5 8 following the golden dream

Fascinating Facts

• Nearly $2 billion in gold was mined in California
before widespread mining stopped.

• Besides California, gold rushes occurred in Australia

(1851), British Columbia (1858), Nevada (1859–60),
Colorado (1850s and 1890s), South Dakota (1876–78),
and South Africa (1886).

• The word touchstone means a test that shows if something
is real. The original touchstone was a black stone that,
when rubbed with a piece of gold, showed if the gold
was pure.

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Scott Foresman Social Studies

ISBN 0-328-14899-7

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Following
The Golden Dream
by Cynthia Clampitt


Adventure, dreams, land, and gold attracted people to the
United States and across its plains. By the mid-1800s
the country extended from the Atlantic Ocean to the
Pacific Ocean. In this book you will read about the
people, trails, conflicts, and discoveries that fueled this
time of expansion and change.

Vocabulary

Write to It!
Some people worked to build a better life, while others
worked to strike it rich in the gold fields. What are some
ways people try to “get rich quick” today? Write two or
more paragraphs describing how “get rich quick” ideas
are risky, unreliable, and sometimes dangerous, and why
working to improve one’s life is both more reliable and
better for a person.

Following

The Golden Dream
by Cynthia Clampitt

manifest destiny
blaze

Write your paragraphs on a separate sheet of paper.

mountain men
wagon train
annex
gold rush
prospector
forty-niner

Photographs
Every effort has been made to secure permission and provide appropriate credit for photographic material. The publisher deeply
regrets any omission and pledges to correct errors called to its attention in subsequent editions.
Unless otherwise acknowledged, all photographs are the property of Scott Foresman, a division of Pearson Education.
Photo locators denoted as follows: Top (T), Center (C), Bottom (B), Left (L), Right (R) Background (Bkgd)
ISBN: 0-328-14899-7
Copyright © Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Printed in the United States of
America. This publication is protected by Copyright, and permission should be obtained
from the publisher prior to any prohibited reproduction, storage in a retrieval system, or
transmission in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or
likewise. For information regarding permission(s), write to: Permissions Department, Scott
Foresman, 1900 East Lake Avenue, Glenview, Illinois 60025.
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Editorial Offices: Glenview, Illinois • Parsippany, New Jersey • New York, New York

Opener: ©Bettmann/Corbis
3 ©Bridgeman Art LibrarySales Offices: Needham, Massachusetts • Duluth, Georgia
4 ©James Randklev/Stone/Getty Images
Coppell, Texas • Sacramento, California • Mesa, Arizona
5 ©Bettmann/Corbis
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• Glenview, Illinois


Hopes and Dreams

Opening Up the West

The dreams for coming to the United States may have been
different, but they had the same result: they made people come
here. Some people followed the promise of building a home and a
future, while others pursued the often unreliable hope of gaining
quick wealth. The dreams pulled people across the plains or across
the seas. They drew people to places that were both difficult and
full of possibilities.
Following these dreams changed people’s lives, and it changed
the United States. By 1850 the United States extended from the
Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. Texas and California were
states, cities had been born, and the United States had become

one of the top gold-producing nations in the world.
This growth was caused by more than dreams, however. Many
Americans had begun to believe it was the nation’s manifest destiny
to grow. More land meant greater strength for the country and
fewer borders to protect. It meant more opportunities for the cities’
poor and the thousands of immigrants who continued to arrive.
Also, part of the West was a land of freedom for escaped enslaved
people. The West had to be opened up—hundreds of thousands
of people were depending on it.
Unfortunately, this expansion did not come without a cost.
American Indians were often pushed aside as newcomers laid claim to
land they had been living on, or gold miners took over waterways
they used to fish. Thousands of people died on the trails or during
conflicts. However, people still came to pursue their dreams.

Before the dreamers could head west, the land had to be explored
and trails had to be blazed, or marked. It was the mountain men
who opened up the West. These fur trappers, traders, and scouts
made the unexplored regions their home. They blazed the great
western trails and stirred interest in this new land with their tales
of great forests and fertile valleys.
The mountain men, who traded with American Indians, could
usually speak several American Indian languages. They sometimes
wore American Indian clothing and often married American Indian
women. In time, this contact created problems. It made the American
Indians increasingly dependent on manufactured goods and
sometimes led to the spread of diseases. It created competition for
trade goods among groups that had never before been enemies.
In the early 1800s, however, life in the unspoiled land seemed
beautiful and exciting to the mountain men, and they believed

there was much work to be done.

Jedediah Smith, shown here leading a
party of trappers across the desert, is
considered by many to have been one
of the greatest of the mountain men.

2

3


No one believed
John Colter when
he described the
geysers and other
sights he saw in
Yellowstone.

