SLIDE

NOTES

Sutter had opened lumber mill, several workers

Still in process of building

Once worker found gold in creek

Took to San Francisco, tested in apothecary

Tried to keep secret…

Why might he wish he’d not found it?

Lots of people take over his land

What is locust reference to? How about Herd?

1847—bear flag revolt—many Americans in CA

Some families, but mostly single men

See 507 for better picture of wagon

Steps/100 in = 63360 in/1 mile

Miles x 2,000 from independence to san fran

Use map to measure from Knox to Independence

Equipment heavy, buy before trip, or pay 20 times cost in west?

Necessities like food are expensive on trail too

Cape Horn= bad weather

Equator to Antarctica and back

Panama=yellow fever, cholera, malaria, mosquitoes, snakes, jaguars…

Prospect= search for gold

Claim= place you have legal right to search

2 ½ lbs. of gold in 15 min May or may not strike rich, may give up claim to have someone else find gold there

Other ways to prosper: supply and demand

$1 for an egg--Inflation of goods

Battles over claims: population developed quicker than civilization

"Poker flats" "Hangman’s Creek"

Mormon experience, missionaries… 

Immigrant= Levi Strauss

What do first two lines say?

Doner Party page 509

Map-Sierra Nevadas

87 travellers/ 42 dead

Found Feb 1847

West opened for settling

Cities like San Francisco

CA=state 2 yrs after rush

American image

Freedom, hard work, rugged, ingenuity

Union of rails

Tech. Of rail and plow

Ag and industrialization

Growth of nation

Thirst for wealth or freedom?