LESSON 17:
THE WENT TO STRIKE IT RICH
FOCUS ACTIVITY
Lesson Mission
DIRECTIONS: Remember, the Lesson Mission is what you, the student, will be able to do after the lesson is over. Begin today's Lesson Chronicles Entry by heading your paper with your name and the date and the Lesson Title. Write down today's essential question. Answering the essential question at the end of the lesson is your Lesson Mission!
Essential Question(s):
What were the gold and silver rushes? When and where did they occur? Who was involved in the gold and silver rushes and what motivated them to risk everything on the chance of striking it rich? How did the gold and silver rushes play a part in making the U.S. what it is today?
Set up your Lesson Chronicles Entry for Lesson 17.
TEACHING ACTIVITY
Skeleton Outline
DIRECTIONS: Remember, accomplishing your lesson mission is your purpose for reading. To accomplish your mission, you must be able to answer the essential question(s). We will continue to work on answering essential questions by identifying information from key text structures to make a skeleton outline of the text.
Recall the Key Text Structures in Non-Fiction Text:
1. Headers
2. Sub-headers
3. Bolded Words
4. Italicized Words
5. Pictures & Captions
6. Boxed off Information
7. Charts and Graphs
8. Maps
1. Headers
2. Sub-headers
3. Bolded Words
4. Italicized Words
5. Pictures & Captions
6. Boxed off Information
7. Charts and Graphs
8. Maps
Recall How to Create a Skeleton Outline:
Column 1 - Text References - Text to Text, Text to Self, Text to World
Column 2: Headers and Sub-headers
Column 3: Main Idea, Terms, People, and Places
Column 4: Main Ideas of the Sections, Definitions, Descriptions, and Explanations
Column 5: Questions and Clarifications
Column 1 - Text References - Text to Text, Text to Self, Text to World
Column 2: Headers and Sub-headers
Column 3: Main Idea, Terms, People, and Places
Column 4: Main Ideas of the Sections, Definitions, Descriptions, and Explanations
Column 5: Questions and Clarifications
Set up your Skeleton Outline in your Lesson 17 Chronicles under the Lesson Mission.
WHOLE GROUP ACTIVITY
Part 1: Guided Reading and Cornell Notes
DIRECTIONS: Now that you have a purpose for reading, and you have identified the key elements of the reading, we will take turns reading the passage below as a class.
As we read, you need to record your notes in the last column.
Recall the things you should include in notes on a text:
1. What is the main ideas of each section?
2. What words do you need to define?
3. What people are mentioned and how are they important?
4. Is there any sequenced information?
5. Is there a causes and effect relationship?
6. Is anything compared and contrasted?
7. Is there a problem that needs a solution or is solved?
8. What is the conclusion or result?
As you read, if a certain part of the reading makes you think of a text to text, text to self, or text to world connection, write it in the bottom row.
Recall the text to text, text to self, and text to world strategy:
As we read, you need to record your notes in the last column.
Recall the things you should include in notes on a text:
1. What is the main ideas of each section?
2. What words do you need to define?
3. What people are mentioned and how are they important?
4. Is there any sequenced information?
5. Is there a causes and effect relationship?
6. Is anything compared and contrasted?
7. Is there a problem that needs a solution or is solved?
8. What is the conclusion or result?
As you read, if a certain part of the reading makes you think of a text to text, text to self, or text to world connection, write it in the bottom row.
Recall the text to text, text to self, and text to world strategy:
- Text to text references: When a certain word, phrase, or sentence reminds you of something else that you have read.
- Text to self references: When a certain word, phrase, or sentence reminds you of something about your own life.
- Text to world references: When a certain word, phrase, or sentence reminds you of a world issue or event.
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Striking It Rich
Sutter's Mill
 Construction of Sutter's Mill in 1848
On the morning of January 24, 1848, James Marshall picked up a yellow rock near a sawmill he was building for John Sutter, a rancher who owned 50,000 acres of land in central California. Marshall and Sutter soon realized that they had found gold. At first the information was known only locally, but the news soon spread like wildfire throughout California, the country, and the world. By the summer of 1848, three out of every four men in San Francisco had left town to search for gold in the Sierra Nevada foothills. The miners quickly destroyed Sutter’s land and the Native American villages in the area.
