INTRODUCTION THE PAST COMES ALIVE Universal history is not a burden on the memory but an illumination of the soul Lord John Dalberg-Acton historian and politician 1895 The past is full of tales of adventure success failure tragedy comedy and excitement These are stories of what people achieved or lost in life Looking back at the past gives us a chance to see how our ideas and values have shaped our world Learning from our mistakes and repeating our successes are just two ways we can use the information of the past to help us prepare for the future Major events such as the gold rushes in North America affect many parts of society The Klondike and California gold rushes of the 1800s changed history geography and the course of immigration and settlement The use of foreign workers changed the cultural makeup of the West Coast New laws were created to deal with what would happen to these workers when the mines closed The need to move goods and supplies led to the building of new highways and railroads New technologies were created to make mining faster and more productive This new wealth changed not only individuals but also entire regions Mines in remote areas opened up new sites for settlement The settlements often encroached on Indigenous peoples traditional lands The miners brought new diseases to these people They also changed the landscape by damming rivers and blasting through mountains The North American gold rushes of the past brought changes we can see and study today Columbia California was a boomtown thanks to the gold rush of 1848 By 1850 it had many hotels banks stores churches and saloons 4 UNCOVERING THE PAST
During the earlier gold rushes mining was hard manual labor using simple tools like shovels and pickaxes EVIDENCE RECORD CARD The California Gold Rush LEVEL Primary source MATERIAL Lithograph LOCATION Columbia California DATE 1852 SOURCE Topfoto Granger DEFINITIONS Boomtown a settlement that grows rapidly from a camp to a thriving town Forty-niner a prospector who arrived for the California Gold Rush in 1849 Gold rush people rushing to a newly discovered goldfield Lode gold gold found between layers of rock Mining claim land where a miner has the right to mine minerals from the ground Pay streak a layer of minerals Placer gold gold deposited near the surface of the ground Prospector an explorer of mineral deposits Sluice box a long sloping box with grooves on the bottom to catch gold GOLD RUSHES 5
INTRODUCTION SOURCES OF EVIDENCE Looking back at the gold rushes can raise a lot of questions What happened there Who took part What was it like Did miners strike lucky or fail We can find the answers to these questions by looking back at historical evidence The documents and images as well as stories and interviews created at the time can give us that information The amount of evidence that remains of any event depends on many factors Natural disasters such as floods storms and fires can destroy any material in their path The destruction from battles and civil wars also cause much evidence to be lost Some evidence might survive but is kept hidden This is true of information that might make a modern organization such as a bank or a government or an individual look bad Some evidence is carefully preserved This is true of important historical people or events such as the moon landing Sometimes evidence is preserved by accident Old bronze church bells have been used as doorstops and parts of bombs used as paperweights Dishes stored in an attic might have been wrapped with old newspapers that contain information on the Stock Market Crash of 1929 or on the moon landing in 1969 There is a lot of evidence left from the gold rushes in North America Cameras had been invented so we can study photographs of the mines and miners There was telegraphy too so we can read telegrams and newspaper reports of mining activity Mining required permits licenses land deeds and claim records making an additional paper trail Among the thousands of people who took part are many who kept diaries or p Gold is heavier than soil and rocks In a sluice box water washes the dirt away while the gold sinks to the bottom and can be collected easily I cannot advise any person to come But if any of our neighbours are determined to come say them to fix no time when they will return and so arrange their business that they may stay several years for it will take more time to make a fortune than many have supposed Letter from prospector John Walker to his parents December 24 1850 6 UNCOVERING THE PAST
journals of their adventures And as many men left wives and families behind we can read many old letters that told of the highs and lows of life during that time Historians are experts on one time period person or event Because the hunts for life changing wealth in the gold rushes affected so many parts of society there are many historians on the subject PERSPECTIVES Look closely at this photograph from 1916 What materials did miners use to build retaining walls and sluice boxes How did using these materials change the landscape you can see in the background Is modern mining similar Before railroads cut across the continent people from the east wanting to get to the California goldfields had to sail around South America Even without storm and rough seas the journey would take about 60 days GOLD RUSHES 7
