I. Gold Mining in California

A. Ecological effects of gold mining: timber depletion by gold miners; landscape degradation and river debris in hydraulic mining disrupt fishing and farming; mercury used in gold and silver amalgamation pollutes rivers; air and water pollution is associated with gold miners' camps.

B. Exogenous factors disrupting California lands

1. Population: Cyclical patterns emerge--exploration; growth of frontier towns or boom towns, followed by decline and ghost town. Pattern is related to relative abundance and rate of exhaustion of nonrenewable resource base. Gold rush provides dramatic example: California population in 1848 comprises 14,000 non-Indians and 100,000 Indians; in 1849: 100,000 settlers; in 1852: 250,000 settler and 50,000 Indians; in 1860: 380,000 settlers; in 1900 Indians are reduced to 15,000. Immigrants of many nationalities and races (English, Irish, Spanish, Blacks, Chinese, Mexicans, and so on) arrive.

2. Rise of Market: Gold mining creates large international market in San Francisco together with inland trade via Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers between 1850-1900. San Fraancisco mint is developed. Total gold output 1849-1900 is $1,300,000,000.

3. Technology: Consists of placer mines with pans and rockers; river mining by dam construction; deep gravel mining by tunnels and shafts; hydraulic techniques utilizing water pressure from fall through iron pipes and blast from nozzle; quartz mining of gold and silver using square timbering in underground caverns, stamp mills for crushing ore, and amalgamation with mercury for separation of metal from impurities, followed by heating of amalgam in retorts to release gold and recapture vaporized and condensed mercury.

4. Social Relations: Individuals or cooperatives exploitati resources in early years where technology remains simple and cheap (for example, Indians and immigrants in California placer and river mining). Later, costly technologies become necessary for sustained yield. High profits induce capitalist pattern of organization in which individuals or corporations supply capital for development and wage workers or black slaves brought by southerners to California supply labor. Indian lands are appropriated and treaties broken wherever abundant resources indicate potential large profits. Miners and the military respond to Indian retaliation by massacring tribes. Black slaves are brought by southern slave holders; free blacks from northern states. California is declared a free state in October 1849. Chinese immigrants arrive from Guangdong Province. Foreign Miner's Tax enacted in 1850. Chinese Exclusion Act passed 1882, extended 1920 to other Asians.

5. Attitudes: Ideology of manifest destiny in westward expansion and development of resources fosters exploitation. In 1846, Thomas Hart Benton makes the strongest most explicit statement : Caucasian (white) race will assert its superiority over red, black, brown and yellow races by expanding to the Pacific. European-style civilization will replace savagery. Awareness of environmental consequences of mining on land, water, air, and of effects on human life, are articulated by a few writers, such as Joaquin Miller, My Own Story, or Life Amongst the Modocs (1890).

1. What major differences exist between metallic resources (such as lead, copper, gold and silver) and those previously studied: furs, timber, and soils? Discuss each. Is ownership of mineral rights the same as ownership of land? What major difference exists and how does it influence resource use?

2. What is meant by a renewable resource? A nonrenewable resource? A recyclable resource? Biodegradable? Are some of these categories anthropocentric or too simplistic? Explain how.

3. How did Indians interact with their environment before the Gold Rush? What impact did the Gold Rush have on their way of life?

4. Compare and contrast the kinds of opportunities and problems that existed for black and Chinese miners in the Gold Rush.

5. Describe and assess the 19th century environmental effects of panning, river bottom, hydraulic, and hard rock (or tunnel) mining technologies.

6. What economic and environmental controversy underlay the encounter between miners and farmers over hydraulic mining in California? How did the protagonists use the legal system to resolve the dispute?

7. How does Sarah Royce characterize the mining camps? Discuss the roles of men and women in western mining camps. How do you account for gender role differences?

8. Compare the social factors involved in each form of gold mining. Consider individualism, class and social stratification, democracy, and the role of minorities.