Grade 9

History/Social Science

Standard 9.4

Students analyze the California Gold Rush.


 
Resources
Lesson Plans
Assessments
Blumberg, Rhoda. 
The Great American Gold Rush

49er Irish: One Irish Family in the California Mines

Holliday, J.S. 
The World Rushed In:  The California Gold Rush Experience.

Jackson, Donald. 
Gold Dust.
New York, Knopf, 1980.

Jackson, Joseph.  Anybodyís Gold:  The Story of Californiaís Mining Towns.

Kowalewski, Michael.  Gold Rush:  A Literary Exploration. 
Heyday Books

Levy, Jo Ann. 
They Saw the Elephant:  Women in the California Gold Rush. 
Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992

London, Jack. 
Call of the Wild

Seagraves, Anne.  High-Spirited Women of the West.

Seagraves, Anne. 
Women of the Sierra

Secrest, William B.  Juanita.
Saga-West Publishing Co., Fresno, California

Sheafer, Silvia Anne.  Chinese and the Gold Rush. 

Time-Life Books. 
The Forty-Niners

Sinnott, James. 
All of his books deal with local history 

Video

88-0941
California Gold:  Stories of Two Women

88-1240
Gold Dredge

88-1608
Westward Movement - The Gold Rush

After reading Chapter 6, students will use  past issues of the local newspaper, The
Mountain Messenger, to find articles about the local gold mines and the miners who worked the mines.  The current issue always contains one page from either fifty or one hundred years ago.  Students should note the country of origin of the miner. 

Students will research either on the net or with local history articles.  They may also interview local miners who always have a story to tell about the old days.   Students will prepare a report and list all sources for an oral presentation to the class.

Use a rubric similar to the Assessment Guidelines for Activity 9.2