“California, Here We Come!” Research Project - 2008

Re-living the California Gold Rush

February 19, 2008
Dear Fourth Grade Students,

You are about to step back into California’s vibrant history and become one of the many people that were affected by the January 24, 1848 discovery of gold in California. There were six demographic groups that participated in, and/or were affected by, California’s Gold Rush:

1. California Native Americans - men and women members from tribal groups such as Miwok, Nissnan, Konkow, Maidu, Yokuts, and men and women members from mission/rancho era affected groups such as Gabriellino, Chumash, Esselen, Salinan, Ohlone

2. Californios - men and women Mexican citizens living in Mexico-governed California who owned, operated, or worked on vast cattle ranchos located predominantly between San Diego and Yurba Buena (San Francisco)

3. Forty Niners - white men from the United States, Canada, Europe, or Australia, as well as Latino men from the Sonora region of Mexico, Central America, Chile, or Peru

4. African Americans

a. Enslaved men and women living as property of their white American owners in slave states such as Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, or Louisiana

b. Free men and women living in non-slave states such as Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts

5. Women – white women from the United States, Canada, Europe, or Australia typically accompanying their Forty Niner husband or father

6. Chinese - young men from the Guangdong (Canton) region of southern China

Soon you will be given the opportunity to choose one of the six demographic groups and to develop a fictitious persona in which to relive the California Gold Rush experience. Gold Rush persona selection guidelines are:

1. The skin color of your modern day birth does not limit you to the ethnicity you wish to become for your Gold Rush persona. (For example: a fair skinned, blonde haired girl can become an enslaved African American just as an Asian boy can become a Forty-Niner from Australia.) Remember, your persona is fictitious, so you may or may not look in real life like the Gold Rush person you are about to become.

2. Boys can be any demographic group except Women.

3. Girls can be any demographic group (including a male Chinese) except a Forty-Niner.

I hope you enjoy selecting your Gold Rush demographic group, developing your new persona, and experiencing your journey back into California’s history. May your opportunity to relive California’s world-famous Gold Rush fill you with the golden joy of discovery.

Yours,

Mrs. Stolpestad

Project Outline

Part 1 – Selection of Demographic Group

After selection of your demographic group, you will be costumed as a person of that demographic group during the Gold Rush era, and you will have a sepia-tone photograph taken of you. Begin thinking about whom you have become. As you research the Gold Rush, and your demographic group, continue to ponder how your fictitious persona feels about living through this historical event.

Part 2 – Research, Analysis, and Writing

You will research your demographic group and how the group was affected before, during, and after the discovery of gold in California on January 24, 1848 and the subsequent Gold Rush of 1849 – 1860. Research materials will include:

1. California Vistas, Our Golden State social studies text book
2. Manchester GATE Internet research site http://www.fresno.k12.ca.us/schools/s031/resources/caproject/caproject07links.htm
3. Library research texts and trade books
4. Primary sources and biographies
5. Historic maps and sea routes
6. “The Gold Rush” PBS video
7. “Trail to Riches: The California Gold Rush” Rainbow Educational Media video
8. Teacher supplied handouts and supplemental information

Using the researched and analyzed information you will write and/or create the following (all MUST be written in class to receive a grade):

1. “Summary of the Gold Rush” research paper
2. “(demographic group’s) Population During the Gold Rush” Excel line plot
3. “1850 Population of California” Excel demographic circle chart
4. Bibliography of research material using easybib.com

Part 3 – Persona Development

You will develop your Gold Rush fictitious persona taking historical care to be accurate in his/her skills, abilities, and attributes. You will develop and write (all writing MUST be done in class to receive a grade):

1. “Autobiography of (persona’s name)”
2. “(persona’s name) Journal” – a one-year personal journal that must contain:

a. ten one-page accurately dated entries hand written in the present tense events such as:

i. hearing the news of gold’s discovery
ii. traveling from home to the Mother Lode
iii. life in the gold camps, boom towns, and Gold
Rush related geographical areas
iv. deciding to go home/deciding to remain in
California
v. traveling home/making California home

b. personal emotions to everyday life and historical events
c. plentiful and accurate use of Gold Rush vocabulary

Part 4 – Assemble Gold Rush History Board

You will be given the opportunity to publish all graded written work at home and compile it with your class-made Excel data charts, sepia-tone persona’s photograph, and all other supplemental research pictures onto your history board. Each student will be supplied with a history board on which to assemble the final project. This final part of the project and will be done at home.