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Gold and Conflict. Created by: Betsy Jacobsen. Overview.
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Gold and Conflict Created by: Betsy Jacobsen
Overview Gold and Conflict played a big role in our country’s expansion. Without it, the rush to California and the west wouldn’t have been as significant and most of our population would still be in the East. So I am going to tell you about who discovered the first gold in the California Gold Rush and the Colville Mines and the many conflicts involved.
California Gold Rush The California Gold Rush is one of America’s best known gold strikes. Located in California it drew thousands of people. San Francisco was once a little town of 800, then when gold was found it soon became a bustling city of over 100,000 people.
Native Americans Natives to the land were greatly harmed by the rush for gold. With all the new settlers came diseases that the natives had no immunity to so they died. Also miners needed land so they moved onto the native’s land and killed them just for land. Some were also enslaved by the miners who forced them to mine for them.
Mexicans Since gold was discovered only a few days before the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed many veterans from the war took off for California to try prospecting. A Mexican rancher, Francisco Lopez, found some gold deposits while picking onions. He found gold particles on the roots of the onions. This influenced a minor gold rush to this area, San Feliciano Canyon present day Newhall.
John Sutter John August Sutter was a rancher who received two land grants from the Mexican government. He sent out James W. Marshall, a thirty-five-year old construction foreman, to set up a sawmill located on the Coloma Indian land on the American River. In the final stages the workers found that the stream was too shallow for the wheel to spin so they blew out part of the bottom.
John Sutter After a little while particles of gold began to appear. Immediately Marshall took some gold nuggets the size of a dime down to Sutter’s office to show him. He could not obtain anymore land grants from the Mexican government so he then bargained with the Coloma natives to lease a portion of land.
John Sutter He paid them $150 worth of supplies for the land. This was in January 1848 so it was winter and cold so the supplies were mostly clothes and food which they needed.
First Gold Rush The first rush to this gold was small. It was really only the locals who went after the gold. Permanent mining towns were set up that would later accommodate the larger rush the next year. With all the mining store owners made a nice profit because of all the supplies they were able to sell to the miners.
President’s Encouragement In December, 1848, President James Knox Polk's annual State of the Union message encouraged the people to move to California and settle there due to all the gold. The final result was that Northern California became a well-organized settlement.
Guide Books In the East gold fever was beginning to take root. People even wrote guide books on how to get to the gold then how to mine it. The most successful guide book was written by Lansford Hastings. The book was called “The Emigrant's Guide to the Gold Mines.” Published in New York in December 1845 it became an instant best seller. The Donner Party used this book.
Donner Party The Donner party found out how worthless the book’s shortcuts were when they got lost in the Sierras. In order to survive they had to resort to cannibalism. This proved that you needed experience to survive in the unsettled wilderness. If you had no or little experience then you will have a very difficult job just to survive.
National Diversity Many nationalities were attracted to the gold fields. The mining camps tended to be separate ethical groups. Though cities like San Francisco had the luxury of many diverse foods. Females were also very few in the gold rush. In San Francisco only 2% of the population was female before 1850. After 1850 the female pop. grew to only 8%.
Statehood California wanted to become a state and so the newspapers pressed for a state constitution that would enable them to apply for statehood. Many were against it though because of the possible high tax rate for those with large amounts of land, and the possible development of California with federal money.
Slavery? When California was thinking about applying for statehood the delegates were wondering if California should be a free state or not. The end result was that California would be a free state. Even though some of them were from the south they realized that being a slave state would slow the process down in Congress because they were already fighting for freedom in the South.
James Houston James Houston was a man who was credited with finding gold and triggered a gold rush into British Columbia which over 30,000 miners took part. He first tried the California Gold rush but failed to get anything so he boarded a ship and came here to the Puget Sound in 1856. He heard of gold at Fort Colville so he found a partner, Eldridge, and with a herd of cattle headed for Fort Colville.
James Houston Upon hearing of savages in the area Eldridge turned back but Houston pressed on with the cattle. He made it safely to Fort Colville and then sold the cattle for a nice profit to the miners. He then found a new partner and started to mine along the Pend Oreille River. They had high hopes for they found some promising signs of gold.
James Houston Indians soon found their camp and killed all the men. Houston alone escaped with a couple arrows in his back. In the morning he packed up and headed north because there he had heard the white men and the natives left each other alone. He got within a couple miles of the border when Indians overtook him.
James Houston He told them he was with a company that was peaceful with the natives but they didn’t believe him and robbed him of all his possessions. He then set out for Fort Kamloops where a prospector found him almost dead. He recovered and then in 1857 he started to prospect again. He found some gold at Tranquille Creek. He then paid Donald McLean, the man who cared for him.
Yakima Natives When gold was discovered on the Colville River miners flocked toward the new gold strike. One obstacle lay in there way, the treaty granting the land to the Yakima natives. The miners trespassed on Indian lands and stole horses and killed the natives. Soon the military came and it became an all out war. It was known as the Yakima Indian War, it lasted about 3 years.
