The California Gold Rush

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The California Gold Rush
By Ben Pakter

• In 1849 a lot of the country moved to California
  because they heard word that there was gold.
• This is the setting of Mark Twains short story
  Californias Tale

Mark Twain
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Primary vs. Secondary Sources

• Primary source Someone who was actually at an
  event reports on it
• For example Farewell to Manzanar
• VS.
• Secondary source Someone who wasnt there
  reports on it
• For example The biography we read on Nelson
  Mandela
• Which one would you rather read?
• Do you think primary sources are always
  available?

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Library of Congress

• This website has catalogued an amazing amount of
  primary sources (i.e. books and artifacts) for
  discovery by you.
• Loc.gov
• These are some cools things I found and put on my
  website.

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(No Transcript)
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Your expectations

• You need
• An cover page
• An outline
• A social studies primary text
• A social studies artifact (pictures are alright)
• A humanities primary document
• A humanities artifact
• A natural science primary text
• A natural history artifact
• AND THEN!

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Write Historical Fiction

• Next you are going to write a piece of historical
  fiction based off of the time period that you
  chose.
• Make it fun!
• Make it interesting!
• Be creative!

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Presentation Outline

• Social Studies Business
• Men and memories of San Francisco, in the "spring
  of '50."
• By T.A. Barry and B.A. Patten
• Humanities Architecture
• Old Californian days.
• By James Steele
• Natural Science Geology and Botany
• Up and down California in 1860-1864
• By William H. Brewer

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How to Find different typed of passages

• How do you tell the difference between
  literature, humanities, social studies and
  natural science passages?
• Check this out! This breaks it down for you.

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Social Studies Business

• Men and memories of San Francisco, in the "spring
  of '50."
• By T.A. Barry and B.A. Patten

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1850 San Fransisco

• West of Starkey, Janion Co's store, on the
  south side of California street, were the stores
  of Glen Co., Backus Harrison, S. H. Williams
  Co., DeBoum, Vigneaux Grisar, and G. B. Post
  Co.
• After the fire of June 14th, 1850, J. L. Riddle
  Co. built an extensive shanty of China matting,
  wisely concluding that if conflagrations were to
  be so frequent, it were better to raise a mere
  shelter for their goods, at the least possible
  expense.
• Pg. 166

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1850 San Fransisco

• The building occupied by this firm prior to the
  fire of June 14th, was a substantial three story
  wooden store on Sacramento street, north side,
  just above the corner of Leidesdorff. The upper
  story of this building was used as a dormitory
  for all the acquaintances of the firm who wished
  to sleep there--ship masters who happened to be
  late ashore--new arrivals who had not established
  themselves--any man or boy who knew Riddle Co.
  It was a spacious room, nearly square. Hammocks
  were slung at every corner and available post.
  All about the room were cots, stretchers and
  mattresses, plenty of blankets and pillows, but
  no sheets or pillow-cases.
• Pg. 167

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1850 San Fransisco

• Against the walls on all sides were large China
  water-jars, China wash-stands and large
  China-stone wash-basins, and cocoanut-shell
  dippers. Nearly all the furniture then was of
  China importation and very commodious, stylish
  and comfortable it was, too. The man who went
  early to bed in this apartment, might sleep
  undisturbed until midnight or a little after but
  about that time, several young men, not long from
  Boston, would return from protracted
  meetings--young men musically inclined, who
  wished to rehearse just once more before
  retiring. These birds of Minerva would sometimes
  discover that a sleeper had possession of a very
  comfortable place they fancied for themselves,
  which would cause a playful argument on the
  sleeper's right of possession. When Judge
  Blackburn, Bob Parker and Charley Southard were
  in town, Riddle Co's hospitable roof sheltered
  them, and they were not disposed to sleep, as
  long as any fun could be got out of anybody or
  anything.
• Pg. 167

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1850 San Fransisco

• Judge Blackburn would have a wrestling match with
  Charley Southard, and as the Judge was about six
  feet four and Charley about four feet six, it was
  considered rather unequal, and excited lively
  comments from the aroused and thoroughly
  interested fellow-lodgers. Bets were freely
  offered by Jim Riddle, Eben Niles, Ward Eaton,
  Jim Leighton, Harry Spiel, et al.
• Pg. 167

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Social Studies Business

• What would running a business be like in San
  Francisco in the late 1800s?
• What are some things that influenced a lot of the
  choices the business men made?
• What does conflagrations mean? (wisely
  concluding that if conflagrations were to be so
  frequent)
• How was Judge Blackburn as a guest compared to
  others who stayed?
• Put these in the order they were mentioned (I)
  The Judge would wrestle (II) The hammocks were
  slung in a spacious room (III) Young musicians
  wanted to practice there

ACT Type Questions
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Humanities Archaeology

• Old Californian days
• By James Steele
• Chapter VI. THE PEOPLE OF THE ADOBE.

