Becoming a State

California only lasted in Mexico's hands for less than 30 years when it was taken over by the United States of America in 1848. In this same year gold was discovered in the Sierra mountains and California's history suddenly became very exciting - full of adventures, disapointments, changes and injustices.

When word got around that gold had been found, people from all around the world rushed to California as fast as they could. Airplanes and cars hadn't been invented yet, so people braved up to 6 months at sea or crossed the continent on horse or foot. Once people got to California, though, many found that finding gold wasn't as easy as they had thought. Just getting to the mountains was a dangerous adventure with possible encounters with armed bandits or wild grizzly bears. Then looking for gold required long days thigh deep in frigid mountain streams sifting through rocks and dirt for a glimmer of gold. It was not an easy life and only a few every struck it rich.

After a couple of years the easy gold had already been found. Mining was taken over by large companies who could invest in large machinery that blasted apart whole mountain side in the search for gold. This caused many environmental problems California is still dealing with today.

Once the Gold Rush settled down a few people decided to return back home, but many more decided they liked life in the "wild west" and stayed to make California their home. Because of the Gold Rush, many cities had suddenly sprung to life. The sleepy little town at the mouth of the San Francisco Bay had become a thriving city of gold prospectors and fearless adventurers from around the globe. For example, there were neighborhoods of Chileans speaking Spanish, neighborhoods of Americans and Englishmen speaking English and neighborhoods of Chinese speaking Mandarin and Cantonese. Unfortunately, prejudices were deep and most people of color - including Native Americans and Mexicans who had been living in California for years - encountered a lot of discrimination.