forty-niner
California gold seeker
A forty-niner is someone who participated in the California Gold Rush of 1849, when thousands rushed west after gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill.
The term evokes prospectors, mining camps, and frontier adventure: My great-great-grandfather was a forty-niner who never struck it rich.
The San Francisco 49ers football team takes its name from these gold seekers.
One seeking valuable deposits
- settlerOne who colonizes territory
- frontiersmanSettler of wild borders
- trailblazerFirst to forge ahead
- adventurerOne pursuing exciting exploits
argonaut · sourdough · greenhorn · tenderfoot · pioneer · emigrant · homesteader · pathfinder
Lateral camera traverse
- nuggetSmall solid lump
- claimStatement of ownership or truth
- placerMineral-rich sediment accumulation
- sluiceGated water conduit
flume · assay · ore · motherlode · tailings · stake · goldfield · dredge
Northern California metropolis
- SacramentoCalifornia seat of government
- Sierra NevadaWestern U.S. mountain range
- Sutter's Mill1848 gold discovery location
- boomtownRapidly growing community
Sonora · Marysville · Stockton · statehood
Mid-nineteenth century date
- Old WestAmerican cowboy era
- manifest destinyObvious, inescapable fate
- American DreamUS ethos of opportunity
- Wild WestAmerica's lawless frontier era
frontier · Oregon Trail · immigration · migration · Levi Strauss · staking · fortune seeker · boom and bust
prospector
One seeking valuable deposits
- settlerOne who colonizes territory
- frontiersmanSettler of wild borders
- trailblazerFirst to forge ahead
adventurer · argonaut · sourdough · greenhorn · tenderfoot · pioneer · emigrant · homesteader · pathfinder · scout
panning
Lateral camera traverse
sluice · flume · assay · ore · motherlode · tailings · stake · goldfield · dredge · quartz
San Francisco
Northern California metropolis
- SacramentoCalifornia seat of government
- Sierra NevadaWestern U.S. mountain range
- Sutter's Mill1848 gold discovery location
boomtown · Sonora · Marysville · Stockton · statehood
1849
Mid-nineteenth century date
- Old WestAmerican cowboy era
- manifest destinyObvious, inescapable fate
- American DreamUS ethos of opportunity
Wild West · frontier · Oregon Trail · immigration · migration · Levi Strauss · staking · fortune seeker · boom and bust · shantytown
- US Mininggold mining, silver mining, copper mining, coal miner, iron mining
- gold mininggold pan, pan, panning, nuggets, gold nugget
- minersminer, coal miner, gold miner, overman, timberman
- Old Westcowboy, cowboys, cowgirl, sheriff, sheriffs
- American slangbamboozle, bogus, bunkum, conniption, discombobulate
- Pioneerspioneer, pioneers, forerunner, trailblazer, innovator
forty-ninerhomesteader
One who settles wilderness land
sodbuster · sodbusters · rancher · cattleman · dirt farmer
forty-ninermerchant
One who sells wares
outfitter · shopkeeper · supplier · saloon keeper · Levi Strauss
forty, nine, fourteen, nineteen, fortieth, forty-nine, forty-niners