The Forty - Niners
 Panning for Gold
As the gold fever spread, men began to stream into California, which was pictured as a land where gold could literally be picked up off the ground. Two-thirds of the American men in Oregon went south to “strike it rich.” News reports in September added to the excitement. President James Polk helped spread the news in his 1848 address to Congress.
 Sea Routes of the California Gold Rush
In 1849 alone, almost 90,000 people—mostly men—set out for California. They came to be known as Forty-Niners. Tens of thousands journeyed for months on wagon trains across the country. Others traveled by ship. The sea voyage took three to six months whether they went around South America and sailed north or crossed the Panama jungle in Central America and then sailed up the west coast to California. Either route involved seasickness, storms, poor food, illness, and for a few, death.
 49ers were all different ethnicities
Within a decade almost 400,000 more people arrived from some 70 nations. Hawaiians, Chinese, Mexicans, Chileans, Europeans, and many others came to strike it rich. Freed American blacks and some Native Americans also prospected for gold. More than 1,000 black slaves were brought to California by their owners to help dig for gold.
Hunting for Gold
 Panning for Gold
Forty-Niners soon found that the easy-to-find surface gold was gone. Miners used pans to separate gold from dirt and water. Those who could afford it operated a wooden rocker to separate the gold from worthless dirt and rock. Others set up sluices, or slides, across a bend in the river and washed dirt through them. Gold was so heavy it stayed on the bottom of the pan, rocker, or sluice when the water and dirt were washed away.
 A Sluice
Sometimes miners found enough gold to keep them in supplies. More often, they found no gold at all. Thousands of Forty-Niners turned around and returned home with nothing but their lives to show for their efforts. Very few found enough gold to make them rich.
Merchants Strike It Rich
A miner’s wife named Luzena Wilson made a fortune feeding hungry miners at her inn. Saloon owners used gambling and drinks to separate the miners from their gold. 
Wah Lee, a Chinese man who opened a hand laundry, found his own gold mine washing shirts for the wealthy. Levi Strauss promoted a material he thought would be perfect for tents. It was not that great for tents, but the clothes he made from this denim material were very durable.
Strauss made his fortune selling pants, and today the pants he created are known as “Levis.” Henry Wells and William Fargo set up a company that delivered mail and bought gold for cash. It became the most successful business in the West and today is the Wells Fargo Bank.
California's New Look
Before the Gold Rush, California had 14,000 non-native residents. Just three years later, it had 250,000 people—most of them men. The city of San Francisco grew from less than 1,000 to over 35,000 people. It had newspapers, hospitals, churches, and over 500 saloons. It also had 15 fire companies, which were desperately needed. The rapid growth led to crowded housing and frequent fires, many set by thugs. In 1850 California became the thirty-first U.S. state.
Trouble In Paradise
Squeezed Out
Native Californios of Mexican ancestry often found their land grabbed by the newly arrived Americans. Although many Californios participated in the effort to achieve statehood, they often lost everything they owned.
Native Americans were also pushed out of the mining fields. Their native hunting and fishing areas were destroyed, and thousands died from diseases brought by the whites. Native Americans of all ages were attacked, imprisoned, scalped, murdered, and driven from their lands. In 20 years’ time, the Native American population in California dropped from 150,000 to 30,000. Other Strikes
Gold was discovered elsewhere, too. In 1859 gold was found in Gold Hill, Colorado, near Denver. The rush there did not last long because the strike required deep mining.
A strike near Boise, Idaho from 1860 to 1862 was better for miners who washed gold out of streams. Gold was discovered in mountain valleys and ravine streams near Virginia City, Montana, in 1863.
Silver Strikes
Gold was not the only thing people went West for in order to strike it rich. They also went for silver.
In 1859 and 1860 the largest silver strike in U.S. history was found on the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada mountain range near Virginia City, Nevada. It was called the Comstock Lode. Miners in California rushed to Nevada to see if their luck might be better finding silver in Nevada than it was finding gold in California. They soon learned that mining silver in Nevada involved digging deep into the mountains. Only a few men struck it really rich. 
The city of Tombstone, Arizona, had a silver strike in 1877 which lasted for several years. Many people travelled here to try to strike it rich mining silver. One of the residents of Tombstone was legendary lawman, Wyatt Earp. Wyatt Earp was the Tombstone's Deputy Marshal who was famous for the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in which Earp and other lawman fought and killed three outlaw cowboys.