John Colter traveled with Lewis and Clark before becoming
a trapper and scout. He traveled on foot through the mountains
in the area that is now Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming. In 1807
he became the first American to see the area American Indians
called Yellowstone. His tales of boiling mud and geysers shooting
hundreds of feet into the air were not believed. People thought he
had lost his mind.
Jedediah Smith probably made his first trip west as a teenager.
In 1824 he was part of a group that opened a passage to the
Northwest through Wyoming. Two years later Smith found a
westward route to California, and he and the traders he was leading

became the first Americans to enter California from the east.
Smith was also the first American to cross the Sierra Nevada
and the first to reach Oregon by traveling up the Pacific coast.
Smith’s adventures were often dangerous. He nearly died of thirst
in the desert, was almost killed by a grizzly bear, and survived several
attacks by American Indians. While traveling in the Southwest,
Smith was finally killed by the Comanche.
4

Jim Bridger’s name lives on in the Bridger Range in Montana,
Bridger Pass in southern Wyoming, and Bridger-Teton National
Forest in western Wyoming. Bridger explored a territory that
ranged from the Canadian border to New Mexico.
Jim Beckwourth, the son of an enslaved African American woman,
headed west when he gained his freedom. He found a pass
through the Sierra Nevada that later became part of the overland
trail to California.
Kit Carson was a mountain man who became a folk hero. Carson
ran away from home as a teenager and joined a group of trappers
and frontiersmen. He became a scout for the United States
military. In 1854 he was appointed to be an American Indian
agent. He became well known for his fairness and sympathy for
the problems faced by American Indians.
By the time the days of the mountain men were over, in about
1850, the West had been opened up and trails had been blazed to
present-day Oregon, California, and New Mexico. People other
than explorers were beginning to follow these trails.

Jim Beckwourth, the son
of an enslaved person,

was a mountain man.


Oregon Country
John Jacob Astor thought that opening a trading post in the
Pacific Northwest would increase his already successful business.
He hoped to buy furs and ship them to Asia, where there was a
great demand. In 1811 he opened his trading post at the mouth
of the Columbia River. However, the British controlled most of
the fur trade in the region, and Astor’s trading post was a failure.

Crossing the United States by wagon was not
easy. Mountains and rivers were among the many
obstacles that settlers faced heading west.

Increased activity by British fur traders worried the United States
government, but in 1818 the two countries agreed that they could
share the part of the Northwest known as Oregon Country—an
area that included all of present-day Oregon, Washington, and
Idaho, and parts of Montana, Wyoming, and British Columbia.
In 1819 a treaty between the United States and Spain set Oregon’s
southern border, and Spain agreed not to settle Oregon.
Many settlers went west including Marcus Whitman, a young
doctor, and his wife, Narcissa Prentiss Whitman. The Whitmans
traveled to Oregon in 1836, setting up a mission near presentday Walla Walla, Washington. They taught the Cayuse how to
build houses, plow fields, irrigate crops, and build mills to grind
corn and wheat. Narcissa started a school, and Dr. Whitman
treated the Cayuse along with missionaries and other people in
the region.
In 1842 the Whitmans received news that their assignment was

going to end. Marcus Whitman made a three-thousand-mile journey
on horseback to Boston to ask that their work be continued. He
then journeyed to Washington, D.C., to persuade federal officials
to encourage settlement in Oregon.
As Whitman returned to Oregon Country in 1843, he joined a
group of nearly one thousand immigrants who were heading west.
He guided their wagon train across the country, and it was because
of his efforts that they succeeded in crossing the mountains to the
Columbia River. This event became known as the “great migration.”
This great migration convinced many people that the Oregon
Trail was safe. By the mid-1840s, six thousand settlers had moved
to Oregon Country.

7


This sudden increase in settlement forced the United States
and Great Britain to reconsider their agreement about Oregon. In
1846 the United States accepted the British suggestion that the
northern border of Oregon be set at forty-nine degrees latitude, as
was the rest of the United States and the Canadian border.
With this area now officially part of the United States, more
migration took place. Wagon trains of as many as one hundred
covered wagons were soon crossing the continent. Families loaded
all the possessions they could fit into these wagons. The twothousand-mile journey could take as many as four to six months
to complete.
While on the Oregon Trail, everyone generally rose at 4 A.M.
and was ready to depart by 7 A.M. The wagon train would travel all
day, stopping by 4 P.M. to graze horses and cattle, prepare meals, and
make repairs. Children could play once their chores were done,

and violins or guitars were sometimes brought out to provide
entertainment.
Mountains and rivers were difficult to cross. Thunderstorms,
strong winds, and snow could make traveling extremely difficult
and dangerous. Contaminated water or food often caused sickness
and even death to sweep through groups of travelers, and the Oregon
Trail became lined with graves. However, the promise of a new
life and the possibility of escaping poverty motivated people to
continue on the trail.
During the 1840s about twelve thousand people used the Oregon
Trail to reach the Pacific Northwest. Of all the great overland routes
to the West, the Oregon Trail was used the longest.

