Welcome back to anther history filled day in our brand new series here at Mama’s Learning Corner: On This Day in American History!
On this day in American History, January 24, 1848, the forty-niners gold rush began with James Wilson Marshall finding the infamous gold nugget at Sutter’s Mill.
If you would like more details on how to use these On This Day in American History posts, please see this page: On This Day in American History in Your Homeschool
You can click here to see all of the posts in this series: On This Day in American History Series
January 24 – Forty-Niners Gold Rush Begins
James Wilson Marshall found a gold nugget at Sutter’s Mill on a branch of the Sacramento River near Colomo, California on January 24, 1848. This discovery sparked the forty-niners gold rush to California.
To do:
1.) Find the Sacramento River on a U.S. map. Navigate along the river until you find Colomo, California.
2.) Watch this short video on how the California gold rush started.
3.) Many Americans traveled westward to see if they could find gold, and this started the largest westward push in American history. What do you think was the main reason people wanted to find gold? What was the goal of the forty-niners? Was it merely to get rich? Write your thoughts in a complete paragraph.
If you are new to On This Day in American History
If you are new to On This Day in American History, Welcome!
Each day, I share an interesting event that occurred in our nation’s past. You will learn about famous Americans, interesting inventions and their patents, American art and music, and more.
You will also find suggested activities – labeled “To do” – if you would like to research this during your homeschool’s group time in the morning, or you can assign the activities for your children to work on independently.
If you think you will do more than one day of On This Day in American History, I would encourage you to have your child keep what I call a Notebook of Knowledge. A spiral notebook or sheets of paper stapled together is more than adequate!
Have your child write the day’s event and the date at the top of his paper. If there are writing activities, have him use his best composition, grammar, and penmanship as he completes the answers. After just a few weeks or even a month, he will have an excellent resource to read through!
If you would like to use this resource throughout the month, you might be interested in purchasing the full January Calendar. It contains:
- Access to the webpage with all of the January events listed, including all suggested activities for each daily event.
- A .pdf of the January Calendar, listed in chronological order with all suggested activities
- All necessary downloads to complete the assigned activities. These same downloads are linked on the webpage, however, they are also included here for easy access.
- The answers to any questions asked in the daily activities.
You can purchase that here:
On This Day in American History: January 23 – Congress Fixes Presidential Election Day
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