Boomtowns
The gold and silver rushes caused many boomtowns to develop near the mining sites. Boomtowns were towns that developed in the West very quickly and experienced a great increase in population over a small amount of time. Some of these towns lived on and flourished into big towns and cities. Others dried up, just as quickly as they had popped up, when the gold or silver was gone. These towns became known as ghost towns.
There were several factors that all mining boomtowns had in common. First of all, they all had gold or silver mines. Boomtowns developed quickly and provided jobs. Boomtowns helped to populate the west and expand America's borders. Boomtowns also had many different cultures living in one place and each cultural group had its own place in society. Wealthy white people owned the gold and silver mines. Poor whites, Mexican immigrants, and Chinese immigrants worked in the mines. Though African Americans did work in the mines, the majority were in the service industry, working as cooks, waiters, carpenters, and wheelwrights.
Becoming a Big Town or Ghost Town
There were two factors that determined whether a boomtown developed into a thriving city or dried up into a ghost town. These two factors were natural resources, other than gold and silver, and city planning. If a town had natural resources, other than gold and silver, the town had a tendency to survive. Towns located near rivers or forests and towns where copper or other usable resources were found usually went on to become larger cities.
Towns that were cared for usually turned into thriving cities as well. When city councils, businessmen, architects, and engineers all worked together to build and arrange a town effectively, they were involved in city planning. City planning increased businesses and job opportunities. It also provided services for its residents which made it easier to live and work there.
Impacts of the Gold and Silver Rushes
The gold and silver rushes shaped the way America developed as a nation. The states of Nevada, Colorado, Arizona, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Alaska were all mainly settled because of the mining industry. Gold and silver mining also lead to the discovery of other minerals like coal, copper, iron, oil and gas. These new resources brought many new settlers to the West and resulted in new towns and the expansion of the United States borders all the way to the Pacific Ocean.
Part 2: Completing Cornell Notes &
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Lesson Toolbox
Words to Know
gold fever: the excitement people felt about the gold rush that seemed to be contagious like a fever
Forty-Niners: people who went to California in 1849 to find gold
prospected: when people searched for gold
wooden rocker: a cradle shaped instrument used to separate gold from dirt
sluices: a slide set across a bend in a river that washed away dirt from gold
merchants: store owners who sell supplies to customers
mercantile was a general store where merchants sold goods and supplies to miners and the town residents
saloons: bars with casinos that were built in the boomtowns of the West
non-native residents: people who moved to an area and began living in that area but were not the first people to live there
legislature: a group of people who are voted on by the people of a state or country that make laws for that state or country
tax: a fee charged by a government on the products that people buy, the things that people own, the money that people make, or certain activities people do in order to provide necessary programs and services to the people of a state or country
Californios: one of the original Spanish colonists of California or their descendants
ancestry: the people you descended from or the people in your family that lived before you
Comstock Lode: the largest silver strike in U.S. history found on the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada mountain range near Virginia City, Nevada in 1859
Battle of the Little Bighorn: a battle that occurred when U.S. troops tried to remove Lakota Sioux from their land in the Black Hills and the Lakota Sioux fought back and won
boomtowns: towns that developed in the West very quickly and experienced a great increase in population over a small amount of time
ghost town: towns that were abandoned after all the gold or silver was gone
immigrant: a person who comes to one country from another to settle
service industry: any business where a customer is purchasing an action instead of a good that can be touched; these include jobs like clerks, cooks, waiters, carpenters, and bankers
natural resources: things found in nature that are useful to people
city planning: when city councils, businessmen, architects, and engineers all worked together to build and arrange a town effectively to bring in new businesses, create new job opportunities, and provide services for its residents
residents: the people who live in a place
Forty-Niners: people who went to California in 1849 to find gold
prospected: when people searched for gold
wooden rocker: a cradle shaped instrument used to separate gold from dirt
sluices: a slide set across a bend in a river that washed away dirt from gold
merchants: store owners who sell supplies to customers
mercantile was a general store where merchants sold goods and supplies to miners and the town residents
saloons: bars with casinos that were built in the boomtowns of the West
