Oakland Museum of California
Gold Rush: Law, Order and Justice for Some Discrimination
This resource presents information about the culturally diverse mining towns in California during the time of the gold rush and the treatment of minorities.
Oakland Museum of California
Gold Rush: Silver and Gold: Chinese Man
This resource presents information about the Chinese miners who came to California during the gold rush period of American history and faced discrimination and hostility.
Oakland Museum of California
Gold Rush: Prospecting: Chinese Placer Mining
This resource presents information about Chinese miners in California and the prejudice they suffered.
Oakland Museum of California
Gold Rush: Prospecting Coyote Hole
This resource presents information on African American miners during the California Gold Rush.
Sacramento Bee
Gold Rush: Rivals in the Newspaper Field
This article from the Sacramento Bee discusses the rise of journalism during the California gold rush. Many journalists left their jobs and headed west to cover this great event.
Other
The Gold Rush: Collision of Cultures
This page discusses the many different cultures that came to California during the gold rush.
Other
The Gold Rush: Fever
This resource provides information about the Gold Rush, and fever that took place during westward expansion.
Other
The Gold Rush: Despair
This page discusses what happened to many of the gold miners when the gold ran out in California.
Sacramento Bee
Gold Rush: Sacramento Was Gateway to Gold
Read about the growth and importance of Sacramento as a mining town in the California Gold Rush. From a larger site from the Sacramento Bee.
Sacramento Bee
Gold Rush: Religion Reclaimed Souls
This article, entitled "Religion Reclaimed Souls as Mining Expanded," contains information on the developement of religion in California during the gold rush.
Other
The Gold Rush: San Francisco
This page discusses how the gold rush led to the massive growth of San Francisco.
Museum of the City of San Francisco
Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco: A Gold Rush Poem
A poem written in England but certainly expressing the hopes and dreams of those seeking gold in California. Included in the San Francisco Business Directory of 1864-65.
Oakland Museum of California
California's Untold Stories: Natives and Immigrants
This site provides a tour through the history of natives and immigrants to the California Gold Rush area, including African American, California Indian, Chinese, and Latino.
Other
The California Gold Country: The Mining Camps
This site is based on the book The California Gold Country: Highway 49 Revisited by Elliot H. Koeppel. This page provides an interactive map showing gold mining camps that have survived and exist as towns today. Most of the place names...
Annenberg Foundation
Annenberg Learner: America's History in the Making: Contested Territories
This site highlights the westward expansion of settlers in North America and the effects this expansion had on Native Americans between the Revolutionary and Civil Wars.
Other
California Gold Country: No Place for a Woman?
Information about women in the California gold camps.
Oakland Museum of California
California's Untold Stories: Silver and Gold
This site provides a virtual tour of the mining of silver and gold in California through excellent photos and facts.
OpenStax
Open Stax: The Mexican American War, 1846 1848
After reading this section of a chapter on "Westward Expansion," students will be able to identify the causes of the Mexican-American War and describe the outcomes of the war in 1848 and the effect of the California Gold Rush on westward...
Other
Gold Rush Players: Johann Augustus Sutter
Chronicles the life of John Sutter who immigrated to America to find his fortune and then saw it crumble away after the discovery of gold at his mill.
Other
Gold Rush Players: James Wilson Marshall
This article provides a brief overview of the life of James Marshall, who discovered gold at Sutter's Mill in 1848.
Museum of the City of San Francisco
Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco: Ulysses S. Grant and the Gold Rush
From Ulysses S. Grant's memoirs is this description of his 1852 trip to California across Panama and his stay in San Francisco.
Other
Gold Rush Players: Joaquin Murieta
Information about the notorious Joaquin Murieta, Mexican miner who became a legend after a book was written about him in 1854.
Library of Congress
Loc: California History Collection: The Discovery of Gold
Contains an article on the discovery of gold in California at Sutter's Mill that resulted in the California Gold Rush.
Schools of California Online Resources for Education
Score: Gold Mountain Webquest
At this site from the Schools of California Online Resources for Education, students will travel back in time as Chinese Immigrants in this detailed WebQuest. By using the resources and links given, students will file a job profile,...