THE CALIFORNIA GOLD-RUSH DAYS

Read the story below carefully. Then fill in the blanks with words from the WORD BANK that best complete each sentence.

WORD BANK
berry pie
shovel
beans
dance halls
flour
lard
Poverty Place
Sacramento / gold nuggets
shacks
pan
restaurants
sugar
forty-niners
San Francisco
tents / pickaxe
Virginia City
gold fever
gambling houses
bacon
Poker Flat
potatoes
egg

John Sutter was a pioneer in California in the 1800’s. He owned a sawmill near present-day Placerville (not far from Sacramento). One morning in January of 1848, Sutter’s foreman, James Marshall, knocked on his door. Marshall unwrapped a cloth containing several (1) ______. These gold nuggets would trigger the great California Gold Rush, the largest mass movement of people the world had seen.

(2) ______soon swept through California. Gold fever is the intense desire to find gold. In 1849 people came from all over to pan for gold. They were called (3) _ _ _ _ _ - ______because so many came in the year 1849. Many small mining camps were established. The camps had names like

(4) ______or (5) ______. Larger communities called “boom” towns sprang up near the present-day cities of (6) ______and (7) ______in California and (8) ______in Nevada.

Life in a mining camp was not easy. Miners were not interested in establishing a permanent residence. They came for gold and planned to leave as soon as the deposits were depleted. Most prospectors lived in canvas (9) _ _ _ _ _ or (10) rickety ______. They owned few possessions. Among them were mining tools consisting of a (11) ______, (12) ______, and a shallow

(13) _ _ _. The miners obtained supplies from the General Store in a mining town. Basic food supplies included (14) _ _ _ _ _, (15) _ _ _ _ _, (16) _ _ _ _ _,

(17) _ _ _ _ _, and (18) _ _ _ _.

From time to time prospectors visited one of the nearest boom towns where there were (19) ______, (20) ______, and

(21) ______. In these places they could enjoy a good meal, be entertained by show girls, or play cards.

Store keepers and businessmen in mining camps and boom towns often earned far more than the gold miners! There were few stores and thousands of customers, so prices were high. The practice of charging high prices to the miners was called “mining the miners.” It was not uncommon to charge $3.00 for a single (22) _ _ _ (even today they are only about $1.00 per dozen), $1.25 for one pound of (23) ______, or $5.00 for a fresh baked (24) ______. One ingenious woman was reported to have made $12,000.00 in one year just by baking and selling pies and cakes!

The Gold Rush lasted a very short time. By 1859, the diggings were almost exhausted. However, between 1850 and 1860, the population of California had risen from about 1000,000 to 4000,000!