non-native residents: people who moved to an area and began living in that area but were not the first people to live there
legislature: a group of people who are voted on by the people of a state or country that make laws for that state or country
tax: a fee charged by a government on the products that people buy, the things that people own, the money that people make, or certain activities people do in order to provide necessary programs and services to the people of a state or country
Californios: one of the original Spanish colonists of California or their descendants
ancestry: the people you descended from or the people in your family that lived before you
Comstock Lode: the largest silver strike in U.S. history found on the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada mountain range near Virginia City, Nevada in 1859
Battle of the Little Bighorn: a battle that occurred when U.S. troops tried to remove Lakota Sioux from their land in the Black Hills and the Lakota Sioux fought back and won
boomtowns: towns that developed in the West very quickly and experienced a great increase in population over a small amount of time
ghost town: towns that were abandoned after all the gold or silver was gone
immigrant: a person who comes to one country from another to settle
service industry: any business where a customer is purchasing an action instead of a good that can be touched; these include jobs like clerks, cooks, waiters, carpenters, and bankers
natural resources: things found in nature that are useful to people
city planning: when city councils, businessmen, architects, and engineers all worked together to build and arrange a town effectively to bring in new businesses, create new job opportunities, and provide services for its residents
residents: the people who live in a place
People to Know
James Marshall: a builder, who while building a mill for John Sutter, found gold on Sutter's land
John Sutter: the California rancher who discovered gold on his land and triggered the California Gold Rush
James K. Polk: the U.S. President during the California Gold Rush
Luzena Wilson: a woman who made a great deal of money in the Gold Rush by opening an inn for miners
Wah Lee: a Chinese man who made a lot of money in the Gold Rush by opening a hand laundry where he washed shirts for the wealthy
Levi Strauss: inventor of denim blue jeans
Henry Wells and William Fargo:
set up a company that delivered mail and bought gold for cash. It became the most successful business in the West and today is the Wells Fargo Bank.
set up a company that delivered mail and bought gold for cash. It became the most successful business in the West and today is the Wells Fargo Bank.
General George Custer: United States general who was killed by the Sioux at the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876 for trying to take their lands in the Black Hills when gold was found there
Chief Sitting Bull: the Lakota Sioux Chief that led his people at the Battle of the Little Bighorn against General George Custer
Wyatt Earp: Tombstone's Deputy Marshal who was famous for the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in which Earp and other lawman fought and killed three outlaw cowboys
Places to Know
California: the first area where the gold and silver rushes began
Sierra Nevada Foothills: the location of the first major gold rush
Central America: the long thin, strip in the southern portion of North America that connects the North American continent to the South American Continent; many people traveled through this area in order to get to California
South America: the continent below North America that many people from Europe and Asia sailed around in order to get to California
San Francisco, California: the first boomtown of the California Gold Rush
Denver, Colorado: a boomtown that formed and developed into a large city after gold was found in nearby Gold Hill, Colorado
Boise, Idaho: a boomtown that formed and developed into a large city when gold was mined there from 1860 - 1862
Virginia City, Montana: a boomtown that formed and developed into a larger town when gold was mined there in 1863
Black Hills, South Dakota: area in South Dakota that was designated as Indian Territory but was raided by white settlers when gold was found there - Native Americans defended this land at the Battle of the Little Bighorn
Deadwood, South Dakota: a boomtown that formed and developed into a larger town when gold was found in the Black Hills that were nearby
Cripple Creek, Colorado: boomtown that survived after all the gold was mined because it was one of the last major gold rush towns
Klondike River in the Yukon Territory: where the last major gold rush occurred; helped to bring people to the new Alaskan territory
Dawson City, Yukon, Canada and Alaska, U.S.A.: boomtown that developed in Canada close to the Alaska line that developed because of the Klondike Gold Rush
Virginia City, Nevada: boomtown that developed because of the silver rush called the Comstock Lode
Tombstone, Arizona: a boomtown that developed when silver was found and the town where the Shoot Out at the O.K. Corral occurred
Little Big Horn: a battle that developed when U.S. troops under General George Custer tried to take Indian Territory and were killed by Native Americans as they fought to defend their land
Unit Resources
Unit 2 Games & Simulations
Unit 2 Videos
Unit 2 Glossary
Unit 2 Study Guides
Unit 2 Videos
Unit 2 Glossary
Unit 2 Study Guides