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Gold Rush

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California Gold Rush. Gold Rush! California's Untold Stories, Oakland Museum of California. American Experience. January 11: The New York Herald reports the stories of gold in California have "set the public mind almost on the highway to insanity.

American Experience

" Capitalizing on the fever, ship owners announce departures, merchants begin pushing the sale of India rubber boots, tents, money belts, medicine, gold testing and gold washing machines. Those on the coast begin looking for a ship. Those inland contemplate the overland routes. Men organize themselves into companies, paying equal amount and pooling together to buy the goods for the trip. They borrow money, mortgage homes, spend life savings. January 17: Franklin Buck writes to his sister in Maine, "The docks are crowded with fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters and sweethearts, and such embracing and waving of handkerchiefs and 'I say Bill! January 22: The Alta California becomes the first daily newspaper in California. February 17: One hundred and twenty-two men of the Hartford Union Mining and Trading Company set sail for California. American Experience. Major "Strikes" in the California Gold Rush An astounding amount of gold was pulled from the ground during the California gold rush.

American Experience

In 1852 the take for the year was $80 million ($1.9 billion in 2005 dollars). This map shows some of the important mines of the gold rush. Sutter's Mill/Coloma | January 24, 1848 James Marshall kicked off the California gold rush when he spotted some pea-sized bits of gold in a mill raceway. The news brought thousands of prospectors to the area, but neither Marshall nor his employer John Sutter prospered from the find.Mormon Island | February 1848 Mormons working for John Sutter made their own gold find a few miles up the American River.Bidwell's Bar | July 4, 1848 Another employee of Sutter, John Bidwell, made his own strike further north in an area that became known as Bidwell's Bar.

American Experience. American Experience. Lesson Plans - From Boomtown to Ghost Town. Grades 3-5 Overview: In order to fully understand the geographic concept of natural resource use, students should learn about the ways that resource extraction affects the physical and human landscape.

Lesson Plans - From Boomtown to Ghost Town

In this lesson, they will discuss how a specific economic activity in a region can facilitate the creation of towns, which often turn into ghost towns if the economic activity ends. Connections to the Curriculum: Geography, economics, environmental science Connections to the National Geography Standards: Standard 11: "The patterns and networks of economic interdependence on Earth's surface" Standard 14: "How human actions modify the physical environment" Standard 16: "The changes that occur in the meaning, use, distribution, and importance of resources" Time: Two to three hours Materials Required: Computer with Internet access Writing and drawing materials, including large pieces of paper poster board Objectives: Geographic Skills: S u g g e s t e d P r o c e d u r e Opening: Development: Metaphorical Gold: Mining the Gold Rush for Stories. Activity 1.

Metaphorical Gold: Mining the Gold Rush for Stories

The Klondike/Alaska Gold Rush: Background for Students Show your students, in order, the following photographs from the University of Washington Digital Collections, a link from the EDSITEment resource Links to the Past. Have them brainstorm what each image reveals about the Klondike/Alaska Gold Rush. Tell students they will be gathering images and information (often from first-hand sources) about the Klondike/Alaska Gold Rush as research for writing original stories of historical fiction. Provide some background from Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park, an online exhibit of The National Park Service, a link from the EDSITEment-reviewed website Links to the Past.

For somewhat more in-depth information, share either of the sources listed under "Preparing to Teach This Lesson. " Activity 2. Here's an example from Chapter 7 of The Call of the Wild. …a shallow placer in a broad valley where the gold showed like yellow butter across the bottom of the washing pan. Activities Lesson Plans - Klondike Gold Rush - Seattle Unit National Historical Park.