Rough and Rugged Mining Camps: The California Gold Rush

Lesson 1

Before viewing, discuss the title of Charles C. Nahl's painting, Sunday Morning in the Mines, 1872. What would one expect to see, given a presumed classroom study of the California gold rush? List students' predictions. The teacher can help students focus their predictions by limiting the place to the Mother Lode (central California Sierra Mountains ) and the time to the most active years of the Gold Rush, 1849 to 1860 approximately.

Download and duplicate Black and White Quadrants 1-4 of the painting. Distribute the copies to groups of students who study the quadrant they have been given. They can start with an “inventory” kind of examination. The teacher may summarize findings in lists on the blackboard or overhead—for example, a list of things and people, or a list of actions. Each quadrant is different. Widely divergent details should lead to widely divergent assumptions about the whole painting. Once curiosity is well stirred, project a color transparency of the whole canvas on a screen.

Ask: Why would the painter put such diverse activity--from comical to peaceful to violent--on one canvas? What would he hope to convey about people during the Gold Rush? (human behavior in the course of the Gold Rush was good, bad, constructive, criminal—it was everything imaginable). OR Steer students to think how life for the miners differed from what students experience (few women, no stores, no churches, no rules...) ;

Download and duplicate Four Half Page Texts about the Gold Rush. Divide the classroom into four groups. Each group specializes in one source of information with the idea of becoming the expert on the content of their selection. Download and duplicate Analysis of Half Page Text. Note that the analysis workpage covers three aspects of the information: (1) subject, (2) purpose, and (3) conclusion or insight.

Each group should summarize their analysis on a poster. Guidelines for the poster could include: title, a complete sentence statement about the subject of the poster, 3 facts that elaborate or explain the statement, a conclusion or an insight about what miners faced, or how they behaved, one cartoon or picture, the names of the students who did the work, and a 1.5 inch border featuring figures or symbols pertinent to the content of the presentation. Refer to the Sample Poster for a visual repetition of guidelines. Have students present their posters to the rest of the class.

Synthesis or Application Activity
Download and duplicate a Compare/Contrast Chart . In the center column list the details or ideas that are found in the half page explanations and the painting. The left column is a list of ideas found only in the painting but not repeated in any of the half pages. The right column is a list of ideas found only in half page explanations and not duplicated in details of the painting. The graphic organizer can be completed as a whole class, in small groups, or as an independent homework activity.

Interactive Activity: Dress the Miner Game
Students have three chances to earn a perfect score equipping a typical miner.
Each player chooses one miner.
In the manner of putting clothes on a paper doll, students select clothes and accessories from a collection.
There is a limit of 5 clothing items and accessories.
Once the limit is reached, score the “outfit.”
Then the students can equip the next mannequin, learning from experience what scores more and what scores less.
The maximum number of points is 50.
Half Page Text

This text describes ____________________________.
The goal of every miner was to spend as much time as possible washing gold from stream beds with whatever tools were affordable. At the end of each day, however, miners had to find food to eat and a place to sleep. Out of this shared necessity grew mining camps. Thus, miners would work all day and retire to camps at night to eat and rest. Sometimes they would eat meals in hastily constructed boarding houses, but most often miners made do with supplies they bought in quantity, like hard tack, beans, salt pork, and coffee. A skillet, coffee pot, and maybe a deeper pot with a lid called a Dutch oven would be used on an open fire to cook the same meal, morning and evening

Miners who crossed the continent in a wagon had shelter options than those who had no such equipment. Wagons could be used as one side or as the roof of a shelter. Some miners thought to bring a tent. But a far larger number brought only a blanket or two. Miners slept under trees or bushes or among tall rocks. A lucky miner might find a cave, or dig a hollow in a hillside to live in.

In a few years, rough wooden cabins were constructed near mining claims. Improvements in food included rice, jerked beef, potatoes and onions. Those with more cooking skill baked quick bread—what today we call biscuits. Miners put as little effort as possible into shelter and diet.

