Learning A–Z

Grade
level U
4
Multi-level
Word Count
O R U
1,498
1849: The California
Gold Rush
Lexile 950L Nonfiction • Informational

Refer to the Focus Question on page 2 of this title to guide

discussion and support additional learning connected to the text.

January 24, 1848, marked an important event in United

States history when James Marshall discovered gold in
California. The gold fever that followed this discovery
overcame people from all over the world, causing them
to flood the American West in search of wealth. 1849:
The California Gold Rush offers a detailed look at the
unfolding of the gold rush and the way in which it shaped
the United States. The book can also be used to teach
students how to make inferences and draw conclusions
as well as to identify subject-verb agreement. The book
is also available for levels O and R.

Photo Credits:
Front cover: © Underwood Archives/age fotostock; title page: © Jupiterimages/PHOTOS.com/Thinkstock; page 3: © GRANGER/GRANGER;
pages 6, 11: © Photo Researchers, Inc/Alamy Stock Photo; pages 7, 13: © Hulton Archive/Getty Images; page 9: © Pictorial Press Ltd/Alamy
Stock Photo; page 10: © P.R. Wood/Bettmann/Getty Images; page 14: © Courtesy: CSU Archive/Everett Collection Inc./age fotostock; page 15
(top): © Everett Collection Historical/Alamy Stock Photo; page 15 (bottom): © zhudifeng/iStock/Thinkstock

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Written by Cynthia Kennedy Henzel
© Learning A–Z, all rights reserved.
 1849: The California Focus Question

Gold Rush
What was the effect of the gold rush
on westward expansion?

Words to Know
devastating hatred
economy hazards
entrepreneurs hostility
erosion settlers
gravel transcontinental
greed wealthy

Connections
Writing
Write a paragraph explaining what the author wants
readers to learn from the Prices Gone Wild chart on
page 14.
Above: Miners found more than 750,000 pounds (340,000 kg) of gold
during the Gold Rush. Social Studies and Art
Cover: A miner poses with his donkey and pan.
Create a poster that shows the tools for placer
Written by Cynthia Kennedy Henzel mining and how these tools were used to find gold
in California.
 Keeping a Secret
On the morning of January 24, 1848, James
Marshall went to inspect the ditch that carried
water from the American River through the new
sawmill his crew was building in California . The
crew had deepened the section of the ditch that
ran out of the mill to make the water flow more
quickly . At the end of the ditch, about six inches
under the water, he spotted something shiny .
Marshall collected several pieces and showed
his crew . They tested the pieces . It was gold!

Marshall showed the gold to the owner of

the mill, John Sutter, who controlled forty-eight
thousand acres of land in California he called
Prospectors mine in California around 1852. “New Switzerland” after his home country . Sutter
bought the land from the Mexican government,
Table of Contents
but it actually belonged to the Indigenous
Keeping a Secret . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Nisenan people .
Panning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Sutter had taken more than land . Sutter’s deal
The Forty-Niners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 with the Mexican government required that he
not harm any of the Nisenan people in the area .
By Ship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Nevertheless, he trained many Native people
By Wagon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 to become part of his own private army and
Equal Opportunity? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 kidnapped and enslaved other Native people
to work the land . Sutter tried to get everyone
The Golden State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 to keep the secret that gold had been discovered .
Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 He wanted to keep the riches for himself .

1849: The California Gold Rush • Level U 3 4

 Territory Lost to the U.S. in the Mexican-American War Panning
United States Land that today makes up the Unlike gold in most places, California’s gold
states of California, Nevada,
Sutter’s Mill
Utah, most of Arizona and
wasn’t locked deep under the ground . Erosion had
New Mexico, and parts of long ago washed the metal down the mountains
San Francisco Colorado and Wyoming were
included in the treaty. These
and into rivers . Miners used a technique called
lands were home to many placer mining that allowed them to sift gold out
Native peoples, but Mexico had
claimed ownership, then gave
of the riverbed using a shallow, flat pan . Placer
PACIFIC
OCEAN R io
them to the U.S. after the war. mining works
Gra
Mexico
nd
e because gold is much
NORTH heavier than gravel .
Ri
A

ve
AMERICA

TL CE A
r

O
AN N
Prospectors stood in

TIC
rivers and shoveled

PA CE
F

O
A N IC

CI
gravel into their pan .
Six days after Marshall found the They removed large
gold, Mexico signed the treaty that ended rocks, then carefully
the Mexican-American War . The treaty gave swirled the pan .
California to the United States . Neither side The dirt and gravel
knew that gold had just been discovered there . spilled over the edges
Sam Brannan, who ran a store near Sutter’s Mill, with the water . The
soon let out the secret . Brannan wanted to cash in shiny flakes of gold
Each day, most miners only found gold
when he heard the news, but he wasn’t interested that would be worth between $10 and
stayed at the bottom
in mining . Instead, he bought all the shovels in the $15 today. of the pan .
nearby city of San Francisco . Then he filled a bottle
with gold dust and ran through the streets yelling Word Wise
about the great discovery . The city of 850 people The term prospector means a person who
almost emptied after Brannan sold them each the moves to a spot with the prospect, or possibility,
tools they needed to find gold—picks, axes, pans, of finding gold and becoming rich.
and shovels—at very expensive prices .

