It lasted just a decade, but the California gold rush was a gigantic adventure for a generation of fragile young men, most of them citizens of a fragile young nation. They took their name ~ the forty-niners ~ from the year that the gold rush began. In 1849 the East was dazzled by the news that across the continent, on land that was just given to the U.S. by Mexico, golden nuggets were lying around loose on …showed first 75 words of 820 total…

…showed last 75 words of 820 total…If the gold rush had not have occurred, then California might not have stayed an American state. Since Texas was already an independent state, people thought that California would become independent too. The gold rush made sure that this thought was out of the question. Gold rushes have happened in many other countries, but none of them were as great as the California gold rush. That is what made it such a great historical event.