Additional Assignments

1. All of these documents offer a different view or experience of the California gold rush. To varying degrees, they also demonstrate how the gold rush held meaning on different geographic “scales” of history: the local story of miners on a river, the national story of a U.S. president announcing a major gold strike, and the trans-Pacific story of Chinese miners and Hawaiian monarchs. Construct a series of fictional journal entries in which your character/writer reflects on individuals or events that demonstrate these different scales of history.
2. How would you use digital media to represent the California gold rush? Using the available online resources (maps, drawings, photographs, newspaper headlines), prepare a digital presentation for your classmates. Your presentation should demonstrate the historical evolution of gold rush California during the first five years (1848–1853).