US expansion · 1848-1869

Gold rush and the railroad west

Gold in California brings people from every continent in 1849. Twenty years later a railroad joins the Atlantic and the Pacific. Students follow the forty-niners and the railway builders and ask who paid the price for the race west.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
50 minutes
Ages
11–14
On the map
3 steps, AD 1880
Live lesson
7 rounds, 3 on the map
Worksheet
Two A4 pages, with Classroom
You need
A projector; phones for live

Live lesson · new in Classroom

Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.

Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.

€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.

A live lesson on the projector: the class's pins on the map around Alexandria, the closest students listed beside it A student's phone: the question and a map to tap
7 rounds
3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
About 15 minutes
Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
A report
Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
1

Introduction

5 min

Read aloud

Gold in California brings people from every continent in 1849. Twenty years later a railroad joins the Atlantic and the Pacific. Students follow the forty-niners and the railway builders and ask who paid the price for the race west.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Describe the California gold rush and the routes people took to get there.
  • Explain how the first transcontinental railroad was built and who built it.
  • Explain how the gold rush and the railroad affected Native peoples and immigrants.
2

Explore the map

15 min

Project the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.

a

AD 1880

California

Open the map in 1880 and zoom in on California. Find San Francisco Bay and follow the rivers east to the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, where gold was found in 1848.

Open this view on the map
b

AD 1880

Across a continent

Zoom out over the United States. The Union Pacific was built west from Omaha, the Central Pacific east from Sacramento. Find both cities. Which railroad had the highest mountains in its way?

Open this view on the map
c

AD 1880

Gold Mountain

Zoom out over the Pacific. Find southern China and California. Chinese migrants called California "Gold Mountain". How far did they travel?

Open this view on the map
3

Class discussion

15 min

Pick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.

  1. In 1849 people came to California from the eastern US, Mexico, Chile, China, Europe and Australia. Why would people cross the world on news of gold?
  2. Most miners did not get rich. Who did?
  3. California charged foreign miners a special tax. Who did it target, and why?
  4. Chinese workers did some of the most dangerous railway work for less pay. Why are they missing from the famous photograph of the golden spike?
  5. The railroad brought settlers and hunters onto the Great Plains. How might Plains nations have seen the "iron horse"?
4

Game round

10 min

Play Abraham Lincoln in Rule History. In 1862, in the middle of the Civil War, Lincoln signed the Pacific Railway Act that started the transcontinental railroad. Discuss: why build a railway during a war?

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

€19 per month unlocks every worksheet, every live lesson and the class workspace. The free lesson prints without a subscription.