It is estimated about $80,000 in gold was taken from the canyon before the shallow deposits played out. James Marshall at Sutter’s Sawmill, Coloma, California, 1851. This Day In History: January 24, 1848. Excerpts of John Sutter's Diaries 1838-1848. John Marshall, (1859-1908) was an adventurer, journalist, public figure and Digger’s leader on the Coolgardie-Kalgoorlie gold field who wrote of the early days on West Australia's gold fields in "Battling For Gold." There, he contracted malaria and at the advice of his doctor, he moved westward again. In July 1845, he arrived in the Sacramento Valley and began to work for John Sutter as a carpenter. Overlooking the south fork of the American River, a monument was erected over the grave site in 1890. And in 1841, Baptiste Ruelle, a French Canadian fur trapper who had worked for the Hudson’s Bay Company, uncovered a gold deposit near Los Angeles, according to John Bidwell, organizer of the first emigrant wagon train from Missouri to California. As everyone knows, James Wilson Marshall was noted for discovering gold at Sutter's Fort, and beginning, what was later known as, the California Gold Rush. Your email address will not be published. After spending a long, wet winter doing carpentry in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, Marshall soon wandered south to California where he worked for Sutter, making tools, furniture, spinning wheels, looms and virtually anything else that could be made from wood. His early years were marked by conflicts with his stern Baptist father and rejection by two young women, each of whom he had hoped to marry. Still, small shipments of gold dust turned up in the trade between merchants in New England and missionaries and rancheros in California. Padre Luis Antonio Martinez of Mission San Luis Obispo did, however, operate a modest gold mine in his district in 1829. It was a member of the battalion, Henry Bigler, who recorded the date of the discovery in his diary. Wimmer’s wife tested the metal by boiling it with homemade soap to assure that it would emerge untarnished. Miners extracted more than 750,000 pounds of gold during the California Gold Rush. Ironically, he has been remembered in death as one of California’s more influential–though accidental–history-makers. To accommodate the flood of '49ers(as these new, would-be gold miners were called), gold mining towns sprung up all over. Who: James Wilson Marshall and John Sutter, main people of the first discovery of gold in California. His body was then taken to Coloma and buried on the property where he had owned his vineyard. Little is known, however, about the one person present who was able to recognize the shiny rock which others believed to be mica or fool's gold. The California State Library got its start during the height of the Gold Rush. James Marshall’s discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill in California in 1848, started the California Gold Rush. In 1848 alone, $10 million in gold was produced by 6000. Each night Marshall directed the river’s flow through the millrace to allow erosion to deepen the channel and carry away the debris from the previous day’s work. According to the late California historian W. H. Hutchinson,’such minor amounts…did not stimulate any gold seeking expeditions of consequence…because the Franciscans had seen the evils wrought by mining upon the native population of Mexico and did not wish to see such havoc repeated in California.’. © Kathy Weiser/Legends of America, updated November 2018. In 1872, he received some compensation for his contribution to California’s gold-crazed growth. However, the development of the mine proved expensive and yielded nothing, leaving the unlucky Marshall once again close to bankruptcy. Few people know about Marshall’s ironically tragic life after he made his great discovery, from which he did not profit; he died with assets barely sufficient to cover his funeral expenses. Required fields are marked *. He knew that real gold was soft and malleable and would not shatter like fool’s gold–iron pyrite or mica. Suggested for further reading: James Marshall, a Biography, by Theressa Gay; Sutter’s Fort, Gateway to the Goldfields, by Oscar Lewis; The California Gold Discovery, by Rodman Paul; and The Gold Discovery Journal, by Azariah Smith. When his father died in 1834, he headed westward, spending some time in Illinois and Indiana before settling in Missouri. He spotted a gleam in the bottom of the ditch, scooped up a handful of gravel, examined it closely and concluded that he had found what appeared to be gold. The mill was owned by John Sutter, a Swiss immigrant that arrived in California in 1839. Sutter received a land grant of fifty-thousand acres near former Colluma Valley, a constantly renamed area of land. Wilhelm Carl Grimm, compiler, with his brother of fairy tales. It was at the sawmill that, on January 24, 1848, he discovered gold in the water flow through the mill’s tailrace. But, the “news” was just too big, and in no time it leaked out. It was displayed at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893. 