The Forty-NinersThe California Gold

Rush

The World Rushes In

• 2/3 of 49ers were Americans, rest from – Mexico, South America, Europe, Australia, and China

• Most were young and male

Life in the Mining Camps• No police, camps rough• Miners took it on themselves to punish

crimes• Crimes were common: murders,

whippings, hangings, suicides, and duels

• Digging for gold – tough work: digging up mud and stones, knee-deep in icy streams.

The 49ers Legacy

• 3 years later, Gold Rush over (gold ran out)

• California’s Indians suffered: warfare and disease reduced population from 150,000 to 30,000

• So many came, California had enough people to become the first state in the far west

• “the Golden State”