The Many Challenges During The California Gold Rush

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It’s eighteen forty eight, and the talk of gold is widespread, many people pack up and head to California. The California Gold Rush has just begun. The California Gold Rush was a difficult time for most people because many did not find gold. Some did, but others made a long difficult journey for nothing. Individuals faced many challenges during The California Gold Rush like the length of the journey and which route the miners took, not every forty-niner found gold, and there was a big risk for disease.
A challenge many individuals faced during the gold rush was the length of the miners travel and which route they took. By wagon the journey took four months to get there.(Mcgill, 8) The forty-niners had to spend a long amount of time in a wagon, with little space, just so they could find gold. Traveling by boat also was a four month journey.(Mcgill, 8) The route by sea was very dangerous because they had to deal with all the sea trouble, like rough waters and rapids. The journey by sea had shortcuts but “A few who tried to use the sea route tried to shorten their traveling distance by crossing the small land bridge of Panama, only to face a treacherous rain forest.”(Mcgill, 8) The four month journey was a definite disadvantage but it was better to take that than shortcuts. The length of the miners travel, and the route …show more content…

Barely anyone who went to California in search of gold found any.(Zuber, 1) Thousands went to California and did not find any gold. During the gold rush miners either got lucky and found gold or they didn’t.(Zuber, 11) Many miners struck out and did not find anything, few did, but many did not. Not finding any gold during the gold rush was just the way it went, it was very “...hit-and-miss..”(Zuber, 11) Lots of people were driven by the idea of getting rich but not many did. Not every miner found gold during the gold rush was a challenge many individuals

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