Based on The California Gold Rush, by John Walton Caughey, 1948
Half Page Text

This text describes ____________________________.
As a general rule, miners did not care what clothes they wore as long as garments protected them from bugs, the sun, and the rain. Thus, gold seekers wore whatever they could buy. Frequently that meant a red flannel shirt, dark wool trousers, a belt that held a knife and a pistol, and a slouch hat to protect the head. More unusual clothes could be seen at the diggings, including fringed buckskin shirts and pants, canvas coats, and even top hats and sombreros. Miners who arrived from South America and Europe wore clothes reflecting their home styles. Such people might wear embroidered vests, sashes, serapes, and an endless variety of head coverings from Panama Hats to berets.
In rather a short amount of time, miners learned what clothes made life more bearable in California 's dust and mud. Boots, for example, were far better than shoes for surviving the slopes. Wool was prized over cotton for its warmth on cool nights and in cold seasons. And because miners had to do their own laundry, they preferred dark colors. A custom developed in the camps that Sunday was the day for soaping, scrubbing, and hanging clothes.
Over time, women arrived in the mining camps. They Made and cleaned clothes for a fee, and often ended up richer than the miners they worked for.

Based on The California Gold Rush, by John Walton Caughey, 1948
Half Page Text

This text describes ____________________________.
Since miners lived and worked in the open air, and spent very little of their time on housekeeping and personal hygiene, it is not surprising they were plagued by lice, fleas, and mites. To keep the vermin somewhat under control, miners developed the ritual of inspecting the seams of shirts and trousers and killing the bugs. It was considered bad form to let the pests continue their aggravations on someone else's body.
Living conditions included extremes of heat, cold and dampness, so miners also suffered from rheumatism, fever, cholera, dysentery, typhoid, tuberculosis, and smallpox. Diets generally lacked enough nutrients, so miners suffered from scurvy, too.
For the most part, gold seekers had to be their own doctors. They dosed themselves with calomel, quinine, laudanum, and laxatives. Sadly, there were many miners who did not survive the illnesses or the cures. Doctors were lured to the gold fields, too, Men with medical training were valuable members of a mining camp. Many of them found that a return to medicine earned more money than finding gold in a stream.
According to diaries, one of the most difficult afflictions was homesickness. That included not only separation from one's family but separation from simple pleasures like reading. The few books or musical instruments that made it to the gold fields were hoarded as closely as gold dust. Whittling and card games were two more ways that miners found to ease homesickness.

Based on The California Gold Rush, by John Walton Caughey, 1948
Half Page Text

This text describes ____________________________.
The mining camps were a long way from established courts and governments. Miners found that life was scary without formal rules and authorities to enforce them. And so community after community attempted to construct a plan for self government. Community governments typically chose the camp sites, set up watches to protect claims, and established traffic patterns. On occasion, town governments would have to settle a crime of theft or violence. Many communities chose to recreate a jury system whereby the accused could be judged by a group of men like himself. Thus, it was necessary to organize miners for jury duty and to appoint a judge. Usually the system punished wrong doers with a fine. On very rare occasions, juries and judges felt execution fit the crime.

The issues that required most attention were mining claims. Miners viewed all the countryside as government land. It would have been more fair to see it as Indian land, but that did not happen. Viewing California wilderness as government land allowed miners to explore all parts of it freely, without asking permission. Competition for mining sites in areas of rich ore required rules. The simplest rules served the greatest number of people. For example, a claim had to be marked and worked at least one day a week. Otherwise someone else could move onto it. Disagreements were settled by a panel of four or five men. Their decisions were final

Based on The California Gold Rush, by John Walton Caughey, 1948

Analysis of Half Page Text
Fill in the blanks with information and conclusions.

Subject/Topic: Health, government, living conditions, or clothes/accessories

What is the main focus or subject of your half page of information? _________________

TITLE:

Name five sensory details—what sights, sounds, smells, feelings or tastes are connected to this topic: (include a variety of sensory detail, if you can, or repeat one or more sense.)
1. _______________________________________________________________
2. _______________________________________________________________
3. _______________________________________________________________
4. _______________________________________________________________
5. _______________________________________________________________

Purpose or Goal
Select the purpose or goal that fits the half page of text that you were given.

• to persuade the reader to side with one view or other in an argument
• to say how the results or consequences of a set of information are good or bad
• to defend or justify the reasons behind decisions and behaviors
• to describe conditions or details of a particular event, person, or thing
• to create sympathy for the predicaments or suffering of people in an event

Explain why you chose the purpose from the list above:
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________

Conclusion
Based on your half page of information, what do you conclude about life in a mining camp?
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________

Name three examples of evidence or reasoning that support the truth of your conclusion:
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________

Analysis of Half Page Text—sample for HEALTH
Fill in the blanks with information and conclusions.