14 Lithographic Views of the California Gold Rush 1850-1857 in PowerPoint (900 Kb) Capt. Terms apply. Don Abel Stearns, a native of Massachusetts who became a naturalized Mexican citizen and large landowner in California, shipped 20 ounces of gold to the East. The mill property was owned by Johan (John) Sutter who employed Marshall to build his mill. His refusal to reveal the location of these so-called rich diggings only angered resentful miners, who even threatened to lynch him if he did not lead them to new sources of treasure. Born in 1810, Marshall followed in his father’s footsteps by becoming a skilled carpenter and wheelwright. John Phillip Holland, inventor of the modern submarine. Hoping to get on with his life under better circumstances, young James headed west, drifting into the Ohio Valley during the 1830s and for a while settling in Missouri. For more great articles be sure to subscribe to Wild West magazine today! In 1848 John Sutter was having a water-powered sawmill built along the American River in Coloma, California, approximately 50 miles (80 km) east of present-day Sacramento.On January 24 his carpenter, James W. Marshall, found flakes of gold in a streambed. The metal was mined at least as early as the beginning of the 19th century, if not before. Sutter tells of the Gold Discovery - 1854. The California Gold Rush that his little discovery ignited cost Marshall his new business. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California from the rest of the United States and abroad. He enlisted the services of local Indians and Mormon veterans of the Mexican War to build the mill, which was nearly complete by late 1847. (Last Privacy Policy Update July 2020), Byways & Historic Trails – Great Drives in America, Soldiers and Officers in American History. Margaret A. Kelly, Marshall’s friend during his embittered old age, wrote that ‘probably no man ever went to his grave so misunderstood, so misjudged, so misrepresented, so altogether slandered as James W. Marshall.’ Although possibly true, it should be noted that Marshall’s self-destructive, often bizarre behavior contributed to his misfortune. Marshall’s gold discovery more than 150 years ago arguably began the modernization of California. I… He believed that the world–or at least the state–owed him something for his remarkable discovery. I have had to carry my pack of thirty or forty pounds over the mountains, living on China rice alone. John A. Sutter and James W. Marshall’s sawmill, on American Fork River, California. During his last years, Marshall, who had become an obvious alcoholic, was forced to live by handyman jobs, handouts and the sale of his autograph on special cards for 50 cents each. Atop the monument is a bronze statue of Marshall, pointing to the spot where he changed California history. It was another six years before James Marshall made the discovery that created his reputation, mistakenly, as the original discoverer of California gold. What : " John Sutter born in February 15, 1803, spent most of his life in Switzerland and eventually moved to California.There John made a new life and built "sutter's Fort" which lead him to an idea of creating a water sawmill. Surprisingly, their orders to remain silent generally were followed. Although most Californians who heard of the strike doubted its significance, by May 1848 word had reached San Francisco when a Mormon merchant, Sam Brannan, waved a quinine bottle filled with glittering dust at San Franciscans. Go to discoveryplus.com to get the greatest real-life entertainment plus exclusive originals, all in one place. Note: An abbreviated version of this article was published in the January 1997 issue of the International California Mining Journal, and this version appears here with the permission of that publication’s publisher/editor. At that point, the bewildered, depressed Marshall seriously undermined his own future. He packed a few supplies on his back and sought to hide out in the hills. John A. Sutter – Boom & Bust in California, Your email address will not be published. Unlike the earlier discoveries, however, his find was like a shot heard around the world. In 1857, he returned to Coloma and started a vineyard in the early 1860s. Born in 1810, Marshall followed in his father’s footsteps by becoming a skilled carpenter and wheelwright. In the meantime, his state pension had been cut in half after 1874 and eliminated entirely in 1876. Despite prior appropriation, the greedy miners in their furious rush to get rich quick showed Marshall and Sutter no respect or restraint. Much has been written about James Marshall's discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill in 1848, thereby precipitating the California Gold Rush. The California Gold Rush (1848–1855) was a gold rush that began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. James W. Marshall was building a sawmill for Captain John Sutter, using water from the South Fork of the American River. 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