THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD IN CALIFORNIA 



By DONALD C. CUTTER 



When James Wilson Marshall found gold in the tailrace of Slitter's 

 Mill on January 24, 1848, he was not the first to come across this much 

 sought mineral in California. As early as 1816, there were reports of 

 gold in the Spanish province of California. Reports and rumors of gold 

 persisted, but it was not until 1842 that there was a real gold rush in 

 the future Golden State. Either late in 1841 or early in 1842, Francisco 

 Lopez, majordomo of the San Fernando Rancho, and a companion were 

 in search of some stray cattle in the mountains near the ranch. Becom- 

 ing tired they dismounted to rest in San Feliciano Canyon. Here Lopez 

 whipped out his knife to dig some wild onions to eat and in the earth 

 clinging to them he found particles of what appeared to him to be gold. 

 Using his knife he continued to mine in the vicinity and found addi- 

 tional alluvial gold deposits. Following this gold find came the first rush 

 in California history. Californians left the monotony of their daily life 

 and went to this canyon located thirty-five miles northeast of the Pueblo 

 of Los Angeles. Although they used the crudest of methods and were 

 without nearby water to pan their gold, some of the miners succeeded 

 in making their operations profitable. The first gold-seekers at the Los 

 Angeles placers were the local residents, but within the year men of 

 greater mining experience were imported from Sonora. These miners 

 introduced into California the method which became known as dry 

 washing to extract the gold. As a method of mining it was simple, crude 

 and inefficient, but it had the advantage of being inexpensive. After the 

 pay dirt was dng, it was sun dried on a large canvas and then pulverized 

 into dust. The next operation was to throw the dirt by the panful into 

 the air in order to allow the wind to blow away the lighter elements and 

 to let the gold dust fall back into the pan. Thus the old agricultural 

 procedure of winnowing was the first method used extensively in Cali- 

 fornia mining; for not only was it used in the Los Angeles area, but 

 also it was introduced by many of these same Sonorans into the mines 

 of the Sierra Nevada after 1848. 



One wonders why this gold find was not more generally known, 

 especially since the estimates of the productiveness of the placers were 

 considerable. William Heath Davis, an early pioneer, estimated that 

 $80,000 to $100,000 in gold was taken from the mines in the first two 

 years. Abel Stearns, a resident of Los Angeles, estimated that $6000 

 to $8000 a year was extracted prior to 1847. Hubert Howe Bancroft, 

 the historian of California, states that by December 1843, 2000 ounces 

 had been taken, valued at $38,000. These however are merely estimates 

 of production. As a matter of record, the first California gold dust sent 

 to a United States Mint belonged to the aforementioned Don Abel 

 Stearns. On July 8, 1843 his package of 18.34 ounces of placer gold was 

 deposited in the Philadelphia mint by Alfred Robinson. The gold had 

 been transported around the Horn and at the mint brought somewhat 



over $19 an ounce. It cannot be said that the United States Government 

 was not officially informed of the existence of gold in California, for 

 Thomas 0. Larkin as vice-consul at Monterey notified Secretary of State 

 James Buchanan of the fact in an official communication of March 1846. 

 In view of these circumstances, what were the reasons for the lack of 

 publicity of this early uncovering of gold ? Doubtless they are a combi- 

 nation of the following : the small amount of gold was soon exhausted ; 

 inadequate mining processes and difficulty of extraction made gold min- 

 ing economically profitable in the long run only to those with previous 

 mining experience ; the Mexicans had inherited the Spanish ideas of 

 mercantilism in pursuit of which policy trade and communication with 

 foreign nations were discouraged and consequently the possibility of 

 publicity was lessened ; and in general, the Mexican authorities were not 

 favorably inclined to increased immigration into California. 



It is obvious that James Marshall was not the first to find gold in 

 California, and in justice to Francisco Lopez, Marshall ought not to be 

 so credited. Nevertheless it was this New Jersey carpenter, in the employ 

 of John Sutter. who made the effective discovery which electrified the 

 world, altered the course of western history, greatly accelerated the devel- 

 opment of California, and had national and international ramifications. 



l'"l(;. 1. Setter's mill as it stood soon after its abandonment. This picture \v:is 

 lirolmlilv taken in 1S.13. The man in the I'lirecrouml is supposed to he James .Mar- 

 shall. 



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