8

Whole families, including children, traveled in the wagon trains.
People had to bring their pets and farm animals with them.

The Whitman Massacre
In 1847 a severe outbreak of measles affected both American
Indians and settlers. Dr. Whitman cared for many sick children,
but unlike many of the settlers’ children, many American Indian
children had no immunity to the disease and died. The Cayuse
were angry, believing that the Whitmans were intentionally
killing their children to make room for more settlers. On
November 29, 1847, the Cayuse attacked, killing Marcus and
Narcissa Whitman and twelve other settlers, and kidnapping
fifty-three women and children. The Whitman Massacre, as it was
called, led to the United States government’s decision to create
the Oregon Territory, with a local government and soldiers to

protect its citizens.


Mexican Land, United States Land
The 1800s were a time of turmoil in Mexico. In 1821 Agustín
de Iturbide (ah gus TEEN day ee ter BEE day) and Vincente
Guerrero (vin CHEN tay ger AIR oh) raised an army and took
control of most of Mexico. Spain appointed its own military officer
to govern Mexico, but it was too late to regain control. The
Treaty of Córdoba, signed on August 24, 1821, gave Mexico its
independence from Spain.
Iturbide crowned himself emperor of Mexico in 1822, and the
United States gave formal recognition to the Mexican
empire. The military, headed by Antonio López de Santa Anna,
revolted against the emperor the next year. Iturbide was forced
from power, and in 1824 he was arrested and shot.

Santa Anna surrenders to Sam Houston, who was wounded
in the Battle of San Jacinto.

Santa Anna declared that Mexico was now a republic. Men were
given the right to vote. Government protections, however, were
removed for native peoples, who were now worse off than under
Spanish rule. Different military groups began fighting for control,
and the government changed hands every year or two. Mexico’s
debts skyrocketed.
By 1833 Santa Anna was again in charge, this time as president.
Santa Anna adopted a new constitution in 1836, one that
eliminated states’ rights. The people most affected by this were
the thirty thousand United States immigrants who had been

invited to settle the previously undeveloped area known as Texas.
When the Texans revolted, Santa Anna crushed the first group he
encountered at the Alamo in February 1836. Santa Anna’s army
was then defeated by Sam Houston’s troops in April 1836, and
Santa Anna was captured.
In exchange for his freedom, Santa Anna promised not to try
to recapture Texas, but he refused to recognize its independence.
When the United States annexed Texas in 1845, the Mexican
people removed Santa Anna from power because he had been willing
to negotiate with the United States.
President James Polk tried to make peace. He offered Mexico
$30 million for New Mexico and California. Mexico needed the
money badly but refused. When United States troops occupied
the Texas borderlands that Mexico claimed as its own territory, the
Mexican troops attacked them in April 1846. Polk saw this as an
act of war. The Mexican War lasted until February 1848. The Treaty
of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the war, gave the United States
a vast territory that included most of the American Southwest. It also
gave Mexico $15 million and granted citizenship to the seventy-five
thousand Mexicans living in the Southwest.

11


California had never attracted large numbers of people. Much
of the state was dry, with little of the fertile land that drew farmers
to Oregon. It was mountainous and hard to reach. During the
Mexican War, Mexico had hardly bothered to defend California.
Now suddenly everyone wanted to go there—the gold rush was
on. As “gold fever” took hold, people left their homes and their

jobs. Soldiers deserted their camps, stores and schools were closed,
and farms were abandoned. In one year, eighty thousand men
flooded into California. Sutter’s fears proved correct, and within a
few months his land was covered with tents and was being torn up
by miners’ picks and shovels.
At the beginning of the gold rush, miners usually worked on
their own, panning in streams or digging nearby.

The Lure of Gold
Only a few days before Mexico signed the Treaty of Guadalupe
Hidalgo, a carpenter from New Jersey named James Wilson Marshall
picked up a few yellow pebbles in a California stream. The pebbles
turned out to be gold. John Sutter, a rancher from Switzerland,
owned the land where the gold was found. Sutter knew that news of
the discovery could ruin everything he had built and that people
would come by the thousands and overrun his land. He asked
his workers to tell no one, but word leaked out anyway. With no
telephones or telegraphs, the news spread slowly at first, from friend
to friend, but everyone who heard soon headed for Sutter’s land.
By March 1848, several newspapers had published the story of
Marshall’s discovery. The news electrified the country and sped
around the world.

