Pam Clark

History 141

California: Striking it Rich The California Gold Rush of 1849

The discovery of gold at Sutter’s Fort in 1848 marked a tremendous surge in population growth: from 10,000 in 1848, to 255,000 non-native peoples three years later.

Tensions mounted in the gold fields as Native American, Californio, Peruvian, Chilean, Mexican, Australian, French, and Chinese miners came to mine gold. Americans were known to beat, whip, and terrorize the foreign miners. Lynch law was abused by the Americans. Hispanics and other foreigners accounted for the majority of those who were hanged during this time (Starr p. 86-87).

Sutter’s Fort, 1848

California: The Higher ProvincialismPainters and artists began to arrive in California during the 1850’s, and over the next twenty-five years they would paint Mount Shasta in the far north of the state, and Mount Tamalpais in Marin County, and would establish California as a center of landscape painting (Starr p. 143).

Some painters were attached to scientific expeditions, some came directly from the gold fields, and some arrived as visitors to California. Their paintings inspiredimaginations of California as a natural and wild place.

William Keith, Land's End, 1873Mount Shasta From Castle Lake - Thomas Hill

California: The Higher Provincialism

At 5:12AM on April 18, 1906 an earthquake of catastrophic proportions struck and caused buildings to collapse and subsequent fires, devastating the city of San Francisco, and surrounding communities, as well as Stanford University in nearby Palo Alto.

The disaster was downplayed by the city oligarchs, who wanted to save “the reputation of the city.” Later the death rates would rise significantly from the 300earthquake deaths originally reported (Starr p. 162-163).