gold rush
One moment the California creek beds glimmered with gold; the next, the same creeks ran red with the blood of men and women defending their claims or ceding their bags of gold dust to bandits. The "West" was a ruthless territory during the nineteenth century. With more than enough gold dust to go around early in the Gold Rush, crime was rare, but as the stakes rose and the easily panned gold dwindled, robbery and murder became a part of life on the frontier. The "West" consisted of outlaws, gunfighters, lawmen, whores, and vigilantes. There are many stories on how the "West" begun and what persuaded people to come and explore the new frontier, but here, today, we are going to investigate those stories and seek to find what is fact or what is fiction. These stories will send you galloping through the tumultuous California territory of the mid-nineteenth century, where disputes were settled with six shooters and the lines of justice were in a continuous chaos. Where's the West, how and where did the West begin? This is the question that is asked most often and there is never a straight -forward answer. Everyone has their own opinion on the subject: "Oh, it started sometime in the nineteenth century," or "The west is
really just considered to be Oklahoma, Texas, and Kansas." Whatever happened to California actually being considered the "West?" With all honesty, even into the twentieth century, California is not thought of as being the "West," or the "West" in the manner in which Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas are thought of. Cowboys, horses, and cattle are only considered to be in the central states, but what about California? To give a straight- forward answer on where and how the "Real West" or even the "Wild West" began; it began by a millhouse worker named James Marshall. On the morning of January 24, 1848, Marshall was working on his mill and looked down in the water and saw a sparkling dust floating along the creek bed (Erodes 116). Assuming it was gold, he told his fellow workers what he had found and they began searching for the mysterious metallic dust as well. Four days later Marshall rode down to Sutter's Fort, in what is now Sacramento, and showed John Sutter what he had found. They weighed and tested the metal and became convinced that it was indeed gold. John Sutter wanted to keep the discovery secret, but that was going to be impossible. The rumor flew and Sutter's mill workers, which were Mormon, caught wind of it and began searching for their own fortune. Shortly after they fled, they too found gold. The site in which they found their fortunes became known as Mormon Island, the first mining camp to be established after the discovery of gold at Marshall's mill (Erodes 119). From that moment on, the west began to boom in population and prosper in every direction. First Blood Gold fever caught on in a hurry, and this attracted many different people to the new frontier. Dreams of gold and success sparkled in the eyes of every cotton picker, farmer, and blue- collar worker west of the Mississippi. Once the fever spread across the nation and throughout the territories, bloodshed was going to be inevitable. Greed takes a toll on the mind of many and convinces peopl
Some common words found in the essay are:
Gold Rush, Blood Gold, Wyatt Earp, Von Pfister, California Territory, Rush American, John Sutter, James Marshall, West West, Civil War, gold rush, von pfister, nineteenth century, john sutter, west west, discovery gold, gun fighting era, creek beds, brown 297, wild west, james marshall's,
Approximate Word count = 1329
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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