California Gold Rush: by Lauren Burt
James Wilson Marshall was a skilled carpenter trained by his wheelwright father
in New Jersey. Marshall was building a sawmill for California land developer John Sutter
in Coloma Valley near Sacramento when he observed something glittering in the new
millrace that had been allowed to flow overnight. He described the nugget as "half the
size and shape of a pea." "It made my heart thump," he later recalled, "for I was certain it
was gold." Examining the nugget, he exclaimed to his fellow workmen, "Boys, by God, I
believe I have found a gold mine."
The impact of Marshall's find that afternoon at Sutter's Mill in the Sierra Nevada
foothills was enormous, and became known worldwide. Although Marshall's discovery
occurred in 1848, the electrifying news did not reach the East Coast and other parts of the
world until a year later, triggering the Gold Rush of '49, the greatest stampede of gold
seekers in......
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