The Big Rock Candy Mountain (continued)
was expressed in the notions of conquest embodied in the concept of Manifest Destiny. We discover the humor, hardships and tragedies of the overland journey through the journals, diaries and songs of ordinary people. Many suffered the consequences of poorly informed decisions, disease and accident. From the United States and countries throughout the world, men, women and children came to the West. Whatever their ideals and dreams at the outset, by the time they reached their destination--if they reached it--they all could claim to have "seen the elephant."
    The expression predated the gold rush, arising from a tale current when circus parades first featured elephants. A farmer, so the story went, hearing that a circus was in town, loaded his wagon with vegetables for the market there. He had never seen an elephant and very much wished to. On the way to town he encountered the circus parade, led by an elephant. The farmer was thrilled. His horses, however, were terrified. Bolting, they overturned the wagon and ruined the vegetables. "I don't give a hang," the farmer said, "for I have seen the elephant." 

    For gold rushers, the elephant symbolized both the high cost of their endeavor--the myriad possibilities for misfortune on the journey or in California--and, like the farmer's circus elephant, an exotic sight, an unequaled experience, the adventure of a lifetime.

    They Saw the Elephant: Women in the California Gold Rush, Jo Ann Levy, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, 1992. p. xvi. 

The California Gold Rush broadened interest in the West to the level of a national fascination. While relatively few made the overland journeys before 1849, later years brought a multitude. Yet the future West revealed itself in the conflicts that arose as dreams gave way to the realities of settling farms and towns and the growth of mining enterprises. Mexican Americans found their treaty rights too easily denied as the authenticity of their property deeds was questioned. As placers panned out, local and state governments passed discriminatory mining taxes and racist laws favoring whites. Heated arguments erupted over water and land use as farmers, ranchers and miners competed for scarce resources. Over time, individual effort gave way to corporate capital employing large numbers of workers on farms and ranches and in mining enterprises. Native Americans found sources of food and shelter exhausted, themselves hunted and their ancient traditions and lifestyles brought to the brink of annihilation. 

Financed by the government, the transcontinental railroad, completed in 1869, linked the country and further increased the flow of people--including buffalo hunters--and goods into and out of the West. Less than a decade later the immense herds of buffalo were gone. Yet the myths linger, pulling us into an examination of the realities of the past. 

Concepts Covered and Framework Connections:

The major concept covered in this unit is migration. As students use the primary sources included in these materials, they will gain insight into the diversity of people who migrated to California during and after the Gold Rush of 1849, and into their aspirations and experiences, or their myths and realities. 

The California History-Social Science Framework (pages 54-55) calls for students to compare the various overland trails geographically. As students study and create maps of the routes, they will work with the concept of geography as a defining feature of the West as a region. 
The Big Rock Candy Mountain
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