California Gold Rush Research Paper

The admittance of California as a territory to the United States of America had a tremendous effect on the aborignals bands living in the newly claimed land. Already suffering from the strife caused by the two previous colonizing nations which held control over them for the previous seventy-two years, the natives of California were subjected to disease, stravation and violent campaigns by American settlers intent on exterminating entire native populations through the use of fire and steel. The gold rush in 1848 was the impetus which propelled this narrative into reality. With the thousands upon thousands of new immigrants coming from all over the world looking for gold the destruction of California's natural resources was inevitiable. Salmon
The world rushed into the quiet town of Yuerba Buena turning it into the modern San Fransisco and in the process becoming the center of trade and population in the west. California has historically been a sparsely populated area. In 1848 there was around 157,000 people in the territory of California. This population was comprised of over 150,000 Native Californian Indians, 6,500 Californios (people of spanish descent) and just 800 Americans[SOURCE]. With the discovery of gold, the poulation of the territory exploded with growth. A year and half later the non-native populations of Americans and foriegners rose to more than 100,000 from that 800 and kept on rising. By the 1850's there was over 300,000 newly arrived Americans and immigrants in California, one in every 90 people living in the united states at the time [SOURCE]. This explosion in population and the resulting economic growth quickly moved California to statehood. In just two years, 1848 to 1850, California went from an empty paradise to the center of power and population in the
Accompining the genocide of California's natives was an unprecedented destruction of california's enviroment. Forests were clear cut. The area around Lake Tahoe, now know for its beautiful forest growth was completely leveled, only recently recovering [SOURCE]. The gold miners dug up 12 billion tons of earth, excuvating river beds with giant dredges and river banks with high pressure water cannons[SOURCE]. Blasting away California's hillsides for pure greed, entire rivers became clogged with the crumbled hillsides and flooded the Sacramento valley. Whole hillsides and mountains were turned into tailings and debris that were dumped into the rivers and lakes of California. These tailings were called slickens, leading to the phrase of the day which said “slickens is too thick to drink and too thin plow” [SOURCE]. Mining operations employing these hydrolic methods destroyed the precious and untouched natural resources of California, flooded towns and inundated farmland with the tailings. While this particular method of mining was outlawed, the damage can still be felt and seen to this day. In addition miners used mercury and quicksilver to extract gold from the ore, dumping over 7,600 tons of the toxic metals into California's fresh waterways. Mercury is a deadly toxin which dramatically affects the kidney, brain and the nervous system and will lead to death. Just a teaspoon of mercury dumped into a