Summer Training- NEH Landmarks of American History Workshop

After a few days off when the school year ended, I was excited to attend a National Endowment for the Humanities Landmarks of American History Workshop. This is the fourth one I have attended and this year it was around the Gold Rush. This means I had to travel to California for a week. These programs are nice in that when you have completed the work they give you a $1200 stipend to help cover the cost of travel and lodging. They do negotiate a discount for lodging and many of the meals are included so that helps keep the cost very reasonable. We received a series of article to read in advance about various aspects of the Gold Rush, and told to report to the Sacramento History Museum on Sunday afternoon at 3:30pm.

I was fortunate to be able to travel with the other U.S. history teacher in my building. He and I have been collaborating on curriculum the last few years and have attended 4 NEH workshops together. We planned to have his son drive us to Boston on Saturday June 21 early to catch a non-stop flight to San Francisco. The flight was about 6 hours and arrived around 10:30am local time. After getting our bags we got some help in figuring out how to get to the BART station at the airport. The BART is kind of a subway type system. We had to use the BART to get to Richmond, CA and the Amtrak station there. It was a little tricky, but after about 75 minutes we finally got to Richmond.

 

(We had to go north from the Airport and get off at Balboa Park to switch to the "red line" which took us to Richmond)

Once we got to Richmond, there were no people working there of any type. Luckily we figured out there was a kiosk there and that was how we had to purchase our Amtrak tickets. This train is known as the Capitol Corridor and it was very nice! It took just about 2 hours to get to Sacramento, and we didn't mind it at all. Not only were the views interesting, but the train had an outlet, wi-fi, and was very comfortable.

(We went from Richmond to Sacramento on this train)

(This is the train we took to Sacramento)

(these are all scenes from the train)

(This is the Amtrak station in Davis, CA)

Around 4 pm we arrived in Sacramento and had only a 5 minute walk to our Hotel, the Holiday Inn, which was situated between the Downtown Plaza and Old Sacramento. Since we did not have to report until Sunday afternoon, we spent the evening strolling around Old Sacramento which is set up to look the way it did when the city was founded in 1849 after the Gold Rush started. We did the same Sunday morning. Then we reported to the Sacramento History Museum and went on an underground tour of Sacramento. As it turned out, the area was prone to flooding so in the 1850's the city decided to force all buildings to be raised 12 feet. However, their basements remain and there are many artifacts discovered in those basements! Our tour was led by a re-enactor.

(one area of Old Sacramento)

(Old Sacramento offers horse drawn carriage rides)

(Our tour guide)

(The Pony Express Monument. The Pony Express route ended in Sacramento)

We had dinner and our first speaker Sunday night. Ken Owens is a retired Professor and historian who has written books about the Gold Rush. He gave us a nice introduction. We also received a book and other resources on the Gold Rush. We had a chance to meet some of the other teachers attending the workshop, most of who were from California. The project Director, Marica Eymann, gave an overview of the work, and Teacher Facilitator Donna Leary, spoke with us about implementing ideas in the classroom.

(Ken Owens)

Monday morning we had to meet just outside our hotel to board the bus for a 30 minute ride to Sutter's Fort. John Sutter was a businessman who emigrated to California from Switzerland. Sutter was attempting to amass a fortune by exploiting Indian labor in the region. His Fort was a trade and commerce center, the only signs of civilization in the region when James Marshall discovered Gold up the river in 1848. Marshall came to Sutter's Fort to look for help in setting up a placer mining operation. Before you knew it, the rush was on!

Traditionally, Sutter was romanticized as one of the founders of Gold in the area. More recently, though, much scholarship has revealed that he bought and sold Indians, and treated them horribly as workers. He was also drunk much of the time and lied and cheated whenever he could. He took sole credit for the discovery of Gold and on his speaking tours in the 1870's, tried to gain sympathy by claiming he would have been a millionaire had he not sacrificed the Mill venture in order to help America by promoting Gold for others to find. One of our speakers, Professor Al Hurtado, has written extensively about what a really bad guy John Sutter really was.

