Forty niner, California Gold Rush

Hello, i’m jack doson and i was a forty niner .

I live in San Francisco, California with my wife sandy and my two children, jacob and carl. And I'm going to tell you about the California gold rush and my adventure.

At the begining the discovery of the gold was only a rumor, but just a few weeks later, as I was walking in San Francisco, I heard a reporter, Samuel Brannan, shouting « Gold, Gold, Gold! There’s gold in the American River. »

The news has been spreaded very quickly, and the New York Herald was the first newspaper to talk about the California Gold Rush on August 19, 1848.

From that moment on, nearly 300,000 men left their farms, their families and their occupations to sent to the banks of the American River.

I did it too. I went to buy shovels and pans and all the tools I needed to collect gold.

The only thing i wanted, when I was under the sun, was going home with my hands full of gold nuggets. I wanted to be rich but I also wanted to make my family proud.

The californian dream was in everyone's head. Especially in ours,the forty niners, we didn't stop working. Each day, each hour without stopping, with only one goal in mind: wealth . I, for one, have collected less gold nuggets than I would have liked. I have to admit that the working conditions were very tough and honestly it was the hardest job I’ve ever had to do, but the most difficult thing for me was being far from my dear family.

My wife used to write me letters every week telling me about jacob and karl. And the letters my wife wrote made me cry every time...

I reached the end of my strength on September 26, 1851, I had to go home. So that's what I did, with some gold nuggets in my pocket but not enough to make up for all the work I did.

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