Chapter 17 notes -pgs. 532-544 Westward Movement Between 1850 and 1900 many people migrated west of the Mississippi seeking gold, land, mining camps, cattle ranches and anything else -people left and established boom towns and developed ?instant cities? like San Francisco, Salt Lake City, and Denver which grew at phenomenal rates -it took Boston almost 200 hundred years to have a population of 300,000 while it only took San Francisco 20 years People were attracted to the opportunity to gain wealth that the west afforded and the romance that it provided Mining Boom Mining was the first magnet that attracted people to the West after hearing of Gold being found at John Sutter?s Mill in 1848