The ~Christian Country Farm~

THE GREAT CALIFORNIA GOLD RUSH

WHO WERE THE FORTY-NINERS BEFORE THEY WERE SAN FRANCISCO'S FOOTBALL TEAM???

     They were the thousands and thousands of gold seekers who rushed to California in 1849 {get it?--forty-niners?}in hopes of getting rich. In 1848, a carpenter named James Marshall had found gold in a stream near Sutter's Mill, California. Word of his discovery spread like wildfire. Gold hunters streamed in from across America and around the world.

WAS MINING FOR GOLD EXCITING?

      No. It was awfully hard work, and people rarely struck it rich. Miners spent long days squatting at the edge of a stream, shoveling and picking at rock, shaking their heavy pans to clear the gold specks from the dirt. They worked in wind and rain and sometimes even stood waist deep in freezing water.

      Most miners were young, single men. They lived in rough-and-tumble camps and towns that had equally rough-and-tumble names: Poverty Hill, You Bet, Squabbletown, Git Up and Git, Mad Ox Ravine, Chucklehead Diggings, and Humbug Canyon were just some of the most descriptive.

WHO CALLED CALIFORNIA  "GOLD MOUNTAIN"?

      The Chinese. Many Chinese sailed across the Pacific Ocean when they heard about the gold rush because there were wars going on in China and lots of people there were out of work. But life in California wasn't much better for the Chinese. When frustrated white gold hunters didn't get rich, they wanted someone to take out their anger on someone. They picked the Chinese. Soon Chinese immigrants were forced into jobs like washing clothes or rolling cigars. They had to live apart from everyone else, they had no rights, and they had to pay extra taxes. Many eventually went home. Those who stayed often started Chinatowns in the cities where they settled.

                                               ~TRUE OR FALSE~                                

MINING FOR GOLD WAS THE BEST WAY TO GET RICH DURING THE GOLD RUSH???

     False! Most of the people who got rich from the gold rush made their money from the miners, not from the gold. How? All those thousands of miners needed food, clothing, and supplies. Prices went sky-high: Flour was $800 a barrel; shovels were $100 a piece. The miners especially needed sturdy pants to wear while they bent, dug, and squatted. The pants that were invented to meet their need might be the same kind you're wearing right now--jeans, made by Levi Strauss.{Well those of y'all that may where pants.}

      Taken from "The Pioneers" by Kenneth C. Davis

Kelly KJV

Deuteronomy 6:5-9*Proverbs 31:28*Titus 2:5*

Psalm 19:14*Joshua 24:15*I Corinthians 15:58