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GEOLOGIC GUIDEBOOK ALONG HIGHWAY 49 



[Bull. 141 



in gathering gold was discovered to be efficient ; thus the knife was the 

 first implement used in mining at Coloma as well as at the Los Angeles 

 placers. By this knife method several ounces of gold were collected. 

 Further tests were given the metal, all of which were favorable; but in 

 order to make certain, Marshall decided to depart for Sutter's Fort for 

 a conference with his partner-boss. More scientific tests were applied 

 there, proving beyond a reasonable doubt the authenticity of the find. 



The plans of Sutter and Marshall to keep the discovery quiet came 

 to naught, for the secret of gold could not be kept. The ex-soldiers at the 

 Coloma millsite confided the secret to their associates at Xatoma. Charles 

 Bennett, sent by Sutter to Monterey to secure a grant of the Coloma area 

 from Governor Mason, could not restrain himself from showing the gold 

 in Benicia and San Francisco. Upon hearing of gold, Sam Brannan, the 

 Mormon elder, could not curb his curiosity and visited Sacramento. 

 Upon his return to San Francisco he did not hesitate to proclaim the 

 discovery. Even Sutter, who most wanted the secret maintained, confided 

 the news to General Vallejo. The first published announcement of the 

 discovery of gold was made on March 15, 1848, in the San Francisco 

 weekly newspaper The Californian, and no longer could the discovery be 

 withheld from the whole world. 



While in San Francisco, Sutter's agent, Charles Bennett, sought 

 the advice of an ex-Georgia miner, Isaac Humphrey, and showed him 

 the gold. The miner lost very little time in getting to the location of the 

 discovery and became the first of many professional miners in the gold 

 fields. Among other things he is credited with having introduced 

 machinery when, on March 9, 1848, two days after his arrival, he made 

 use of the rocker for the first time in California. He had the distinction 

 of being the first professional only by the space of a few days, for a 

 French Canadian backwoodsman soon arrived who had had previous 

 mining experience in Sonora. He was Jean Baptiste Ruelle, called by all 

 simply Baptiste. He and Humphrey were a great help to the many green- 

 horns, who were arriving in increasing numbers. These mining men, 

 augmented by the arrival of some Sonorans from the Los Angeles placers, 

 were the authorities on gold mining, the Sonoran miners being the van- 

 guard of thousands of foreigners to be lured by California's wealth. 



The crude method of pen-knife and butcher-knife mining soon gave 

 way to more adequate methods of placer mining. The batea, or dish 

 shaped Indian basket, the iron gold pan. and the cradle, which were 

 used to expedite the process of separation of gold and sediment, were 

 soon in evidence. The cradle (or rocker as it was often called) proved 

 to be inefficient because of the loss of many of the small particles, and 

 was soon improved. The new development was the Long Tom, an elongated 

 cradle in which transverse cleats arrested these small gold particles. Soon. 

 however, the Long Tom was superseded by sluices of various types. 



Booming or gouging was the next innovation in mining technique. 

 This consisted of merely letting water do the work of clearing away the 



sediment. A dam was built, and the water diverted through the area 

 which was being mined ; the water carried the lighter elements down- 

 stream, leaving the gold-bearing ore easily accessible to be worked by 

 one of the other methods of placer mining. The success of this procedure 

 soon brought about the introduction of hydraulic mining the use of 

 water under pressure. It is claimed that water was used in this manner 

 at Yankee Jim's in 1852. Perhaps more definite is the assertion that in 

 the same year Anthony Chabot used the hydraulic method without a 

 nozzle at Buckeye Hill, near Nevada City. Hydraulic mining seems to 

 have been a California innovation, and was first employed, complete with 

 the nozzle which is generally associated with this type of mining, in 1853. 



The idea of dredging gold was common, but early attempts resulted 

 in failure. Characteristic is the example of an operation on the Yuba 

 River in 1853 in which the dredge sank almost immediately. Despite 

 many subsequent dredging endeavors, it was not until 1898 that the 

 first real success was achieved. This was accomplished with a bucket ele- 

 vator dredge used on the Feather River near Oroville. 



The easily worked alluvial deposits of gold extracted by the early 

 miners made mining look simple, and this fact added to the many stories 

 of fabulous wealth lured thousands of men to the gold fields of California. 

 Nevertheless the discovery of new placers did not await their coming. 

 Xot long after Marshall's discovery, John Bid well, grantee of Rancho 

 Chico. visited the Coloma site. Returning home to his rancho, he found 

 gold at what became known as Bidwell's Bar on the Feather River. 

 P. B. Reading also visited the discovery site, became convinced that there 

 were similar indications on his land, and on his return to his home found 

 some deposits on Clear Creek, which he worked with Indian labor. 

 Success on Clear Creek led Reading to further finds on Trinity River, 

 just as success on the Feather River stimulated discoveries on the Yuba. 

 Before the end of 1848, finds of gold had become numerous and the gold 

 area extended from the Tuolumne on the south to the Trinity on the 

 north. 



Men of mining experience sought the source vein or veins from 

 which the alluvial deposits originated. The first such vein, which was of 

 gold quartz, was discovered on Colonel John C. Fremont 's Mariposa grant 

 in August 1849. It was probably not until 1850 or 1851, that the term 

 Mother Lode was first applied. At that time it was used to designate a 

 vein worked at Nashville, twelve miles south of Placerville. 



In the years following '48 and '49, more and more areas were opened 

 and worked, and the gold production of California was immense. The 

 significance of these discoveries, of the resulting rushes, and of the 

 partial abandonment of the area is enormous. Thousands of men came 

 by wagon, by ship and even by foot to become rich in the Golden State. 

 Most of them desired to return home after striking it rich. Some did. hut 

 many remained in California to populate the new American acquisition. 

 As a result of the gold rush, California became a state without going 