(Al Hurtado)

We also visited the State Indian Museum, which is right next door to Sutter's Fort. In a symbol that shows just how far Sutter's Fort has to go in its thinking, the two historic facilities barely recognize the existence of the other. No photographs are allowed inside the Indian Museum, but I can tell you it does a nice job of explaining how the Indians at Sutter's Fort were exploited. It's estimated there were anywhere from 300,000 to 1 million Indians in California before the Fort. By 1860, the number was down to 30,000. There are still Indians living here, though their numbers are small. The museum shows a bit about their culture, mostly focusing on the Nisenan and Miwoc Indians who lived nearby. After lunch on our own, we were taken to the California State Library. Here Marcia spoke to us about Daguerreotypes and showed us some taken during the Gold Rush period. We also had a talk from Library Director Gary Kurutz who showed us some of the Library's collection from the period including some maps drawn by Sutter, and letters written about mining for Gold.

(real California Gold)

(Gary Kurutz)

On Tuesday we were taken to Coloma, CA and to Sutter's Mill where James Marshall discovered Gold while creating the water route for the Mill in 1848. Our tour guide here was fantastic! He showed us where the Nisenan Indians lived first, and explained how they were exploited and destroyed once the Rush took hold.

(our tour guide)

(Nisenan dwelling)

He then took us down to the river and showed us where Marshall discovered gold. He explained how others soon arrived and started placer mining. This is the process of using a pan and just finding gold naturally. After a few years of this, most of the gold readily available was gone and miners quickly turned to underground deposits to find their gold. All of this mining led to many different people coming to California and the population boom the State experienced in the years that followed.

(this is where Marshall discovered gold)

Our guide also discussed the influx of Chinese miners who were hired for cheap to help mine for gold. They were discriminated against in most cases, but still created their own settlements in the area. Most of them later got work on building the railroads.

(this may be the only photo that shows both Americans and Chinese at the mines)

In the afternoon we listed to historian Shirley Moore discuss her research into African-Americans and the Gold Rush. Some came as slaves with their owners, some came as freemen to find gold on their own. Either way, for most who came it was a liberating experience. Although eventually California did experience intolerance and racism toward Blacks, much of this was muted compared to other parts of the country, by the rush for gold. Moore quoted one Black man from the time who was mistaken by a white man for a Porter. The man basically snapped at the white man that he wasn't "carrying anyone's bags" and held up his bag of gold dust. Wealth being a powerful tool to empower the powerless.

(Moore discusses her research on her upcoming book about African- Americans and the Gold Rush)

Moore's husband, Joe, was also there. He spoke to us about a living history project he participated in to recreate the wagon Hiram Young was famous for building in the 1850's for those wishing to travel overland to California. Hiram was a free African-American who became famous for this.

(Joe Moore explains the living history project)

Tuesday we also had our lesson plan project explained. We had to choose an activity to design for our classes around the use of a primary source related to the Gold Rush. We would then present them on Friday before we left.


On Wednesday they took us to Indian Grinding Rock, also known as Chaw-Se. This site is sacred to Miwoc Indians and located here is a giant rock which Indians used for many generations as a place to grind rocks for tools and jewelry. We learned a bit more about the Miwoc culture and had a chance to view this large historical artifact.

(site in the rock where Indians were grinding for generations)

(Broad view of Indian Grinding Rock)

(recreation of the village at Chaw-Se)

Completely unrelated to Indians... we found a rattle snake at Chaw-Se. After we all used the restrooms, someone saw it hiding inside the ladies room. We were lucky no one got bit!

(if you look closely, you can see the rattle snake)

We had a few other things in the afternoon. Al Hurtado spoke to use again about Indian culture in the area. Also, Professor Stacey Smith spoke to us about labor and how the Gold Rush changed the way labor is viewed from her book about free labor.  After this, we went to the Sacramento Center for History and had a chance to see some of the items in their archives and discuss how we could use these resources in our classes.

