Rushing Toward Gold

Gold has long been seen as valuable. Some gold coins are dated as far back as 500 B.C. and were used as money.

In the 1800s, gold was found in California. Many people rushed to California to try to find gold of their own and become rich.

The Mini Page learns about the California Gold Rush this week.

The California Gold Rush took place from 1848 to 1855. It began in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, which are in central California, and expanded to include a northern area later.

A man named James W. Marshall discovered gold while he and his crew were building a mill called Sutter’s Place. They used the river on the property to help move dirt while building, and one morning he found gold.

The goldfields in California are shown in red.

While Marshall’s primary concern was constructing the mill, the crew was allowed to pan for gold during their free time. Soon, however, word spread of gold being found on the property, and workers were no longer interested in building the mill. They wanted to search for gold. Later that year, people from Oregon, Latin America and Hawaii

• Most of the people panning for gold were men showed up at Sutter’s Mill to try their luck at striking it rich by finding gold.

• Miners from France sent nearly $80 million worth of gold back to their home country. That’s equal to about $2.3 billion today.

• Not many miners made money or even found gold during the rush, but those who did find it tended to find a valuable sum of it.

More than 300,000 people rushed to California during the gold rush. They were called forty-niners because many of them arrived in 1849.

Along with the influx of people came a need for towns, so people quickly built homes, businesses, schools and churches. San Francisco began as a small town with 200 residents in 1846. By 1852, however, nearly 36,000 lived there. This population explosion is why it was called a boomtown

Food and other supplies were needed, so opportunities for ranchers and farmers flourished. In order to care for fields and deliver goods, mules became an important resource.

Mules were used by firemen to pull equipment. Farmers who settled in California used them for fieldwork, and the Pack Mule Express was established to carry mail to gold miners along riverbanks and mining sites while they panned for gold.

More than 31,000 mules were in gold rush areas by 1855.

• There is still gold in California.

• The first gold rush in America was in North Carolina in the late 1820s.

• Gold is often used to make jewelry, but coins are also made out of it.

Sometimes gold is used for medical treatments, dental work and electronics.

• The chemical symbol for gold is Au.

• Gold is malleable, which means it can be hammered or pressed into a new shape without cracking.

• Gold is a good conductor of heat and electricity

• The melting point of gold is 1,947.97 degrees Fahrenheit

• The U.S. has the largest stockpile of gold reserves in the world.

Resources

On the Web:

• bit.ly/MPCAgoldrush

At the library:

• “If You Were a Kid During the California Gold Rush” by Josh Gregory interested in building the mill. They wanted to search for gold. Later that year, people from Oregon, Latin America and Hawaii while they panned for gold. More than 31,000 mules were in gold rush areas by 1855.

Words that remind us of the California Gold Rush are hidden in this puzzle. Some words are hidden backward or diagonally, and some letters are used twice. See if you can find:

BOOMTOWN, CALIFORNIA, CHURCH, COINS, COMMUNITY, EXCAVATE, GOODS, GOLD, JEWELRY, MALLEABLE, MARSHALL, MILL, MULES, RANCHER, RUSH, RIVER, SCHOOL, SYMBOL.

White Bean Chicken Soup

You’ll need:

• 4 (15-ounce) cans Great Northern beans

• 8 cups chicken broth

• 4 cups chopped cooked chicken

• 3 cups salsa verde

• 11/2 teaspoons ground cumin

What to do:

1. Drain and rinse cans of beans.

• toppings: chopped avocado, crushed tortilla chips, sour cream, grated Monterey Jack cheese

2. Place all ingredients except toppings in a large soup pot.

3. Heat until just boiling; reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.

4. Top with chopped avocado, crushed tortilla chips, sour cream and cheese. Serves 8.

Use the letters in the boxes to make a word with the same meaning as the clue. The numbers in parentheses represent the number of letters in the solution. Each letter combination can be used only once, but all letter combinations will be necessary to complete the puzzle.

1. fish in a can (4)

2. pet kept in a bowl (8)

3. Curious George is one (6)

4. the biggest planet (7)

5. pig in “Charlotte’s Web” (6)

6. underwater vessel (9)

7. colors in the sky (7)

Gabrielle: What do you call a calm piece of gold?

Gabe: Mellow yellow!

Windstorms raging across the Gobi Desert, which borders China and Mongolia, sent out an unhealthful cloud of yellow dust that brought misery and disruption to life in parts of China, South Korea and Japan. The seasonal haze worsens air pollution and puts people at greater risk of respiratory disease due to the tiny dust particles that are small enough to become lodged deep in lung tissues. Chinese meteorologists say the Gobi sandstorms have occurred more frequently since the 1960s due to increasingly hotter temperatures and lower precipitation in the desert region.

For later:

Look in the newspaper for articles about California.

Teachers: Follow and interact with The Mini Page on Facebook!

Answers: tuna, goldfish, monkey, Jupiter, Wilbur, submarine, rainbow.

By Jim Miller