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GENERAL VIEW OF COMPLEX Drawing from History of
San Diego County, California, published 1883
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Published in 1898

• Perhaps it is in the mere brown fact of adobe
  alone, yet adobe is one of his few acquired ideas
  which has become second nature. But it
  necessitates the thick walls, the small windows,
  the low doors, the single stories, the long
  porches, the sunken floors, always and everywhere
  generally characteristic of Spanish-American
  occupation. The sturdy structures stand almost
  forever, and when abandoned by intention, sink
  back to earth again only with the passage of the
  centuries, and leave at last a long, low mound
  that will still proclaim a human use, still
  declare the nationality of him who made it
  regardless of all points of the compass and the
  symmetry of squares, convenient to a goat-path in
  front and a corral behind, and who lived in it as
  one does whose life might have originated the
  idea that has made immortal the masterpiece of
  Payne.
• Pg. 98

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Sluicing for gold in San Francisquito Canyon
Between 1890 and 1900?
Miners operate a hydraulic sluice in San
Francisquito Canyon, Los Angeles County,
California. The placer mine machine consists of
adobe columns, pulleys, ropes, and wood boxes.
Donkeys are loaded with ore bags.
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Humanities Architecture
ACT Type Questions

• What does nationality mean? (still declare the
  nationality of him who made it)
• How does the author feel about the adobes?
• How did the founders of this architecture
  contribute to society?
• The author describes the adobe as all of the
  following except
• I. Thick walls
• II. Two story
• III. Generally where Spanish-Americans lived
• IV. Occasionally had goat paths

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Natural History Geology and Botany

• Up and down California in 1860-1864 the journal
  of William H. Brewer
• This is not very much like an ACT passage.

But it is an account of some Yale scientists who
explored California between 1860 and 1864. The
selection I chose is their 48th camp near San
Jose.
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San Jose - 1906
Link to 1876 Map
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Saturday, August 24, 1861.

• The Santa Clara Valley (San Jose Valley of the
  map) is the most fertile and lovely of
  California. At the point where we came into it,
  it is about six miles wide, its bottom level, a
  fine belt of scattered oaks four or five miles
  wide covering the middle. It is here all covered
  with Spanish grants, so is not cultivated, but
  near San Jose, where it is divided into farms, it
  is in high cultivation farmhouses have sprung up
  and rich fields of grain and growing orchards
  everywhere abound. But near our camp it lies in a
  state of nature, and only supports a few cattle.
  One ranch there covers twenty-two thousand acres
  of the best land in the valley--all valuable.
  This Spanish grant land-title system is one of
  the great drawbacks of this country. One man will
  make an immense fortune from that ranch, but the
  public suffers.
• Pg. 169 - 170

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Sunday, September 1, 1861

• NEARLY east of San Jose, some distance in the
  mountains, is a high peak we wished to reach,
  being the highest in that part of the Diablo
  Range. As near as we could judge from our maps,
  we supposed it nine miles distant in a straight
  line. It proved over fifteen. Mr. Hamilton went
  with us. A ride of six miles across the plain
  brought us to the foot of the ridge. All this is
  enclosed, in farms, and under good cultivation.
  Farmhouses, orchards, etc., give it an American
  look. We then struck the ridge, and on rising,
  had a capital chance to see this part of the
  Santa Clara Valley. It is perhaps twelve or
  fourteen miles wide at San Jose, an almost
  perfect plain, very fertile, a perfect garden,
  and much of it in higher cultivation than any
  other part of California.
• Note This is the earliest account known of an
  ascent of Mount Hamilton. Professor Whitney
  vetoed a proposal to name the mountain for him
  (Brewster, Life and Letters of Josiah Dwight
  Whitney 1909, p. 238). It was thereupon named
  for the San Jose clergyman, and is cited as Mount
  Hamilton in the Whitney Survey, Geology, I, 43,
  50, etc.

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Sunday, September 1, 1861 Cont.

• This first ridge was about 1,000 or 1,500 feet
  high. Then we crossed a wide valley, then up
  another ridge. We had attained an altitude of
  nearly three thousand feet, when we came upon
  another deep and steep canyon cutting us off from
  the peak. Here we left our mules and proceeded on
  foot about three miles and reached the peak after
  4 P.M. The view was very extensive and the day
  very clear. It was about 4,000 feet high--we made
  it 4,200 feet--but that is doubtless too high.
  We could see various portions of the Coast Range,
  from far above San Francisco to below Monterey,
  probably 140 to 150 miles between the points, and
  the Diablo Range for about a hundred miles.
• Note The altitude of Mount Hamilton is given
  by the U.S. Geological Survey as 4,209 feet.
• Pg. 173 - 174

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Natural History
Not ACT Type Questions

• Describe the geography that the scientists see.
• Why does the author say, One man will make an
  immense fortune from that ranch, but the public
  suffers? What does he mean by this?

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Mr. Pakters Fiction

• Being trapped in a coal mine aint what I recon
  I thought might end like. Tom thought as his
  feet sloshed around in mud. I done lost my
  chance fer millions and paps gone wring my neck
  for stealin is mule like I did. Tom wasnt the
  brightest crayon in the drawer which is why he
  headed out west to begin with . Digging without a
  partner is dumb luck anyhow and seeing as how he
  passed the Diablo Range of mountains youda
  thought he could see the signs. But no. He just
  kept right on trudgin along like mountains named
  after the devils a sign from God. Understandable
  he didnt go to Sisco seeing as how the fire done
  ripped the city so but it just aint right what
  he done. This sluicing business is hard without
  them hydraulics.

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Fiction
ACT Type Questions

• What is the mood of the passage?
• What is the tone of the passage?
• What is a theme of the passage?
• How does the author feel about the character?
• What does the author feel about people heading
  out west in general?
• How does the character feel?