When gold was discovered, some people got gold fever. When they got to California, most miners weren’t lucky enough to find gold, not even a few pennies worth of gold.
Read this 1849 gold hunter’s Farewell to his Wife
Miners lived near flowing rivers that came down from the Sierra Nevada. If there were few miners, their claimed land would cover hundreds of feet. But if there were many miners, their claim might only be a few feet.
Even though miners staked their claims, other miners would jump (steal) the miners’ claim. To stake a claim, a prospector pounded wooden stakes into the ground to mark his area. If a staked claim had no gold, the miner would trick another miner by selling the land saying there was gold when there really was no gold.
By Kaveh, Kerry
When miners went out to the Gold Rush they expected to get gold right away. Little did they know that they wereabout to experience a different life. Look at these Scenes in the Life of the California Miner.
Miners’ lives were extremely difficult. When they got to San Francisco they normally had been split from the people in their group on the trail. That caused lots of loneliness. To make miners less lonely, they did things such as laundry, cooking, and even kinds of entertainment.
Miners thought striking it rich would be easy. But it was the other way around. Some worked a whole day, and only found pennies worth of gold. They worked in icy cold streams and rivers while their backs ached and their faces blistered.
Gold miners even had to make up their own laws Read these Miners Ten Commandments.
Very few miners got lots of gold, but even if they did, they lost their money on buying food and clothing. The ones who really made money were the store keepers. They made their money by selling food and clothing at sky rocket prices. People bought their stuff because they needed it a lot.
So if you think a miner’s life was easy, think again!
By Kaylin, Peter