Graduation Speech: Welcome To The California Gold Rush

In the past Tuesday in class, we read Assembling California by John McPhee. In reading the first few pages of the book, I was amazed about how much gold was present in California at the start of the gold rush. I can’t even imagine gold being so prevalent that people were digging it out of rocks with knives. Eventually, as more people came for the gold and to ‘strike it rich,’ they brought other ways of harvesting the gold out of California, such as panning and gunpowder. This search for gold, and any raw material at that made me realize how extensive the desire for raw materials really is. I realized that people don’t care about the repercussions of their actions, provided that the immediate result of their actions is beneficial to themselves.

The British Heart Foundation is the UK’s Number 1 Heart Charity. Their vision “is a world where people don’t die prematurely from heart disease.” They were founded in 1961 by a group of medical specialists who wanted to give money to fund extra research to find out the causes of heart diseases. They were concerned about the number of people with Cardiovascular Heart Disease who were dying prematurely. They have been going for 53 years and have been helping people since then. They have been taking part in all events but the main one which is coming up in September is the Oxford to Cambridge Bike Ride.

The assigned readings provided an interesting view of the diverse groups of people who migrated to California during the Gold Rush in the late 1840s and early 1850s and how they impacted society. The primary sources shared detailed information of how Californian society was grew and developed new rules and regulations for mining operations. The sources also discussed how American pioneers and people from different countries shared their experiences during the Gold Rush. Equally important, as Californian society increased, many Yankee miners became concerned about the arrival of foreigners in California (Textbook, 201). California state legislators enforced the Miners' Licensee of 1850 and 1852 that required foreigners to purchase specific mining licenses in order for them to mine (Miners' Document, 33).

The Gold Rush of California was a “shot heard” round the world that caught the ears of many individuals who were seeking the golden opportunities of the West. (Chan & Olin 1992). With the dreams of wealth on the horizon, the Gold Rush brought on a drastic change in American society. For the women of this period, their lives would be altered in ways that would change the Western frontier. With an eagerness for wealth and equality women now found themselves struggling to survive in a society that was mainly male dominant and branch out from the normalcy of womanhood, which would transform occupational drive, prostitution and marital status.

Imagine leaving everything you have, then going on one of the longest and most hardest trip ever, to have a slight chance of being rich, this is what many people did in the gold rush. The gold rush was when about 300,000 people went out west to California to start a new life by finding gold. The gold rush went from 1848 to 1855. For those seven years it was a very important time in history. The gold rush was important because many people were involved in it and it shaped a part of our future.

Prior to the Gold Rush of 1849, California was a meagerly populated, an irrelevant area of the United States for the most part possessed by the general population of Mexico. In any case, that all changed when on January 24, 1848; woodworker and little time sawmill administrator James W. Marshall found a gold piece in the American River that would always show signs of change the historical backdrop of California and America1. Not exclusively did the Gold Rush prompt California 's permission into the Union in 1850, it additionally revived the possibility of the American Dream. Hundred 's of thousands of individuals filled the state by the draw of brisk and unending wealth. Because of the Gold Rush, California in the end turned into a

The Gold Rush was one of the most influential times in California History. During the four years from 1848-1852, 400,000 new people flooded into the state. People from many countries and social classes moved to California, and many of them settled in San Francisco. All this diversity in one place created a very interesting dynamic. California during the Gold Rush, was a place of colliding ideals. The 49ers came from a very structured kind of life to a place where one was free to make up her own rules.

The California Gold Rush almost did not happen. In his 1848 report to the adjutant-general at Washington, DC, Col. Richard Barnes Mason wrote a worker was checking the strong flow of water in a stream near a saw mill he was building. James Marshall noticed a few glittering particles in the mud that had accumulated. He collected and examined a few of them and, satisfied with their value, brought them to Captain John Sutter, owner of the land where the saw mill was to be built. They agreed to keep their discovery secret for a while but word soon spread and quickly hundreds and then thousands of miners flooded to the mines seeking instant wealth. Only three months after the discovery, it was estimated about four thousand workers were employed mining gold in the region (personal communication, August 17, 1848).

The California Gold Rush was an event that lasted from January 24th, 1848 to 1855. The event was driven mainly by the large quantities of gold reserves that were discovered in the soon to be US state of California. This event caused many Americans to move from the eastern states and middle states to California with the hopes of finding gold. In this paper, I will analyze the economy at the time the gold rush started and attempt to answer the question of why individuals found it necessary or advantageous to move out to California in pursuit of gold. I will also consider personal accounts and editorials written to gain a more personal narrative of the conditions people were experiencing as well as their mindsets in deciding whether to move to California for the gold or not.

The Gold Rush is considered as one of the most significant events in the American history. It began after James Marshall discovered gold form the Sutter’s mill in Coloma, California on January 24, 1948. Though James and Sutter tired to keep this news as secret, there was one newspaper reported it. As the news spread so fast across the country and around the world that attracted hundreds of thousands of gold seekers from different areas came to California.

The United States of America is a nation of immigrants. Immigrants have been the groundwork and will be the future if this country, however, many fail to see the latter. Many argue that immigrants are only a burden and as a result, be deported, because they only leech off the US economy and resources. However, I stand for the principle that the worthy of the approximately 11 million unauthorized immigrants (Hoefer, Rytina, and Baker 1) should be granted full citizenship in the United States. Unauthorized immigrants should be allowed a path toward citizenship and not be deported, because it would result in the overall prosperity for the United States economy, their lack of rights hurt the workforce, and lastly, the simple fact that it is the

In my early forties, I was given a second chance to choose a career. I was laid off from my workplace of 18 years due to a slump in the oil industry. I started working with an employment agency to perfect my resume and come up with creative ways that my skills transferred to other industries, but my heart wasn’t in it. My job had meant to be a short-term pit-stop on my way to realizing my true purpose, one that got too comfortable. This was an opportunity for me to select a meaningful career that I could be proud of.

The discovery of the California Gold Rush took place by chance. Mainly the amount of the world’s gold is deep underground and embedded in hard rock. Unlike anywhere else in the world at that time the gold in California was simple to dig up, free for the taking and required little tools to acquire any gold. Only things required: a pick or shovel and a pan to shift out the gold from the rock, sand and debris. The Gold Rush affected not only California, but the outcome of the nation. Creating the expansion of our nation into Western America and California. Hundreds of thousand Americans and foreigners moved toward the Sierra Nevada’s, with the hopes of sticking it rich. Which impacted the social life and the economy, while effected the rest of the country. Producing a number of diverse people seeking to make a fortune, influenced California and the American life.

“To many Californians the mention of January 24, 1948, conveys no special meaning, nor is that date widely commemorated in the state. Yet it had a special significance in the history of California, for on that day James Marshall, a moody carpenter from Missouri, discovered the first gold nuggets that resulted in a stampede known as the California Gold Rush.” The California Gold Rush drew in thousands of white settlers, all seeking a better life and a chance

     The California Gold Rush of 1849 is one of the most interesting and exiting events of the United States. From the wild stories of men striking it big, to the heart wrenching tales of people losing everything, these are what make it so alluring. There are many aspects of the California Gold Rush; effects on California; individual stories of struggle; and effects on the United States as a young country looking for stability.