JAS. W. MARSHALL, THE DISCOVERER OF GOLD IN CALIFORNIA.
SUTTER’S MILL, WHERE THE FIRST GOLD WAS DISCOVERED IN CALIFORNIA.
SHINING PARTICLES IN A MILL-RACE.
Captain Sutter erected a saw-mill on the south fork of the American River, at a place now called Coloma. On the 19th day of January, 1848, James W. Marshall, while engaged in digging a race for the saw-mill, found some pieces of yellow metal, which he and the half dozen men working with him at the mill supposed to be gold. He was confident of the importance of the discovery, but he knew nothing of chemistry or gold mining, and therefore could not prove the nature of the metal, or know how to obtain it in paying quantities. Every day he examined the mill-race to look for the metal; every man at the mill thought Marshall was very wild, and so paid little attention to him. The swift current of the mill-race washed away much of the earth, and by this means particles of gold were left behind.
In a little while Marshall had quite a collection of specimens, and his associates began to think that possibly there might be a gold mine there after all. About the middle of February, one of the party employed at the mill went to San Francisco, and took these specimens with him. He was introduced to a gold miner from Georgia, who was immediately satisfied of the character of the metal, and knew that the diggings must be rich. This miner, Humphrey by name, determined to go at once to the mill, and examine the digging.
He arrived there on the 7th of March, and found work going on at the mill just as if there was no gold within a thousand miles. The next day he took a pan and spade, and washed some of the dirt from the bottom of the mill-race; and in a few hours he pronounced the mine the richest he had ever seen or known in Georgia. He then made a rocker, and went to work washing for gold, and every day he obtained an ounce or two of metal. The men at the mill made rockers for themselves, and all were soon busy in searching for gold. Everything else was abandoned.