Subject/Topic: Health, government, living conditions, or clothes/accessories    

What is the main focus or subject of your half page of information? Health, government, living conditions, or clothes and accessories)

Create a reasonable title for your half page.

Health of Miners in a Mining Camp    

Name five sensory details—what sights, sounds, smells, feelings or tastes are connected to this topic: (include a variety of sensory detail, if you can. Or repeat one or more sense.)
visual: men suffering from cold, poor food, and hard work________
hearing: men coughing, complaining, and making sad, homesick comments
smells: unwashed clothes, dirty pots and pans, dusty blankets___________
feeling: cold could make life miserable; dirt on everything could feel gritty__
tastes: herbal medicines, some of which might have been nasty__________

Purpose or Goal    
Select the purpose or goal that fits the half page of text that you were given.
to persuade the reader to side with one view or other in an argument
to say how the results or consequences of a set of information are good or bad
to defend or justify the reasons behind decisions and behaviors best
to describe conditions or details of a particular event, person, or thing
to create sympathy for the predicaments or suffering of people in an event

Explain why you chose the purpose that you chose from the list above:
Students might come up with good reasons to choose either purpose #3, #4, or #5. But the half pages do not judge good and bad, nor is there a controversy implied or stated.

Conclusion    
Based on your half page of information, what do you conclude about life in a mining camp?

Miners had to endure many difficult challenges (health, it would be easy to believe that many did not survive or that they left the gold fields without finding gold.

Name three examples of evidence or reasoning that support the truth of your conclusion:

one challenge to good health was vermin, bugs that lived on miners' bodies
the miners treated their illnesses without knowing anything about medicines
harsh conditions and poor health could make homesickness even stronger

 

In the center column list the details that you find in the half-page texts and the painting. List details found only in the painting on the left, details only in the texts on the right.

 

In the center column list the details that you find in the half-page texts and the painting. List details found only in the painting on the left, details only in the texts on the right.

 

 

Scoring System for the Computer Activity

Clothes and Accessories

10 point value	8 point value	6 point value	3 point value
red flannel shirt	boots	poncho	vest
dark wool pants	bandana	folded tent	leather gloves
slouch hat	belt w/ knife, pistol	blue jeans	moccasins
gold pan	shovel	axe	beret
blanket	gold poke		top hat
			canvas coa

 

 

 

Lesson 2

 

Focus Artwork : Sunday Morning in the Mines
Artist: Charles Christian Nahl
Date of work : 1872
Media: Oil on canvas
Grade Level : 4th
Time Allotted : Two hours

Lesson Objective:
Gain an understanding of the realities of daily life in the gold mining camps. Through careful looking and reading a painting for information, students will describe daily life in the California Gold Rush and draw conclusions about the nature of communities, economies and life during this time period.

List of Enduring Understandings:

• Communities formed around mining for gold but were unique in that they lacked the structure and composition of other towns.
• Miners lived where they worked, and life was difficult.

Materials/resources:
For the Teacher: Image Sunday Morning in the Mines , Chart paper and pens
For the Student: Writing materials

State Content Standards
History/Social Science: 4th Grade - California : A Changing State
4.3.3 Analyze the effects of the Gold Rush on settlements, daily life, politics and the physical environment.
4.4.2 Explain how the Gold Rush transformed the economy of California , including the types of products produced and consumed, changes in towns, and economic conflicts between diverse groups of people

Lesson Procedure:

• 1. Begin by looking carefully at the image Sunday Morning in the Mines as a group and record all comments on chart paper. Ask:
     • What is happening?
     • Where does this painting take place? Describe the environment.
     • Which are the structures made by people? What is the natural environment like?
     • Who are the people in this painting? What are they doing? Why are they there?
     • What time period is this image portraying, what are the clues about the historical period? What do you see that makes you say that?
     • Why do you think the artist portrayed people in the painting like that? What was his message?
     • What conclusions can we draw from our observations about the point of view of the painter? What was the message he was trying to convey?
  
