The mill was to be on the south fork of the American river, at a place which the Indians called "Culloomah" and which we now know as Coloma. A dam had been built, and a ditch was being constructed to carry the river water for turning the millwheel. Marshall stated that it was his custom every evening to raise the gate and let the water wash out as much sand and dirt through the night as possible; and in the morning while the men were getting breakfast, he would walk down and shut off the water and look along the race to see what was to be done next.

He said that: "One morning in January—it was clear and cold—as I was taking my usual walk along the race after shutting off the water, my eye was caught with the glimpse of something shining in the bottom of the ditch. There was about a foot of water then running in the ditch. I reached my hand down and I picked it up; it made my heart thump, for I was certain it was gold. The piece was about half the size of a pea.

"After taking it out I sat down and commenced to think right hard. I thought it was gold, and yet it did not seem to me to be of the right color; all the gold coin I had seen was of a reddish color. This looked more like brass. I recalled to mind all the metals I had seen or heard of but I could find none that resembled this. Suddenly the idea flashed across my mind that it might be iron pyrites. I trembled to think of it. Putting one of the pieces on a stone, I took another and commenced hammering it. It was soft and didn't break. Therefore it must be gold, but largely mixed with some other metal, very likely silver, for pure gold, I imagined, would certainly have a brighter color. When I returned to our cabin, I showed two pieces to my men. They were all a good deal excited, and had they not thought that the gold only existed in small quantities, they would have abandoned everything and left me to finish my job alone. However, to satisfy them I told them that as soon as we had the mill finished we would devote a week or two to gold hunting and see what we couId make out of it.

"While we were working in the race after the discovery, we always kept a sharp lookout, and in the course of three or four days we had picked up about three ounces—our work still progressing as lively as ever, for none of us imagined that time that the whole country was sowed with gold."

Gold had already been found in California. As many as seven years before, a native of California, while digging wild onions in one of the canyons of the San Fernando hills back of Los Angeles, had found gold. His discovery had caused some excitement. Prospectors had come up from Sonora, in Mexico and from other parts. The San Fernando deposits had yielded yearly from four to five thousand dollars worth of gold dust and nuggets. But Marshall's was the find that drew to California from all parts of the world the hoards of gold-hunters, who were to play such an important part in California's settlement and to give her history its peculiar character.

Before it was found that a prodigeous golden treasure lay hidden in the mountains and valleys, as well as the river beds of this western country, not a great many Americans had been interested in California. It was generally thought to be a land of bleak mountain ranges and hopeless desert; so while hundreds of the more adventurous, including missionaries, had pushed their various wars through hard country and Indian perils, to the
west coast, they were, taken altogether, only a small scattering over the vast Pacific coast. Not until well along in the history of the gold rush did the Americans see agricultural possibilities in California.

Another reason that Americans did not come to California in very large numbers until after the finding of gold, was, until just about that time California was foreign territory. It had first belonged to Spain—and then, from 1821 on, to Mexico. When Marshall's discovery of gold was made, the war between Mexico and the United States had not yet been formally ended. The treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which marked the close of the war and made California United States territory, was signed nine days after the discovery of gold. Had gold been discovered while California was still Spanish territory, or when it was Mexican, the story of the western country would have been very different.

At first an endeavor was made to keep it secret and for six weeks the attempt was fairly successful. But news leaked out, as it was bound to do—first in California, then throughout the world. Then a stampede began towards the region of the discovery and the news of the marvelous success of those first prospectors spread like wildfire.

From all parts of the United States and from the far-off parts of the world, a great movement towards the gold fields of California began. By land and sea the new arrivals poured into the country. In caravans over the plains and in vessels—paying any price for transportation and accepting any kind of accommodations. They came around the Horn and by Chages [Chagres], on the Isthmus of Panama, in dug-outs poled by natives up the Chagres river, and on mules with packtrains, to Panama, whence they took ship again to California.

They came from England, France, Mexico and South America; from Oregon and from across the Pacific from the Sandwich Islands, and from China. And when they reached San Francisco, not only did the passengers rush off to the gold fields, but the crews deserted—and every captain deserted his vessel and joined in the general migration. At one time more than 500 abandoned vessels lay swinging at anchor in the harbor, with scarcely a man to guard them.

As for the settlements which had been established in California before the discovery of gold, the population had poured out from them to the gold fields at the first news. Men dropped their regular occupations, whatever they might be. Buildings were left incompleted, newspapers were discontinued; few were left in the towns to read papers.

Walter Colton, alcalde, or mayor, at Monterey, wrote in his diary as follows: "Many got ready to depart for the mines. The family which kept house for me caught the moving infection. Husband and wife were both packing up. The blacksmith dropped his hammer, the carpenter his plane, the mason his trowel, the farmer his sickle, the baker his loaf.


Return to Early Marin by Donald E. Perry

Use of text and photos prohibited without permission from the San Anselmo Historical Society.