On Thursday they took us to the Empire Mine. This was a working Gold mine. In the years after placer mining was no longer an option, many began hard rock mining, and William Bourne was the man who created the Empire Mine which his family owned until 1929. A different company bought them out before mining regulations shut the mine down in 1956. Now it is a historic site. Inside the Bourne home, reenactors portray the family as if it is 1905.

(Mr. and Mrs. Bourne who owned the Empire Mine)

They took us on a tour of the mine and showed us what it looks like today. The mine entrance is still there and we were able to sit on the "Man skip" that was used to send men down into the mine.

(photo of miners on the man skip)

(the mine today)

(entrance to the mine)

(some of us on the man skip)

(this is a hunk of gold that came out of the mine. Its worth about $5000 in today's prices)

(they fed us a typical miner's meal called a Pasty. Its kind of like a pot pie)

After the mine tour, Andrew Eisenberg talked to us about the impact of mining on the environment. Andrew is a Professor at Temple University who wrote a book called Mining California. He explained how hard rock mining and hydraulic mining radically shaped California's environment. It changed rivers, and hillsides to the point where flooding is more likely and access to clean water is more limited. He also talked about how they used cyanide and mercury to get the gold from the rock and both polluted the land and the water. Those effects are still being felt today. He concluded that the environmental wealth extracted was not worth the environmental costs and that we will continue "paying" for the Gold Rush for years to come. It was a depressing presentation, but an important one. It is very interesting to consider Gold and California. It's very unlikely the State would be so populated today if not for the discovery of Gold, and yet that very discovery of Gold has likely created many of the problems Californians have today.

(Andrew Eisenberg)

Thursday night, a group of us went to the Sacramento River Cats game. The Cats won in extra innings 7-5.

(fellow teachers at the game)

(view of the field at the game)

Friday morning we were taken by bus to the City Cemetery. This Cemetery is the oldest one west of the Mississippi River. It was really interesting to see the founders buried there. In addition, free Blacks were buried there as well as immigrants from other countries. There were even some Japanese people buried in the cemetery. John Sutter had moved to Mexico, but his family had his body brought to the cemetery for burial.

Then we went to the Crocker Art Museum. It was truly an amazing place. The Crocker family was wealthy thanks to Gold and used their money to create an art museum, much of the art depicting the Gold Rush.While there, museum educators spoke to us about analyzing art and how we could use art in the classroom.

Friday afternoon we shared our lesson plans with teachers who were at the same grade level and had our final goodbyes to everyone. It was truly an amazing week learning about the various aspects of the Gold Rush! The NEH programs are very good and this one was no exception. I am very thankful to have attended these workshops.

(this is the primary source I used for my lesson)

Since my colleague and I were in the "Old West", we decided to get a fun photo taken...

Friday night, my colleague and I were the only ones still in town! Our flight didn't leave San Francisco until Saturday night, so we went to another River Cats game. They lost this one. Then we got up early Saturday morning and caught the Capitol Corridor to go back to Richmond. From there, we got on the BART once again and stored our bags at the airport. Then we had about 6 hours to explore San Francisco. We took the BART to Union Square and bought a bus tour of the city. This allowed us to see Lombard Street, Fisherman's Wharf, Chinatown, Alcatraz, and more. We even got to ride across the Golden Gate Bridge!

(Alcatraz)

(Lombard Street)

After this whirlwind tour, we were very tired. Our flight left Boston at 10:45 pm local time. I tried to sleep with little success. We landed at 7 am Boston time and rushed to get our bags and jump on the T to get to North Station. We were trying to make the 9am train back to Maine and we made it just in time! I was jet-lagged, tired, and in need of a shower when I got home. As I said before, it was a great experience and I learned a lot. I was, however, very happy to see my family!

In 3 weeks I will be attending a training on the redesign of the AP U.S. History course for a full week at St. Joseph's University here in Maine. That should be very interesting. I will rest in the meantime!