Like many get-rich-quick quests, the California gold rush caused a wave of destruction. During the peak years of the gold rush, the population of indigenous people in California dropped from ...

An 1849 handbill from the California Gold Rush. PD. The discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill on January 24, 1848 unleashed the largest migration in United States history and drew people from a dozen ...

And it wasn’t until former President James K. Polk spoke of “accounts of the abundance of gold” in his December State of the Union address that people began to flock to California in droves. The state ...

A Rush of Gold Seekers By 1849, the non-native population of California had grown to almost 100,000 people. Nearly two-thirds were Americans. Upon arrival in California, immigrants learned mining ...

For thousands of years, Indigenous people ... maps and historic photographs asks students to examine the materials and answer ...