1849: The California Gold Rush • Level U 5 6

 The Forty-Niners The trip to the gold mines could take
Rumors soon swirled in months—and was not cheap . People had to pay
the eastern states about gold for transportation and supplies to last until they
out West . A California official arrived in California . Many forty-niners left behind
sent a report about the gold to jobs and families . They planned to make a fortune
Washington, D .C .—along with quickly and return home . Others were ready for
a sample . In December 1848, whatever adventure they found .
the president told Congress A gold miner shovels gravel People from California, Oregon, and Mexico
about the discovery . It was true! in California in 1852.
were the first to show up at the rivers near Sutter’s
Gold fever—the greed and contagious Mill . Locals only
The Routes the Forty-Niners Took
excitement brought on by the discovery of gold— had to travel
took hold of many people . At the time, many short distances NORTH
with their pack AMERICA
workers earned less than a dollar a day . For them, it
Saint Louis, New York City
was the opportunity of a lifetime . In 1849, around animals . It Missouri 6
6 Sacramento
6 6
took longer for ATLANTIC
ninety thousand people—called forty-niners— San Francisco
OCEAN
joined the Gold Rush . Around 10 percent, or nine immigrants to
thousand, were women . arrive by boat
from faraway Panama
The forty-niners came from across the United countries and
States as well as from Mexico, Central and South for people to
America, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand . PACIFIC
cross the United OCEAN SOUTH
Black people were among the forty-niners as States . At that AMERICA
well . Around 200 to 300 were enslaved and had time, it was
KEY
been forced by their enslavers to go to California . easier to get to Overland route
Free Black people also traveled west in hopes of California from
(five to eight months)
Panama route
finding gold . By 1852, around 2,000 Black people China than
(one month . . . if you could
catch a ship on the Pacific side)
lived in California, which was about 1 percent of from the Cape Horn route
(five to eight months)
the population . East Coast . Cape Horn

1849: The California Gold Rush • Level U 7 8

By Ship
About half of the forty-niners decided to travel
by ship to avoid crossing the lands of Native
peoples . It took ships between five and eight
months to sail from the East Coast, around the
tip of South America, and back up to California .
The cheapest ticket was $75—about $2,300 in
today’s money . Lodging was a tiny bunk in the
bottom of the ship . Passengers ate dried meat A drawing from around 1900 shows people traveling together in a group of
and hard biscuits filled wagons called a train.
with weevils, and drank
water . They suffered as By Wagon
a result of shipwrecks, It took about the same amount of time to get to
seasickness, and disease . California by wagon . Much of the land between
Many reported that forty-niners on the East Coast and California still
Posters like this one advertised ships belonged to Native peoples . Settlers moving out
the worst things were that would carry forty-niners from
crowding and boredom . New York City to San Francisco. West often hunted without permission, stole from
Native peoples, and attacked them . Native peoples
Some passengers decided to save time by thus viewed them with hostility .
taking a shortcut through Panama . They could
canoe and hike across 60 miles (97 km) of jungle, Most people left from Saint Louis, Missouri,
then catch another ship . These forty-niners the westernmost U .S . city at the time . Wagons
faced an extreme environment with hazards followed the California Trail for 2,100 miles
they were unfamiliar with, including bad (3,380 km) across the flat prairie . A wagon could
weather and wild animals . Many fell ill . If they travel about 15 miles (24 km) in a day—if it didn’t
made it across, there was still a risk that they break down, there wasn’t much rain, and the oxen
would have to wait weeks or months to catch stayed healthy . The forty-niners had to get the
a ship on the other side . wagons across rivers, up mountains, down cliffs,
and across deserts .

