United States History Student Edition

08 California and Utah

The California Gold Rush GUIDING QUESTION How did the discovery of gold help California?

READING STRATEGY Integrating Knowledge and Ideas As you read, take notes about the features of the California Gold Rush and the Mormon migration to Utah using an organizer like the one shown here.

After gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill in 1848, people from all over the world traveled to California in search of riches. Those who arrived in 1849 were called forty-niners . As one official reported, “The farmers have thrown aside their plows, the lawyers their briefs, the doctors their pills, the priests their prayer books, and all are now digging gold.” Some people arrived by sea. Others traveled on the Oregon Trail or the Santa Fe Trail. Americans made up about 80 percent of the forty-niners. Others came from Mexico, South America, Europe, and Australia. About 300 men arrived from China, the first large group of Asian immigrants in the United States. Some eventually returned to China, but others stayed and established California’s Chinese American community . Before these new arrivals, many Mexicans, called Californios, lived in the area. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo made them citizens of the United States and guaranteed them the rights to their lands. The federal California Land Act of 1851, however, established a group of reviewers who examined the Californios’ land rights. When a new settler claimed land that was held by a Californio, the two parties went to court. There, it was the Californio who had to prove ownership of the land. Some Californios were able to prove their claims. But many lost their cases and their land. forty-niner a person who arrived in California in 1849 to search for gold eventually after some time community a group of people who interact with and depend on each other, often living in a defined area

California Gold Rush

Mormon Migration

FLORIDA BENCHMARKS

• SS.8.A.1.2 • SS.8.A.4.1 • SS.8.A.4.3 • SS.8.CG.1.3 • SS.8.CG.2.1 • SS.8.E.1.1 • SS.8.G.4.4 • SS.8.G.6.2 • ELA.K12.EE.6.1

This painting from 1870, titled Californios , depicts Mexican cowboys from California. Many Mexican residents of California lost their lands to American settlers.

PHOTO: Asar Studios/Alamy Stock Photo; TEXT: Colton, Walter. “California, Why We Come; Myth or Reality,” by Doyce B. Nunsis, Jr. California Historical Society Quarterly, 44:2 (June, 1965), p. 130.

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