California Gold Rush Project?

Question

I have to do a project in social studies about the California Gold Rush, which envolves doing a creative model, food item, or pretty much anything of that sort. I was thinking of making a cake in the shape of a gold bar, but that doesn't seem very interesting. Does anyone have any good, unique ideas for a project/recipe that pertains to The California Gold Rush?

Answer 1

How about a large brownie shaped into a "gold pan" with gold "nuggets" in it, made from kisses in gold foil or reeses.

Answer 2

If you don't mind doing a little bit of book-work.....but you want to really blow everyone away (including the teacher)----

See about making up a "menu" for a cafe, or a "sales flyer" for a store or business at the time. Put the items and prices on the3 front, with a few nice illustrations or photos from the times, and put the reference notes on the back.

Or if you want to focus on the overland migration, there's only about six million books out there covering the topic. How about a "packing list" of what a goldseeker would have needed for the trip, and for the first few months?

If you dig around in any historical accounts of the times, you're going to be absolutely HORRIFIED at what kinds of prices were charged for the most common items or services. One 1850 letter, cited in J.S. Holliday's _The World Rushed In: The California Gold Rush Experience: An Eyewitness Account of a Nation Heading West_, indicated PER POUND prices as follows in the gold rush fields: pork, $1.25; beans, 75-1.00; sugar, 75 cents; tea, $2.50.

If you decide to go with something like this, come back and repost a question or add details---I can turn you on to a LOT of highly specialized references.

Good luck!

Answer 3

make a miner out of a toilet paper roll. use a hershey kiss wrapper as gold!! i did that and it was fun!!