Passage (No. 40-45):
The discovery of gold nuggets in the Sacramento Valley in early 1848 sparked the Gold Rush, arguably one of the most noteworthy events to shape American history during the first half of the ninetieth century. __40__, thousands of prospective gold miners traveled by sea or over land to San Francisco and the surrounding area. By the end of 1849, the non-native population of the California territory was some 100,000 (compared with the pre-1848 figure of less than 1,000). A total of 2 billion dollars’ worth of precious metal __41__ from the area during the Gold Rush, which peaked in 1852.
Throughout 1849, people around the United States (mostly men) borrowed money, mortgaged their property or spent their life savings to make the arduous journey to California. In pursuit of the kind of wealth they had never dreamed of, they left their families and hometowns. In turn, women left behind took on new responsibilities such as running farms or businesses and caring for their children alone. Thousands of would-be gold miners, known as ’49ers, traveled overland across the mountains or by sea, sailing to Panama or even around Cape Horn, the southernmost point of South America.
To accommodate the needs of the ’49ers, gold mining towns had sprung up all over the region, complete with shops, saloons, brothels and other businesses seeking to make their own Gold Rush fortune. The overcrowded chaos of the mining camps and towns __43__ ever more lawless, including rampant banditry, gambling, prostitution and violence.
After 1850, the surface gold in California largely disappeared. Though gold mining continued throughout the 1850s, it had reached its peak by 1852, when some eighty-one million dollars was pulled from the ground. After that year, the total take __44__. Settlement in California continued, however, and by the end of the decade the state’s population was 380,000.
45. This sentence “San Francisco, for its part, developed a bustling economy and became the central metropolis of the new frontier.” should be….