The nature and impact of the California Gold Rush (1848-1849) and the consequences of the Pikes Peak Gold Rush (1858-1859)

California Gold rush 1848 - 1849:

• James Marshall discovered a gold mine in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in January 1848, the discovery was attempted to be kept a secret however this was impossible

• By May, the news had reached the port town of San Francisco and so men set off tp the Sierra Nevada mountains in search of finding a fortune

• In December 1848, the president confirmed that the reports of gold from California were true which caused a frenzy in 1849

• Over 50,000 Americans headed to California in 1849 alone

• Some of these men left the east in January on boats and sailed around the tip South America however most waited until spring and made their way across the California trail

• Thousands of gold diggers from Europe, Mexico and China also headed to California

• Many soon realised that the most efficient way to make money was by meeting the needs of the miners by selling basic supplies for far more than their normal price in the East

Impacts of the California gold rush:

• By 1852, the surface gold was nearly all gone

• Big companies then began to employ hundreds of men to dig out quartz crystal which was crushed in 'stamp mills'

• By 1852, 108 stamp mills dominated the California gold scene

• Many miners returned home whilst others ended up working in these great companies working for a minimum wage

• California became a state in 1850 and San Francisco rapidly expanded to become a major city

• Demands for railroads increased to supply the east with surplus goods

• In 1848, some Native Americans worked at diggings however they were quickly exploited by white miners for cheap labour

• Many indigenous people were murdered by the miners and the violence was encouraged by the California government

• In 1850, a law was introduced which stated that any indigenous person who could not prove that they had a job could be arrested and sold to white settlers as slave labour, as a result hundreds of men women and children were captured and sold in this way

• Mining devastated the land as mining companies realised that using high powered water jets to release quartz from the mountains was quicker and cheaper and as a result the mountains were eaten away by the process which then clogged rivers

• Flooding became a large problem and some towns were completely washed away

• The chemicals used to extract the gold killed fish and wildlife

Pike's Peak gold rush 1858-59:

• Around the summit of Pike's Peak in Kansas, many gold huners came searching in the 1850s

• In 1858, a discovery was made and the word made it back to the East within a moths

• By 1859, more than 100,000 people had made the journey to Kansas

• Rail lines helped people travel from the East to ST Joseph easily

• Almost twice the number of people came to Pike's peak than California as the plains were much easier to cross than the mountains which blocked off the far east

• There were 3 routes each pushed by a particular town so as a result towns liead about the ease of the routes closest to them

Impacts of Pike's Peak gold rush:

• Farmers could make money by selling food to new towns in thr gold districts

• As a result of growth in population, Kansas became a state in 1861

• Treaties signed with the indigenous people in 1851 and 1853 had established routes across the plains however now white settlers began to settle on the plains themselves

• In September 1859, the Cheyenne and Arapho leaders met the US authorities at Fort Laramie. 5 days later, a Kiowa rode ino a shop in a white settlement in Colorado and spat blood in the shopkeeper's face, a sign of more blood to come