USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -The effects of the Gold Rush were substantial. Whole indigenous societies were attacked and pushed off their lands by the gold-seekers, called “forty-niners” (referring to 1849, the peak year for Gold Rush immigration).

Detailed explanation-2: -Arriving in covered wagons, clipper ships, and on horseback, some 300, 000 migrants, known as “forty-niners” (named for the year they began to arrive in California, 1849), staked claims to spots of land around the river, where they used pans to extract gold from silt deposits.

Detailed explanation-3: -Forty-niners refers to the people that migrated to California from 1848-1849 in hopes to find gold and make fortunes. Why are the 49ers called the 49ers? The 49ers got their name simply for the date in history (1849) where tens of thousands of people migrated to California from all over the world to pan for gold.

Detailed explanation-4: -Others tried hiding it beneath logs, behind wall-boards, in tree trunks, tin pots and pans; one even kept live snakes in his cache to deter thieves. Sometimes they were lucky enough to have a person of “outstanding character” take in their dust and nuggets for safekeeping.

Detailed explanation-5: -Some also came to help fulfill America’s Manifest Destiny” to become a continental nation. So many went west that the term “’49ers” was applied not only to those who arrived that year but also to those who followed. Between 1848 and 1855, more than 300, 000 people moved to California in search of gold.