Editing California gold rush (section)

===Other developments===
Within a few years, there was an important but lesser-known surge of prospectors into far Northern California, specifically into present-day [[Siskiyou County, California|Siskiyou]], [[Shasta County, California|Shasta]] and [[Trinity County, California|Trinity Counties]].{{sfnb|Bancroft|1888|pp=[https://archive.org/details/bancrohistofcali23huberich/page/363/mode/2up 363–366]}} Discovery of gold nuggets at the site of present-day [[Yreka, California|Yreka]] in 1851 brought thousands of gold-seekers up the [[Siskiyou Trail]]<ref name=DillonSiskiyou>{{harvb|Dillon|1975|pp=[https://archive.org/details/siskiyoutrailhud00dill/page/361 361–362]}}</ref> and throughout California's northern counties.<ref name=WellsYreka>{{harvb|Wells|1881|pp=[https://archive.org/details/historyofsiskiyo00well/page/60 60–64]}}</ref>

Settlements of the gold rush era, such as [[Portuguese Flat, California|Portuguese Flat]] on the [[Sacramento River]], sprang into existence and then faded. The Gold Rush town of [[Weaverville, California|Weaverville]] on the [[Trinity River (California)|Trinity River]] today retains the oldest continuously used [[Taoism|Taoist]] temple in California, a legacy of [[Chinese immigration to the United States|Chinese]] miners who came. While there are not many Gold Rush era ghost towns still in existence, the remains of the once-bustling town of [[Shasta, California|Shasta]] have been preserved in a [[List of California State Historic Parks|California State Historic Park]] in Northern California.<ref name=Bodie>The buildings of [[Bodie, California|Bodie]], the best-known ghost town in California, date from the 1870s and later, well after the end of the Gold Rush.</ref>

By 1850, most of the easily accessible gold had been collected, and attention turned to extracting gold from more difficult locations. Faced with gold increasingly difficult to retrieve, Americans began to drive out foreigners to get at the most accessible gold that remained. The new [[California State Legislature]] passed a foreign miners tax of twenty dollars per month (${{formatnum:{{inflation|US|20|1850|r=-1}}}} per month as of {{CURRENTYEAR}}), and American [[prospectors]] began organized attacks on foreign miners, particularly [[Latin American]]s and [[Han Chinese|Chinese]].<ref name = RawlsTax>{{harvb|Rawls|Orsi|1999|p=[https://archive.org/details/goldenstateminin0000unse/page/9 9]}}</ref>

In addition, the huge numbers of newcomers were driving Native Americans out of their traditional hunting, fishing and food-gathering areas. To protect their homes and livelihood, some Native Americans responded by attacking the miners. This provoked counter-attacks on native villages. The Native Americans, out-gunned, were often slaughtered.<ref name = RawlsGeno>{{harvb|Rawls|Orsi|1999|p=[https://archive.org/details/goldenstateminin0000unse/page/8 8]}}</ref> Those who escaped massacres were many times unable to survive without access to their food-gathering areas, and they starved to death. Novelist and poet [[Joaquin Miller]] vividly captured one such attack in his semi-autobiographical work, ''[[Life Amongst the Modocs]].''<ref name=MillerModoc>{{harvb|Miller|1874}}</ref>