california gold rush
...graphing the California Gold Rush”). By early 1849, gold fever was an epidemic. Gold-seekers who made the decision to travel to California had limited options for their journey. There were very few roads and transportation methods at the time. The choice was to take either the sea route or a 2,000-mile walk across the outback. The sea voyage took four to six months forcing the ships to travel from the east coast of the United States around the Cape Horn in South America to California. Seasickness was rampant; food was full of bugs, or worse - rancid. Water stored for months in a ship’s hold was almost impossible to drink (“The Gold Rush”). The risk of malaria and cholera was evident when passengers got sick through the food and water that was provided. There were also times when passengers were stranded because ferries in the Pacific were very rare, so they had to wait for weeks, even months, for a ferry up to San Francisco (Upham). Other than the sea route, gold-seekers could take the California-Oregon Trail. When planning the journey to the west, many purchased journals to write their thoughts of missed loved ones and family as well as describing encounters of malaria and cholera, oceans and desert, and violence from Indians or fellow miners (“Photographing the California Gold Rush”). Many travelers were worried about attacks from the Indians. The biggest danger was not the Indians; instead, it was water, or the lack of it. With the price of water skyrocketing, travelers without money would suffer dehydration and were sometimes left to die, especially during the last leg of the trip. Many traveled to California with dreams of bringing home the wealth. In his speech about the California Gold Rush, Malcolm Rohrbough explains, “While some found great wealth in California, most did not. The California Gold Rush raised, for the first time in the experience of the American frontier, the specter of failure on a large scale”. At one point, a man could pay a dollar for dinner if he was on the east coast, but in San Francisco during the Gold Rush, the cost of dinner would be twenty-five dollars (Holliday). The rising cost of food forced the forty-niners to look elsewhere for food. They began to raid John Sutter’s garden, who by this time had been rejected for his dreams of having his private empire. Sutter left California without ever trying to capitalize on the discovery of gold. People began to realize the opportunities to make money outside of mining for gold. The lack of women in California during the Gold Rush allowed the women there to make more money for their domestic skills. Woman washed clothes, cooked meals, even ran boarding houses to earn money (Levy). People from all different aspects of life began to realize that there was much money to be made serving to the minors. Many of the well-known names of today drifted to California during the gold rush. Levi Strauss inventory of blue jeans: ran a dry-goods store, Phillip Armour of Armour hot dogs: ran a butcher shop, Henry Wells and William Fargo of Wells Fargo Bank: ran the post office and the bank, Samuel Clemens, writer of Mark Twain: wrote for a newspaper. These are only a handful of legendary names that began during the California Gold Rush. There was an opportunity for every man to make money through business; however, that opportunity was short lived. By mid 1849, the discovery of gold was becoming less abundant, yet the miners continued coming. Miners continued to work every day to find the means of finding more gold, yet it was a losing battle (“The Gold Rush”). Anguish and frustration began to spread through the forty-niners. Many of these men were faithful husbands who had children. They had promised their families a return with wagons full of gold; nevertheless, they were filled with hopelessness and despair. The miners turned to desperate activities such as gambling, drinking, and adultery. Anguis...