Vocabulary
a person who digs in the ground for materials
Who is a miner?
This man found gold in Coloma, CA and kicked off the CA Gold rush.
Who is James Marshall?
This method involved using scooping up some dirt, swirling it around and hoping that the heavier gold would stay at the bottom.
What is panning or alluvial mining?
Miners cut down trees to make this for building their homes and businesses.
She became a school teacher and published a book called Frontier Lady.
Who is Sarah Royce?
Someone who has a new business?
Who is an entrepreneur?
This man ran through the streets sharing the "secret" of gold's discovery.
Who is Sam Brannan?
True or false: Gold was used as a form of money or payment.
What is true? A pinch or a nugget was viewed as currency.
The population of Indians in California was around 100,000 in 1848 but dropped to this level by 1860.
What is 30,000?
She was a nurse and eventually became one of the first African-Americans to own land.
Who was Biddy Mason?
A person from another country
Who is a foreigner?
This is the name given to the people who traveled west to join the CA Gold Rush. I wonder if they liked football...
Who are the forty-niners?
This method of mining used high-powered hoses that were blasted onto the hillsides to loosen the dirt and (hopefully) expose the gold.
What is hydraulic mining?
This is one of three causes for the declining Indian population in California.
What is violence, disease, or starvation?
She wrote letters to her sister describing life in the town.
Who was Louise Clapp?
a deposit of gold or other material that is trapped
What is a lode?
Gold was discovered on this man's property - by his carpenter of all people!
Who is John Sutter?
True or false: Individual mining was the most successful strategy for discovering gold.
False: Big companies were the most successful.
This is one the negative effects to the environment that hydraulic mining caused.
What is clogging of rivers and streams, ruining nearby farmland, or turning mountains into rocks and mud?
She was a Californio who lived through the Mexican-American War and the Gold Rush.
Who was Maria Angustias de la Guerra?
The official right to own something, such as an area of land
What is a claim?
True or False: Most miners were successful in their quest for gold.
What is false! (Businessman were often the most successful)
This was another type of mining - no, it does not relate to a type of music (but I wonder if the miners might have enjoyed listening to it as they worked!)
What is Hard Rock mining?
This Act, signed by the government in 1850, said that Indians had to work for landowners for a certain amount of time.
What is the Indentured Act of 1850?
She was born female but lived as a man - her hidden identity helped her work as a stagecoach driver.
Who was Charley Parkhurst?