USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Women worked on mining claims, taught school, or set up businesses of their own. They did laundry, cooked meals, ran hotels and dance halls, and otherwise provided services to others in the community.

Detailed explanation-2: -They worked in saloons, gambling halls, dance halls, peep shows or brothels, and some set up their own businesses. Many came to marry a prosperous miner or businessman and leave the business. Many of them did. Others became mistresses to high rolling customers who could afford to keep them in the style they desired.

Detailed explanation-3: -It was much more common for people to become wealthy by providing the miners with over-priced food, supplies and services. Sam Brannan was the great beneficiary of this new found wealth. Prices increased rapidly and during this period his store had a turnover of $150, 000 a month (almost $4 million in today’s money).

Detailed explanation-4: -Prospectors retrieved the gold from streams and riverbeds using simple techniques, such as panning. Although mining caused environmental harm, more sophisticated methods of gold recovery were developed and later adopted around the world. New methods of transportation developed as steamships came into regular service.

Detailed explanation-5: -Of the 40, 000 people who arrived by ship in the San Francisco harbor in 1849, only 700 were women. For the few women who braved the harsh journey to Gold Country, freedom, independence, and the chance to forge a living and identity separate from male family members beckoned them towards the west.