1849: The California Gold Rush • Level U 9 10

 They were pounded by rain, wind, and snow . Equal Opportunity?
In addition to bad weather, other dangers facing For Native peoples, the Gold Rush was
forty-niners came from disease, starvation, and disastrous . It opened the gateway to the West .
accidents . Throngs of adventurers and settlers poured into
For those who made it to California, life did Native lands . Many different groups of Native
not get easier . Prospectors lived in mining camps peoples lived in California . As forty-niners moved
made of tents and rough shelters, and worked out West, violent attacks forced Native peoples off
twelve hours a day . Many fell ill, often due to poor much of their land . Thousands were killed, and
conditions and diet . Despite these challenges, it thousands more died of disease .
was difficult to give up—the next pan of gravel Once California became a state in 1850,
might be worth a fortune! the U .S . government took control of the land,
including areas with gold . Soon, fear and
hatred led to the killing of thousands of
Native peoples . New laws allowed settlers to
arrest Native people for minor wrongdoings . The
government then forced them to pay their fines
by working on ranches . Around three hundred
thousand Native peoples lived in California
before the Gold Rush . More than one hundred
thousand were dead only twenty years later .

Good Prospects, Bad Endings

Several of the men involved in the original discovery
of gold ended up with nothing to show for it. John Sutter
lost his golden property when the United States would
not recognize his land grant from Mexico. Sutter, along
with Sam Brannan and James Marshall, eventually lost
Gold miners stand in their camp at El Dorado, California, around 1850. The their fortunes.
original El Dorado in South America is a mythical place of immense wealth.

1849: The California Gold Rush • Level U 11 12

 As the hills filled Prices Gone Wild
with prospectors, Forty-niners could get what they wanted—for a steep price.
white miners began Here’s what some items cost in 1849 San Francisco and in 2021

Quest for Fortune, 1848–1853, by Edward Dolnick

to oppose other dollars (adjusted for inflation): 1849 2021
=

Source: The Rush: America's Fevered

groups hunting one can of peas $6 $206
for gold, especially one egg $1 = $34

Chinese miners . one breakfast $43 = $1,479

White prospectors one pound (.45 kg) of coffee $3 = $103

one mule $360 = $12,384
sometimes violently
one pair of boots $96 = $3,302
forced miners from Chinese miners search for gold
in California around 1850.
outside the United
States to leave the mines . Almost three thousand Entrepreneurs made a fortune by selling to
Chinese people came to California in 1851 . A the miners . Sam Brannan became one of the first
terrible crop season in China made that number millionaires in the United States . Levi Strauss sold
rise to more than twenty thousand the next year . pants tough enough to handle the work—blue jeans .
California taxed miners from outside the United
Women, especially, had many more
States to prospect . Some U .S . miners wanted to
opportunities in the West . They started
make it so difficult for them to mine that they
businesses cooking, running boarding houses,
would leave .
and washing clothes for the prospectors .
One in every five miners who came to
California in 1849 died within six months . Mary Ellen Pleasant
Even those who found gold often lost it to Mary Ellen Pleasant was a Black American
robbers, gambling, or paying high prices for businesswoman who worked as part of the
Underground Railroad. Women weren’t accepted
everyday goods . Some early prospectors were Mary Ellen
as important prospectors during the Gold Rush. Pleasant
successful . Most of the riches from gold went to Some people say that Pleasant worked as a cook and a
large companies . They were able to mine with housekeeper just to get close to wealthy people to secretly
high-pressure jets of water or dig deep mines . hear what they were talking about. Pleasant became a millionaire
buying and selling buildings and businesses during the Gold Rush.

1849: The California Gold Rush • Level U 13 14

 Glossary
devastating (adj.) hatred (n.) page 12
page 15 a strong feeling of
causing great physical dislike or disgust
or emotional damage
hazards (n.) page 9
economy (n.) page 15 possible dangers
the circulation of or risks
money in industry,
hostility (n.) page 10
trade, and finance in
deep-seated anger and
a country or area
unfriendliness
San Francisco in 1851 (top) and today (bottom)
entrepreneurs (n.)
settlers (n.) page 12
page 14
people who make a
The Golden State people who start and
new, permanent home
operate their own
The biggest winners of the Gold Rush were on a frontier
businesses
white settlers, the U .S . government, and wealthy
transcontinental (adj.)
investors . The Gold Rush was devastating to Native erosion (n.) page 6
page 15
peoples, however . Around three hundred thousand the natural removal of
extending across
settlers, mostly white, swarmed California . In the rock or soil by water,
a continent
1860s, the country began to connect the East and wind, or ice
West by building the transcontinental railway, wealthy (adj.) page 15
gravel (n.) page 6
causing further destruction to Native lands . having a large amount
a loose mixture of rock
of money or possessions
fragments
The Gold Rush changed the western United
States forever . Today, California has more people greed (n.) page 7
than any other state . It has a huge economy—larger a selfish and intense
than that of most countries . Nearly two centuries desire for more of
after the Gold Rush, California still lives up to its something than is
nickname: the Golden State . needed

1849: The California Gold Rush • Level U 15 16