitter Sutter retired to Pennsylvania and died.

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California Gold Rush Articles

Twice a week we compile our most fascinating features and deliver them straight to you.The California Gold Rush History for kids The California Gold Rush started with the discovery of gold by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Lumber Mill in Coloma, California on January 24, Gold Rush History.

After the discovery of gold in Coloma, California in , the next seven years were filled with rapid immigration and migration to California. The California Gold Rush most famously included the year (from which the San Francisco 49ers take their name) but actually lasted around 7 years, from to California is a sparsely populated Mexican province, home to about 7, Californios (Mexican citizens), , Indians, and foreigners (mostly Americans).

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Marshall, a foreman building a lumber mill for pioneer landholder John Sutter, discovers gold in the American River east of. Apr 06,  · Watch video · The discovery of gold nuggets in the Sacramento Valley in early sparked the California Gold Rush, arguably one of the most significant events to shape American history during the first half.

California Gold Rush timeline. Key US History events and dates. The Gold Rush sees an all time high in extracting gold from the California mines, $81,, in A second version of the Foreign Miner’s Tax is passed, this one is intended to assuage the impact of the Chinese miners.