  
  1. Discuss student observations. Explain that mining camps were unique communities in that they lacked what other towns had (schools, community halls, even general stores). The whole community was focused around mining for gold. Additionally, there were very few or in some cases no women. If these issues came up in conversation, then reiterate them as “things we discovered.”
  2. Review observations about daily life. Ask students what can we conclude? How did miners spend their time? Who were these miners? Did they have a sense of community? What were the activities they participated in?
  3. In small groups, students examine the image again and chose to “animate” a group of characters. Students answer the following questions about the painting: What happened before this moment? What is about to happen? What is the relationship between the characters? Each student takes on one figure in the painting and thinks about his experience and point of view.
  4. Students prepare a brief written biographical sketch of the character they take on - who are you? Where did you come from? Why are you here? What is your motivation? What are your thoughts and opinions? What it your relationship to others in the group?
  5. As a whole class, each group introduces themselves. After all the presentations were made, can any final conclusions be drawn? Were the groups similar? Were the stories alike or very different?

Extension
In character, students, as one of the miners in the painting, write a letter home to friend/family member telling them what its like to live in this mining camp.

Artist

About the Artist

Charles C. Nahl was born in Kassel, Germany, in 1818, into a family of accomplished artists. He studied art with his father and one of his cousins, and learned the medium of watercolor by age 12. He undertook further training at both the Kassel and Dresden Academies. The formal academies prioritized historical and religious scenes over other subjects and stressed the importance of draftsmanship and detail.

In 1846, Nahl moved to Stuttgart and then Paris with his mother, younger siblings, and an artist friend, Frederick August Wenderoth. While in Paris, he continued his studies. Because of the political and social unrest in Europe at this time, the Nahl party left France for the United States.

Nahl and his family remained in New York until 1851. Like so many others, they decided to seek their fortunes in California. They sailed from New York to Panama and then up the Pacific Coast to San Francisco. They reached San Francisco on May 23, 1851. The family set out immediately for Rough and Ready where they were tricked into purchasing a “salted mine.” It was common for sellers to “salt mines” or sprinkle them with gold from another mine, to give the impression that it was rich with gold. With this disaster and bad health, Nahl decided to resume his artistic career. He, and his friend, Wenderoth, established a studio in Sacramento. They accepted commissions for portraits and commercial work, gaining a great following in their new community. After a devastating fire in Sacramento in November 1852, Nahl and Wenderoth moved to San Francisco where Nahl established a studio with his younger brother, Arthur.

Within a short time, Nahl was the most sought after illustrator working in the state. His drawings of 19th century California, which were produced as detailed wood engravings, appeared in newspapers, periodicals, books, broadsides and letter sheets. They were seen by audiences on the Pacific Coast, as well as readers and viewers in the eastern states and Europe.

Nahl's most popular work included illustrations for works written by Alonzo Delano. He produced images for Pen-Knife Sketches: or Chips of the Old Block (1853), The Miner's Progress (1854), The Idle and Industrious Miner (1854) and Old Block's Sketch Book: Or Tales of California Life (1856). By combining humor and morality with excellent draftsmanship, Nahl produced the quintessential image of California gold miner.

Nahl was a careful observer of nature, and produced beautiful imagery of fruits, flowers and other vegetation, but he paid less attention to landscape. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Nahl was not drawn to such wonders as Yosemite. Nahl's images of mining life included accurate features of the Sierra foothills, but he usually emphasized figures over scenery.

Nahl is most remembered for his panoramic historical themes and early California scenes such as Miners in the Sierra of 1851-52 (in collaboration with Wenderoth) and Saturday Night in the Mines (1856). His reputation rests on signature works such as Sunday Morning in the Mines, The Fandango and Sunday Morning in Monterey, all produced in the 1870s. Although Nahl continued to produce illustrations throughout his lifetime, his enduring success came from his large-scale paintings. His paintings attracted patrons including Judge E.B. Crocker, Leland Stanford and James Flood.

By the time Nahl died in 1878, at the age of 59, his style of colorful, dramatic painting had passed from favor. It was not until the later part of the 20th century that his work was evaluated in new contexts and his reputation was re-established as Artist of the Gold Rush.

Artwork

About Sunday Morning in the Mines

• 

Nahl's many drawings and paintings of the Gold Rush era were based on first-hand experiences as a miner in the early 1850s. He introduced this theme and complex composition of 20-plus figures in works from the early 1850s: for an illustrated poem-essay, The Idle and Industrious Miner, and in a newspaper illustration. Judge Edwin B. Crocker of Sacramento commissioned this painting, Sunday Morning in the Mines, in 1872, nearly 20 years later. Because of his earlier illustrations, the theme and imagery were well known to Edwin Crocker and a large portion of the public. When the painting was first displayed in San Francisco , the press referred to the “truthful” depiction of an earlier era. The chaotic, crowded conditions, with primarily male populations, are represented in this scene.

