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A Nation Divided
(1840-1861)

The Gold Rush

The Gold Rush
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   high interest, readability grades 4 to 5
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   3.72

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    discovery, camps, dealt, mining, writing, fortune, actually, gold, traveled, jobs, miner, rush, typical, among, boring, government
     content words:    James Marshall, John Sutter, San Francisco, Oregon Trail

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The Gold Rush
By Cathy Pearl 		  
1     Caption: The discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill, where James Marshall, shown in foreground, discovered gold at Coloma, Calif., in 1848.
 
2     In the 1840s, more and more Americans were going to California. They came by ship and wagon train. One man, John Sutter, had come in 1839. He was happy to see all of the people coming to the state. Sutter dreamed about a large farm that he would control. He felt like the king of California.
 
3     In 1847, Sutter sent James Marshall to build a sawmill. Marshall took about twenty men with him. The sawmill was almost done when he saw something shiny in the water. It was January 24, 1848.
 
4     At first the men went back to work. But they kept finding more gold. Marshall took some of the gold back to Sutter. They were sure it was gold, but neither man was happy. Sutter was trying to build his own empire; he didn't want a lot of people coming to "his" area. Marshall just wanted to build a sawmill.
 
5     At first they tried to keep the gold a secret. But it is hard to keep a secret among so many men. Within a few days, people in San Francisco knew gold had been found at Sutter's Mill. Many people quit their jobs and joined the rush to the area where the gold had been found.

Paragraphs 6 to 15:
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