History

First there were the Ohlane Indians who were driven out by the Spaniards. The Spaniards came from Mexico. They found the San Francisco peninsula in 1776. This was the same year that our first fathers signed the Declaration of Independence. More Spaniards and Mexicans came and they started big cattle ranches.

American sailors started to come to San Francisco and in 1846 they claimed the area for the United States. In 1850, California became the 31st state of the Union.

But more exciting things were to happen in San Francisco.

The Gold Rush and Immigrants from around the World

In 1848 they found gold at Sutter’s Mill on the American River.

Gold Rush miners

Soon men from across the United States, South America and Europe found out about the gold. The Gold Rush started and men came to San Francisco. They thought San Francisco was close to the gold fields. They soon learned they had a long overland journey ahead. They stopped in San Francisco to buy supplies. Check out the map showing the American River and Sutter’s Mill. San Francisco is many miles to the southwest. http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/places/
states/california/ca_americanriver.htm

Many men in San Francisco realized that they could become rich selling supplies to the miners. And they did! The gold rush ended in just four years, in 1852. 150,000 men had passed through San Francisco on their way to the mines. San Francisco had grown from a sleepy town of 800 to 52,000. The city was rich! There were stores of all kinds, wooden houses, and banks for the miners and merchants to keep their money.

The Transcontinental Railroad and the Chinese Immigrants
The United States stretched across the North American continent, 2,500 miles. Getting from coast to coast was a real problem. There were three ways people could get to California from New York or Washington, D.C.

• They could take wagon trains from Kansas, across the mountains to California. This was a long, slow and dangerous trip.
• They could take a boat to Panama, train and wagons across Panama and then a boat to San Francisco. Many people got sick from malaria doing this.
• They could take a boat around the southern tip of South America, a long, long expensive trip!

Check out the routes to San Francisco from New York. http://www.calgoldrush.com/
Click on “Part 1: Gold! And Era Remembered” and then on “The Journey by Land” and “The Journey by Sea.”

A train across the United States, a transcontinental train, was the answer. It took a long time to convince the United States Congress and men with money that this was a good idea. In 1862 they started to build the railroad. Again, San Francisco was the place for the companies building the railroad to get supplies. San Francisco became the place for men to find jobs building the railroad. Check out pictures of the railroad at http://cprr.org/Museum/index.html and http://cprr.org/Museum/
Stereo_World/Hart/index.html

Irishmen came. Then many men from China came to help build the railroad. After they had built the railroad, many of them came back to San Francisco to live. This is why even today, San Francisco has one of the largest Chinese communities in the United States.

The 1906 Quake – and Fire!
San Francisco started with tents for people to live in. Then they built houses of wood. It was easy for these tents and houses to burn down. There were many fires in San Francisco from the very beginning.

In 1906, San Francisco had a big earthquake. Some buildings fell down, but the real problem was that the quake broke the gas mains. These were pipes that brought gas to houses for heat and light. When these mains broke, fires broke out. The fires were almost impossible to stop. Almost all of San Francisco burnt to the ground!

Check out pictures taken after the fire at: http://www.sfmuseum.org/1906/photos.html click on the names of places photographed.

Photo by Jim Wright

San Franciscans were not stopped! They rebuilt their city bigger and better than ever. Many of the stores and buildings that people live in today were built right after the fire.

You should have answered question 3 and be making the model for question 4 for your press conference.