Social Studies/History Week 24

Q 2 a & b.

The explorers are:
Henry Bigler
James Marshall
Jim Beckworth

On January 24, 1848, Henry William Bigler wrote in his diary one of the most critical sentences in American history: "This day some kind of ‘mettle’ was found in the tail race that looks like gold first discovered by James Martial, the Boss of the Mill."

Thus was written, the historic discovery of California gold by carpenter James Wilson Marshall while working at a saw mill on the bank of the American River.

Marshall later said that he made the discovery while looking at tailrace (whatever that means) of the mill. He found there a shiny stone, caught behind another stone. When he showed his find to Johann August Sutter, the owner of the mill, Sutter exclaimed "It's gold—at least twenty-three carat gold!”

Jim Beckwourth came to California during the gold rush and searched around Murderer's Bar and Rich Bar on the Feather River. He was aware that one of the greatest challenges facing his fellow forty-niners was making it through the Sierra Nevada. The high passes, or narrow openings through the mountains were hard to cross.

Henry started the movement to California by documenting the fact that James had found gold, which made everybody think that they would too.

Q 2, c

The only reason that people came to CA was... GOLD! Gold and more gold. Eventually, it was because of good houses. Then it was the beach (As people started moving into the middle of the country they forgot the beauty of the beach).
And now it's... EVVERYTHING!

Q 2, d
Californians who lived through the 1920s and 1930s must have felt as though they were on a roller coaster. In a crazy world of commerecials and advertizers, a decade of amazing acivement was followed by the worst economic collapse in the state's history.
The Great Depression.
Conditions in Pipe City were typical of what the homeless faced everywhere during the depression. The Oakland Post-Inquirer on December 3, 1932 said the following speech:

"To qualify for citizenship in Pipe City you must be jobless, homeless, hungry, and preferably shoeless, coatless, and hatless. If one also is discouraged, lonely, filled with a terrible feeling of hopelessness and helplessness, one's qualifications are that much stronger. One belongs. Not all of Pipe City's inhabitants are that way. Some of them have learned that a philosophical attitude helps. One may tinge his philosophy with a drop of irony, even bitterness, and the concrete may seem less hard and the blankets less thin and the mulligan less watery. But it takes a lot of philosophy, you bet, to make concrete either soft or warm!"

"To qualify for citizenship in Pipe City you must be jobless, homeless, hungry, and preferably shoeless, coatless, and hatless. If one also is discouraged, lonely, filled with a terrible feeling of hopelessness and helplessness, one's qualifications are that much stronger." That's crazy!!!!!!!!!!!!