Impacts of the Gold Rush

• There was violence and tension between the different ethnicities and religions in mining camps.
• ‘Claim jumping’ was common, where men would try to steal someone else’s claim if it looked promising
• Prostitution and alcohol in the camps caused violent fights over women.
• Road agents were criminal gangs who waited outside camps to rob prospectors.
• 'Salting a claim’: conmen would scatter a few flakes of gold on a worthless piece of land and then con a migrant into buying it.