Profiling the Mining Towns....Here today, Gone tomorrow
The picture above comes from a gold rush page where there are stories that give you the true flavor of the time period. Don't miss it! http://www.ncgold.com/History/california-gold-rush.html
"The California Gold Rush comes alive with true stories about the people who lived it." Choose from over 85 informative California gold rush articles by Don Baumgart.
TASK:
Your group is to create a PowerPoint presentation on a famous mining town and the culture of the American West during the late 1880s.
Your PowerPoint should include:
- 4 slides on a famous mining town, like Deadwood or Tombstone.
- These slides should include: the founding of the town, the people of the city, why the people were there, what it was like to live there
- 5 slides on the culture of the American West
- This would include daily life in the West, the Gold Rush, crime & the law, cowboys and diversity
- The Presentation should have a simple sources cited slide with all of the books and internet sites listed.
Explore the following links to discover mining towns and their history:
Marshall Cavendish online articles and books on the Old West You will need a username: washburn / password: beaver
Western Mining History: Reliving the Industrial Revolution of the West
Legends of America: Ghost Towns and Mining Camps of America
Famous Pioneer Towns, Forts and Places - read the description of the links and look for mining and ghost towns.
Read a letter from a woman to her sister back East talking about life in the mining camps
Most of the links do concentrate on the California event, since that is where it all began!
The Gold Rush; PBS American Experience
Vacationing at a Gold Mine Town!
A Poem by Robert Service
I wanted the gold, and I sought it;
I scrabbled and mucked like a slave.
Was it famine or scurvy-I fought it;
I hurled my youth into a grave.
I wanted the gold, and I got it-
Came out with a fortune last fall-
Yet somehow life’s not what I thought it,
And somehow the gold isn’t all.
.................................................
It’s the great, big, broad land ’way up yonder,
It’s the forests where silence has lease;
It’s the beauty that thrills me with wonder,
It’s the stillness that fills me with peace.