Gold Rush Migration Facts

Where did they come from?

• Gold rush miners came from almost every area of the United States, Europe, Asia, and the Pacific.
  
  

Reasons for Migrating

• The immigrants to California at this time came in search of gold. They heard about the great successes of other miners and went west to make a fortune for themselves.

• Most of the Chinese population that came during this time was fleeing from bad crops and unemployment in China. Even if life was hard in California they hoped it would be better than what they faced at home.
  
  

Where did they settle?

• They settled almost anywhere because land and resources were available. As California started to get more crowded, the white racist minority influenced the legislature. They made it harder for foreign immigrants to mine so they had to pick up other jobs in the towns.
  
  

What happened as a result of their arrival?

• A lot of the natural resources began to be used up very quickly. There was abundant land when they arrived but that quickly decreased as more and more people started claiming land. This rapid decrease in land and resources caused competition between miners, and racism was especially harsh against foreign minors.
  
  

Intersections with Nature

• Miners in the gold rush sifted through enormous amounts of soil and rock. The rivers took this mining debris to the San Francisco Bay. This negatively impacted the species that lived at the bottom of the bay. The debris smothered many bottom dweling species and the bay was permanently made shallower.

(Information from: http://west.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/pager.php?id=102)

For More Information About Gold Rush Migration Visit These Websites:

http://www.weareca.org/index.php/en/era/1820s-1850s/argonauts.html

http://www.calliope.org/gold/gold2.html