Entertainment
There was not much to do in the California gold fields other than mine, so miners created their own entertainment. Forty-niners danced, gambled, and drank, not necessarily in that order. When miners danced, there were no women, so men danced with other men. Gambling miners were almost always drunk, therefore betting large amounts. Sometimes they won, while other times they lost. Often races and fights were bet on. Some were dogfights, and some were horse races. Also in their spare time they might write letters to their relatives back East to inform them about their life out West. Sometimes operas or melodramas were performed. Other kinds of professional entertainment were hired. This kind of entertainment made life in the diggin’s less dull. The Mining Masters
Dangers
There were many dangers in the gold fields of California for the miners who caught gold fever. One of them was getting claim jumped. Claim jumping was the name for when someone stole a claim, and he or she started to mine there, basically just stealing all of your gold in that claim. What usually happened was that the legal owner went away from the claim and a passerby, noticing that nobody was working the claim, would often start to work it themselves. Another danger was getting diseases from unsanitary conditions, such as rats and insects getting into your food. In Golden Gulch it was possible that maybe the river would pan out, and a miner might become bankrupt because you weren’t finding enough gold. As a result of this, a miner would not be able to travel or do many other things. Getting to California could be pretty hard itself. A miner might suffer dehydration, starvation, or lack of supplies. These are but a few of the dangers one could have faced in the California gold fields.