|
|
|
Structure
Interesting Questions, Facts and Information
- There are a total of 30 general entries.
Special Topics
|
 Interesting Questions, Facts, and Information
 Gold Rush
| Men with money to spend wanted to be entertained. Some of the best known entertainers from the United States and Europe traveled to California. Some say one mining town was named for a singer called the "Swedish Nightingale." What was her name? | California Gold Rush
|
Jenny Lind. There is some doubt if the town of Jenny Lind was really named for Swedish singer. She toured the U.S. in 1850-1852 but never got to the gold country. Lola Montez was a Spanish dancer of the time. Carlotta Crabtree was a popular actress who left a huge fortune when she died. Part of her money financed Carlotta's Fountain, which still stands in San Francisco. Mae West was an early star of Hollywood movies.
| A miner who had just struck it rich, walked into a restaurant and ordered the most expensive meal the cook could make. He was served an omelette of eggs, bacon and oysters, all ingredients hard to get in the gold rush country. The dish came to be known as Hangtown Fry. Which town was called Hangtown? | California Gold Rush
|
Placerville. In the early days of the gold rush, robberies and murders plagued the mining towns. After one such crime, a citizens' jury took justice into their own hands and hanged the three accused from a white oak tree. The name Hangtown was quickly attached to the town now called Placerville.
| Bandits preyed on gold miners from the very beginning. Legend has it that one of the most famous held up 28 stagecoaches with an unloaded gun and always said "Please" when taking people's belongings. Who was this famous bandit? | California Gold Rush
|
Black Bart. Charles Bolton, a.k.a. Black Bart, was a self-styled highwayman and poet who wasn't captured until 1883. Juaquin Murietta has sometimes been romanticized as the Robin Hood bandit of the period.
| In the most productive year, 1852, the amount of gold brought out of the Mother Lode amounted to more than $81 million. Then yields dropped fairly regularly, as gold became more and more difficult to mine. By 1874, the gold rush was over. What was the most significant reason for its end? | California Gold Rush
|
Silver was found not far away in Nevada. By 1874, it was becoming difficult and expensive to take any more gold from the Mother Lode. With the discovery of silver in Nevada's nearby Comstock Lode, miners moved on.
| As prospectors rushed in, they established camps around their claims. Which one was not a gold mining camp in the Mother Lode? | California Gold Rush
|
Virginia City. Virginia City, Nevada, was the center of silver mining in the Comstock Lode.
| The California gold rush began when the first traces of gold were discovered on the American River near Coloma on January 24, 1848. Who found those first gold flakes? | California Gold Rush
|
James Marshall. James Marshall, whose discovery began the gold rush, never made the fortune he expected. John Sutter owned Sutter's Mill, where the first gold was found. John Marhall was a Supreme Court Justice. Joe Montana took gold out of California by throwing a football.
| What were people called who came to California to mine? | Gold Rush
|
forty-niners. They were called forty-niners because most of them came in 1849. Among the forty-niners there were very few women. Women were rare in those places.
| What was the common punishment for people who stole gold that was not theirs? | Gold Rush
|
they had their ears chopped off. Most people were not put in jail because there were no jails in some mining camps.
During the Gold Rush there were no laws. Vigilantes took laws in their own hands and punished people for things they hadn't done.
Coloma. Coloma was in the Central Valley. It is located 53 miles north of Sacramento, the state capital. Sutter's Mill was located there.
| What mountain range in the U.S. lies immediately to the east of the mining area? | Gold Rush
|
Sierra Nevada. Miners would stand in the melted snow (water) from the Sierra Nevada all day panning for gold. It was said by one miner "when I take my legs out of the water I can hardly feel them any more".
| Who was one of the most successful entrepreneurs and was known for his wonderful idea of making blue jeans during the gold rush?
| Gold Rush
|
Levi Strauss. Levi Strauss jeans were liked by miners because they were tough, long-lasting and had metal rivets. Some people came to California in search of gold but instead opened new businesses. Levi Strauss jeans are still popular today.
James Marshall. James Marshall discovered gold while working on the Sutter's Mill. While this new spread the workers at Sutter's Mill caught gold fever and they left the work and started digging for gold.
| What date was gold discovered in California? | Gold Rush
|
January 24,1848. Gold was discovered in 1848, and later miners that came to California were called 'forty-niners' because most of them came in 1849. Miners came to California from all over the world. The Chinese called California the 'gold mountain'.
they took care of men. Women in the Gold Rush helped men by cooking their food and cleaning their clothes.
Oregon Trail and Santa Fe Trail. They used these trails because it was often quicker reach California by trekking in covered wagons than going around South America. However, overland travel was more hazardous, and about half the migrants arrived by sea, either by sailing round South America or by sailing to Panama, trekking to the Pacific and sailing again from there.
Coloma. It was the closest city to the American River and close to Sutter's Mill. In the years that followed gold was also founded in other parts of California, such as Yreka.
Forty-niners. They were called "forty-niners" because many reached California in 1849, the year that the Gold Rush started. The immigrants that reached California in 1848 were called "forty-eighters".
Levi Strauss. Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis worked together, using copper rivets to strengthen the pockets of denim work pants to create jeans - which proved extremely popular and made them rich.
An increase in the population. The Gold Rush caused a huge and cosmopolitan expansion of population in San Francisco because of the news about gold. It soon became the leading city on the West Coast of the U.S. and held this position for well over fifty years.
By panning. Gold was extracted or found by filling the plate or bowl with the sand found in the river and shaking it to see if there is a nugget of gold.
James K. Polk. On December 5, Polk confirmed the discovery of gold in an address to Congress which sent waves of immigrants to California from around the world.
|
Play Now! 