Gold Rush

William Goodrich

History 119

Assignment 13

Gold Rush: Accessing Its Legacy

The Gold Rush is an event that will never be forgotten. The events played out much like a story book plot. But, it was reality and it had impacts that are felt in modern day. It changed the lives of many, from those living in California at the time to the thousands that journeyed to California and even those that did not take part in the events, but sat back and watched the world around them change. The gold rush shaped the state of California and effected the transformation of the United States of America into the government we have now.

The effects of the Gold Rush were substantial. San Francisco grew from a tiny hamlet of tents to a boomtown, and roads, churches, schools and other towns were built.

A system of laws and a government were created, leading to the admission of California as a state in 1850. New methods of transportation developed as steamships came into regular service and railroads were built. The business of agriculture, California's next major growth field, was started on a wide scale throughout the state.

However, the Gold Rush also had negative effects: The human and environmental costs of the Gold Rush were substantial. Native Americans became the victims of disease, starvation and genocidal attacks; the Native American population, estimated at 150,000 in 1845, was less than 30,000 by 1870. Native Americans were attacked and pushed off traditional lands, and gold mining caused environmental harm.

The gold discovery wrought immense changes upon the land and its people. California, with its diverse population, achieved statehood in 1850, decades earlier than it would have been without the gold. The state’s vibrant strength can be traced back to the hearty fortitude of those exuberant optimists of 1849. The independent, adventurous spirit that is such an important part of California’s economy today is a lasting reverberation of the great gold rush of 1849.