The redwood doorframe of the cabin, divides the composition into two parts. The left side of the painting is filled with raucous scenes, the other with quieter activities. Contemporary accounts of mining life, from letters and newspaper articles, reinforce the types of activities portrayed in this work. Although the doorframe dominates the center of the scene, it is the young man's outstretched hand clutching the bag of gold dust that draws the viewer's attention to the peak of activity. Men on horses thunder by, kicking a storm of dust underfoot. Further into the background on the left is a scene of men brawling and shooting, further reinforcing the lawlessness of mining towns. The large redwood branches cast shadows over a solitary man, smoking and leaning against the cabin. A man writing a letter – believed to be a self-portrait of Nahl – is also protected from the elements and chaos. Moving to the right, mining tools are scattered in the foreground, in keeping with Sunday as the day of rest. Two men listen attentively to a third reading, presumably from a bible. Further to right, two additional miners are engaged in washing and mending their clothes. Strewn across the foreground are a sardine box, oyster can, mustard bottle, claret bottle, sheet iron used in a hopper, etc. The containers are an insightful detail into some of the luxuries and cast-offs that made up mining life. Although this scene does not reflect the ethnic and cultural diversity associated with the Gold Rush, it may in fact reflect the type of community in which Nahl, as an immigrant from Germany, might have found himself. Many of his other works record the other groups of people who found their way to California by this time.

Although there are more figures on the left side of the painting, than on the right, Nahl achieved overall balance in this large-scale composition. He distributed the tools and litter throughout the carefully drawn foreground and balanced the ponderous figures and overhanging foliage on the right with the more brightly colored, and energetic figures on the left. Finally, he organized and unified the composition through line (along with two implied diagonal lines crossing through the center) and repeated color.

Although landscape scenes dominated the art market of the early 1870s, Nahl generally ignored this trend and found success with his scenes of figures. He emphasized -- sometimes, even exaggerated—, gestures and emotions in his dramatic images, whether in wood engravings or large-scale colorful paintings. In Sunday Morning in the Mines, Nahl demonstrated keen knowledge of nature by accurately recording the native flora of the Mother Lode region. Notice the small cluster of snow plants in the right foreground and the manzanita bushes used for drying clothing. A small lizard sits silent and alert on the large rock at the lower left of the scene, a nod to Nahl's attention to detail and humor.

Context

The Gold Rush

Thousands of potential miners and adventurers pored into northern California from 1848 to the mid-1850s from the eastern states, Europe, Mexico, South America and Asia. The greatest numbers came from New York and the New England region. Only a few years earlier, California was a relatively quiet area on the west coast of North America, home to the Californios, Spanish and Native Americans and destination for only the hardiest of pioneers who ventured across the Sierra Mountains, the few marked trails, or ocean-going vessels to the west. James Marshall's discovery of a gold nugget gleaming in the bottom of the American River in January 1848 set change in motion. The first reports of the gold discovery seemed too good to be true, but when entrepreneur Sam Brannon went racing through the streets of San Francisco with a bottle of gold dust some time later, shouting out the news of the great find on the shores of the American River, word began to spread. President Polk announced the amazing gold discovery to the nation in December 1848. Now they believed! Brannon – and others who became merchants rather than miners – made a fortune selling supplies to the thousands of hopeful miners who poured through San Francisco, Sacramento, and newly created mining towns within the next few years.

The lure of free gold – earned by the sweat of one's brow – was too much for many to resist. The man who might be able to make $1 per day back home could make $25 a day in the mines. At first, this gold was accessible – not locked deep in the earth. Dug from river streams and near the surface of the earth with picks, shovels and pans, the process was called placer mining. Prices for goods also soared – a loaf of bread might cost $25!

The Gold Rush set into motion one of the largest migrations in history. It impacted every aspect of life in the new state, and throughout the world. California entered the Union as the 31 st state in 1850 (as a free state ). The Gold Rush, open to anyone, changed fortunes overnight. People of all classes and backgrounds were thrown together – collaborating and clashing. Rules and social order changed. People – mostly men – who came seeking riches, left their families, communities and frequently social codes back home. Others worked hard to preserve their tenuous link to home through journals and letters. Sunday Morning in the Mines captures the conflicting impacts of all these stories.