GOLD MINING IN THE UNITED STATES . 175 



while to the south, the gold formation, after passing through part of 

 Alabama, disappears under the younger formations of the lower Missis- 

 sippi Valley. 



The annual production in the southern states never reached much 

 over $1,000,000, and up to 1847 the total had been $34,537,000.2 After 

 that time the production fell off considerably, and though it rose later 

 under the general stimulus to gold mining caused by the California dis- 

 coveries, it soon fell again. Mining still continues, however, to the 

 present day, and the production some years reaches several hundred 

 thousand dollars, in others only a small part of this amount. The 

 experience people had obtained in gold mining in the south and the fact 

 that the production of that region was on the wane, caused them to be 

 quickly attracted to new fields when the reports of the discoveries in 

 California reached the east in 1848. 



Period from 1848-1859 



The gold of California was known long before 1848, but the knowl- 

 edge concerning it was too vague to attract much attention. About 

 1769, when California was a remote Mexican province, the Franciscan 

 monks began to establish missions along the coast for the conversion of 

 the Indians, and gradually extended their influence over them, employ- 

 ing many in rural pursuits and trading with the others. The missions 

 became the seats of government of prosperous communities, and the 

 Indians from the outside, who came to trade for provisions and clothes, 

 were observed to be always well provided with gold dust for this pur- 

 pose. The monks thus became aware that an abundance of gold ex- 

 isted on the west slope of the Sierra Nevada, but they feared the effect 

 such news would cause if it reached the outside world. They remem- 

 bered the cruelties that had been practised by the early explorers of 

 Mexico and South America in their mad rush for gold, how the land 

 had been devastated, towns destroyed and whole tribes almost annihi- 

 lated by the plunderers. They knew that there would be a rush to 

 California if its wealth became known, and they feared that the man of 

 their own day would be no more conscientious in his methods of se- 

 curing gold than had been the man of the sLxteenth century. They saw 

 the possibility of their quiet settlements being disturbed and their 

 power overthrown ; hence they concealed their secret. In the meantime 

 a little mining had been done from time to time by adventurous 

 strangers who came that way, but the results were not sufficiently im- 

 portant to attract much attention, and the gold of California did not 

 become generally known until it was discovered by Americans in their 

 irresistible trend westward. 



The discovery was made by James W. Marshall in the latter part of 



^ Eeport of the Director of the Mint, 1910. 



