Gold Rush: Bright Hopes, Dark Costs Quiz

Answer:

California joined the United States on September 9, 1850, as a free state, meaning its constitution banned slavery. It already had a constitution and elected lawmakers before it became a state. Unlike many western states, it did not first have an organized U.S. territorial government.

The discovery on January 24, 1848, came before the arrival of the miners known as "forty-niners". Their nickname came from 1849, when large numbers arrived looking for gold. Gold had been found in California before, but the discovery at Sutter's Mill started the famous rush.

James Marshall was a carpenter working on a water-powered sawmill when he noticed the gold. He found it in the tailrace, the channel that carries water away from the mill. He had been checking the mill, not searching for gold.

John Sutter wanted lumber for his growing settlement around Sutter's Fort. The sawmill was part of his plan, but the discovery upset it as workers left their jobs to search for gold. The rush disrupted his business rather than securing his future.

The valley at Coloma had flowing water to power the mill and pine trees to provide wood. Miners headed there after the discovery. The road to Sutter's Fort first carried news of the find and later became a busy route to the goldfields.

Samuel Brannan carried gold in a bottle to spread the news in San Francisco. He also ran a store at Sutter's Fort and grew his trading business as more customers arrived. Selling supplies to miners allowed him to make money from the rush without digging for gold himself.

Ships brought thousands of gold seekers to the Pacific port of San Francisco. Some ships were later used for storage or as buildings; others ended up buried beneath the growing waterfront. Their remains show how quickly the small settlement grew into a city.

Sacramento connected river trade with the mining areas inland. It remained important after the first rush: following several changes of capital, the state lawmakers settled there permanently in 1854. The city offered its courthouse for them to use and land for a future Capitol building.

At Monterey's Colton Hall, delegates met in 1849 to write California's first state constitution. Voters then approved the document. This allowed Californians to set up a state government while they waited for permission to join the United States.

California's first state lawmakers met in San Jose in December 1849, before California officially became a state. They used a two-story adobe hotel as their meeting place. The lawmakers were unhappy with their meeting rooms and lodging, which helped lead to the search for another capital.

In 1853, Strauss opened his wholesale dry-goods business in San Francisco, selling clothing, fabric and other goods to shopkeepers. The gold rush had created a market for supplies as well as opportunities for miners. He built up connections with retailers across the American West and the Pacific.

Levi Strauss's business was already twenty years old when it received a work-pants patent with tailor Jacob Davis on May 20, 1873. Davis had devised a way to strengthen clothing with rivets, the metal fasteners used at places likely to tear, such as pocket corners. Strauss helped fund the patent, and their partnership produced the riveted work pants now associated with his name.

These opportunities had a darker side. Native Californian communities lost their land and suffered disease and violence. Chinese and Latin American miners also faced unfair treatment because of their backgrounds. The growth of towns and businesses belongs in the story alongside the suffering it brought.