Student Exercise on the Gold Rush

By the time students finish this exercise they should be able to:

trace the land and sea routes from the eastern half of the United States to San Francisco in Northern California during the 1849-50 Gold Rush

describe benefits and dangers of travel by land

describe benefits and dangers of travel by sea

Before this exercise starts, a map should be posted showing westward migration in the United States during the Gold Rush years, including both the land and sea routes. The Santa Fe and Oregon Trails would be identified, as well as the major eastern ports (Boston, New London) from which ships sailed for San Francisco. With that visual aid posted in the classroom, the next phase of the exercise could proceed.

Students should be given excerpts from and directed toward Kimball Webster's (1917) Gold Seekers of '49, James Abbey's (1850) California: A Trip Across the Plains, and Luzena Stanley Wilson's (1937) '49er for a picture of taking the overland route to California. They should be given the entire text of Abiah Marchant's "Poem, Feb.-July," onboard the Magnolia (1849).

Pretend you are grown up and live east of the Mississippi River in 1849. Suppose that you, along with your brother or sis

. . .
s like "Equipment," "How It Is Used," "Why It Is Important," etc. References Abbey, J. (1850). California: A trip across the plains. New Albany, Ind.: Kent & Norman, and J.R. Nunemacher. Retrieved from the World Wide Web 2 July 2003 at http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/calbk:@field(DOCID+@lit(calbk151div4)). Honig, N. (1938, December). The Lure of Gold. American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1940. Retrieved from the World Wide Web 1 July 2003 at http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/wpaintro/wpahome.html. Marchant, Abiah. (2003). Poem, 1849, Feb.-July. Westward by Sea: A maritime perspective on American expansion, 1820-1890. Retrieved from the World Wide Web 1 July 2003 at http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mymhiwe:@field(DOCID+@lit(mymhiwevfm1003)):@@@$REF$. McClure, Louis Charles. A gold rush. Retrieved from the World Wide Web 1 July 2003 at http://memory.loc.gov/award/codhawp/00072000/00072869.jpg. Morenhout, J. A. (1935). The inside story of the gold rush. A. P. Nasatir & G. E. Dane (Trans.). San Francisco: California Historical Society. Retrieved from the World Wide Web 30 June 2003 at http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/calbk:@field(DOCID+@lit(calbk018)):@@@$REF$
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1592
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

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