Long Journey To California

Why did the Donner Party get stuck in the Sierra Nevada Mountains? In April of 1846 90 emigrants led by Jacob and George Donner left Springfield Illinois in hopes of using a quicker, shorter route to Oregon. The party took the regular trail up to Ft. Bridger, Wyoming. There they were supposed to meet a trail guide, Lansford Hastings, to take them but he was gone, leading another party along the mountains. There was a note for the Donner’s to follow a trail to Weber Canyon, Hasting claimed it was an easier route to Oregon.

And finally they begged the gods to help. They begged for land, for food, for water. They promised the gods that they would never again own slaves, and they would never again eat man. The gods delivered them a storm to push them faster, the seas heaved and the waves grew like cliffs alongside their ships. And in the morning, they landed ashore."

West of the Appalachians, transportation was nonexistent (Murrin pg. 294). Many boatmen who made a trip from Louisville to New Orleans would spend a whole month navigating through dangerous waters through unsettled territory (Murrin pg. 294).

The construction of railroads in the western United States made the West more accessible. People realized that without the railroad, western land would be unreachable

What would take months to go to the west or to travel would now only take weeks. The road in California had shipments of tea that would be transported to the east. The marketplace would have their stores stocked with all this tea as well as being assured that the tea will arrive in a matter of days. Farmers were able to produce more vegetables, fruits and crops because of this new system of transportation. Food would arrive at its destination without going to spoil.

There were fast rapids that they had to cross in order for them to get to California. The rushing rapids were very hard to cross. The ground within the rapids were like quicksand. Grabbing hold of everything

The Oregon Trail: Some reasons why the Pioneers decided to go along the Oregon trail and head west were to find opportunity, have free land, good farmland, large forests, free of diseases, and to find jobs. What was the Oregon trail like? - Many diseases like typhoid fever, Cholera, dysentery, Diphtheria, and measles. - They traveled 15 miles on a average day and 18-20 on a good day.

In conclusion, the westward expansion was one of the most important times in American history but one of the hardest for those who made the journey. The settlers had to go through a lot of hardships to get a new life in the west. The Gold Rush helped bring people to the west and populate California so it became a state. People such as Sacagawea helped Lewis and Clark helped explore the new terrain and make maps so people could live there. Even though the pioneers got diseases, had conflicts with the Native Americans, and had to travel for long periods of time in a ship or covered wagon, they never gave up hope.

After President Polk confirmed the rumors of gold in California in 1848 (Oakland Museum Staff), around 250,000 people came to California in seek of the soft metal that could lead to a fortune: gold (The forty-niners). The California Gold Rush not only presented fortune, it presented a new idea of the American Dream: “‘one where the emphasis was on the ability to take risks and the willingness to gamble

Many farmer’s did this. Farmer’s were not the only people moving west. People going to california for the gold

The Gold Rush supposedly inspired the largest mass movement of people in world history because of the incredibly large masses of gold being found in the West. People found thousands of dollars in gold and people of all different cultures and backgrounds moved Westwards in hopes of finding gold as well. The Gold Rush left a positive effect on American History because Americans became wealthier and more foreigners came to California which expanded diversity. To start, Americans were able to sell this gold in exchange for loads of money. One man who only had a piece of land that was four feet square “got thirty pounds of gold in less than a month.”.

The California Gold Rush is a unique point in history that helped to shape the U.S. Without the gold rush, California may not be considered a part of the U.S. because it could easily have been acquired by Mexico. With the gold rush the U.S. wanted to obtain California both for its gold and to expand its growing population. Obtaining California was a benefit for many reasons. However, the part of the landscape of California was ruined in the process because many of its rivers were diverted destroying much of its natural landscape.

The California Gold Rush was a rush of people in search of gold in California. The gold was discovered in the Sacramento Valley in early 1848 which sparked the gold rush. The rush was a huge influence in how America was shaped into what it is today. It shaped California into what it is today. Without this gold rush California would be like it is today but it would have taken way more years and it wouldn’t be such a diversely populated state.

Nowadays we have the luxury of traveling across the united states in a few days with smooth, paved roads with heat and air conditioned cars. Immigrants of the 1850s had to spend months at a time traveling across the United States. They had rough trails, illnesses, and no bridges to cross rivers. People also didn’t have very reliable wagons, so they had to repair their wagons along the journey. But in the modern days we have reliable cars that are a fast way of transportation.

In between California and the rest of the country were the Great Plains which were not heavily populated so there was no easy way of trade and transportation to the growing western territories. A group of men called the “Big Four” which consisted of Collis Huntington, Leland Stanford, Charles Crocker and Mark Hopkins, decided what the country needed was a transcontinental railroad. Their company, The Central Pacific Railroad company would hire 15,000 Chinese men to work on constructing the railroad due to the fact that they would work for less than the average American. This made transportation cheaper and quicker than ever