12

Chinese Immigration
The Chinese name for California was “Gum Shan” or “Gold
Mountain.” News of the discovery of gold reached China in 1848,
and by 1852, twenty-five thousand Chinese had reached Gold
Mountain. As was true of American miners, only a few struck it

rich in the gold fields, and many of those who did returned to
China with their wealth. Others stayed, some as miners, but most
found work as cooks, farmers, and merchants. Some opened
stores or restaurants. The first Chinese laundry opened in San
Francisco in 1851, followed by many more.
Though 1863 was a good year for Chinese miners, most had
left mining by 1868. Many of the former miners went on to help
build the transcontinental railroad.

13


While life was not easy for the miners, it was very hard for the
region’s American Indians. Some joined the rush for gold, but many
were driven off by hostile prospectors and forced to flee. Those
who stayed found their lands and waterways ruined as digging
continued. Californios, the Hispanics who lived in California before
it became part of the United States, also found their land overrun.
The poverty that resulted from losing their land and livelihood
would last for decades after the gold rush ended.
By 1853 a total of 250,000 fortune-seekers had arrived in
California, which had become a state in 1850. Though many
prospectors left for the big gold rush in Australia in 1851, and
many of the disappointed moved back east, California continued
to grow, as settlers replaced the miners. The gold rush was over,
but California was just getting started.

Immigrants, Hispanic Californios, and American Indians
often worked together, at least when gold was plentiful.
You can see how mining could damage the land.

The first prospectors, or people who came searching for gold,
were called forty-niners because they arrived in 1849. There
was great ethnic diversity among the prospectors, with dozens
of languages spoken on the gold fields—but most of those who
arrived in 1849 were men. Life in the gold fields was not pleasant.
Most miners lived in small tents, and there were few services such
as doctors or barbers. Without any laws, government, or police,
mining camps were lawless and dangerous places. Few people
wanted their wives or daughters to face these hardships—though
a few women did make the trip, some even to search for gold.

14

Darling Clementine
One of the best-known songs about the gold rush is “Clementine.”
In it a miner sings about his daughter who drowned. He could
not save her because he could not swim.
In a cavern, in a canyon,
Excavating for a mine
Lived a miner forty-niner
And his daughter, Clementine.
Oh my darling, oh my darling,
Oh my darling Clementine,
You are lost and gone forever,
Dreadful sorry, Clementine.

15

Adventure, dreams, land, and gold attracted people to the
United States and across its plains. By the mid-1800s
the country extended from the Atlantic Ocean to the
Glossary
Pacific Ocean. In this book you will read about the
annexpeople,
to addtrails,
or attach
conflicts, and discoveries that fueled this
of expansion
and change.
blaze time
to mark
a trail, especially
by cutting off a piece of
tree bark
forty-niner a nickname for
a person who arrived in
Vocabulary
California in 1849 to look for gold
manifest destiny
gold rush the sudden movement of people to an area
blaze
where gold has been found
mountain men
manifest destiny the belief that the United States should
wagon
expand west to the Pacific
Oceantrain
annex and traders who

mountain men scouts, fur trappers,
opened up the American West
westward settlement
gold to
rush
in the 1800s
prospector
prospector a person who explores or examines a region,
forty-niner
searching for gold or other valuable resources
wagon train a common method of transportation to the
West, in which wagons traveled in groups for safety

Write to It!
Some people worked to build a better life, while others
worked to strike it rich in the gold fields. What are some
ways people try to “get rich quick” today? Write two or
more paragraphs describing how “get rich quick” ideas
are risky, unreliable, and sometimes dangerous, and why
working to improve one’s life is both more reliable and
better for a person.
Write your paragraphs on a separate sheet of paper.

Photographs
Every effort has been made to secure permission and provide appropriate credit for photographic material. The publisher deeply
regrets any omission and pledges to correct errors called to its attention in subsequent editions.
Unless otherwise acknowledged, all photographs are the property of Scott Foresman, a division of Pearson Education.
Photo locators denoted as follows: Top (T), Center (C), Bottom (B), Left (L), Right (R) Background (Bkgd)

ISBN: 0-328-14899-7

Copyright © Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Printed in the United States of
America. This publication is protected by Copyright, and permission should be obtained
from the publisher prior to any prohibited reproduction, storage in a retrieval system, or
transmission in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or
likewise. For information regarding permission(s), write to: Permissions Department, Scott
Foresman, 1900 East Lake Avenue, Glenview, Illinois 60025.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 V0G1 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05

16

Opener: ©Bettmann/Corbis
3 ©Bridgeman Art Library
4 ©James Randklev/Stone/Getty Images
5 ©Bettmann/Corbis
6 ©Corbis
9 ©Bettmann/Corbis
10 ©Bettmann/Corbis
12 ©Getty Images
14 ©Bettmann/Corbis