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Courtesy of Phil B. Bekeart.

From a painting by Arthur Nahl. SUTTER'S MILL in the south fork of the American River, Coloma, California (called by the Indians Kuloma, meaning Pretty Valley), where gold was first discovered by James W. Marshall in the sluice race, January 24, 1848.

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From a sketch by J. C. Wood.

Reproduced by kind permission of Phil B. Bekeart.

Ten months after Marshall's discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill. In that interim the rush to the gold SAN FRANCISCO, NOVEMBER, 1848. fields in the foothills of the Sierras had drained almost all the residents from the thinly populated towns and ranches that had been reached by The report of the discovery of gold took several weeks to reach Monterey from San Franthe slow process of carrying news on horseback. The little town of San Francisco (810 population) lost all the residents that could possibly get away, and its growth was cisco, about 100 miles. retarded till the first vessels from Eastern and foreign ports arrived with the adventurers, who had received news of the rich gold discoveries. The four vessels lying in the harbor indicate that they were local trading craft, and likely used during this period for carrying supplies and gold seekers up the river to Sacramento. January 30, 1847, the old Mexican name of Yerba Buena was changed to San Francisco by order of the Alcalde, Washington A. Bartlett afterwards Mayor of San Francisco.

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CALIFORNIA MINERS IN THE EARLY '50's, washing out gold by the "rocker" process. The second development in washing gold, the first being with a pan. (From an old daguerreotype in the Californiana Collection of Phil B. Bekeart.)

to the machine, whilst a fourth dashes water on from the stream itself. The sieve keeps the coarse stones from entering the cradle, the current of water washes off the earthy matter, and the gravel is gradually carried out at the foot of the machine, leaving the gold mixed with a fine heavy black sand above the first cleets. The sand and gold, mixed together, are then drawn off through augur holes into a pan below, are dried in the sun, and afterwards separated by blowing off the sand. A party of four men thus employed at the lower mines averaged $100 a day. The Indians, and those who have nothing but pans or willow baskets, gradually wash out the earth and separate the gravel by hand, leaving nothing but the gold mixed with sand, which is separated in the manner before described. The gold in the lower mines is in fine bright scales, of which I send several specimens ?

At the saw-mill, twenty-five miles above the lower washings, or fifty miles from Sutter's, the hills rise to about a thousand feet above the level of the Sacramento plain. Here species of pine occurs, which led to the

discovery of the gold. Captain Sutter, feeling the great want of lumber, contracted, in September last, with a Mr. Marshall to build a saw mill at that place. It was erected in the course of the past winter and springa dam and race constructed; but when the water was let on the wheel the tail race was found to be too narrow to permit the water to escape with sufficient rapidity. Mr. Marshall, to save labor, let the water directly into the race, with a strong current, so as to wash it wider and deeper. He effected his purpose, and a large bed of mud and gravel was carried to the foot of the race.

One day Mr. Marshall, when walking down the race on this deposit of mud, observed some glittering particles at its upper edge; he gathered at few, examined them, and became satisfied of their value. He then went to the fort, told Captain Sutter of his discovery, and they agreed to keep it secret until a certain grist mill of Sutter's was finished. It, however, got out and spread like magic. Remarkable success attended the labors of the first explorers, and in a few

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INTERIOR OF A MINER'S CABIN in the early '50's. Figuring on the value of the gold dust cleaned up on the day. (From the California collection of Phil B. Bekeart.)

weeks hundreds of men were drawn thither. At the time of my visit, but little more than three months after its first discovery, it was estimated that upwards of four thousand people were employed. At the mill there is a fine deposit, or bank of gravel, which the people respect as the property of Captain Sutter, although he pretends to no right to it, and would be perfectly satisfied with the simple promise of a pre-emption, on account of the mill which he has built there, at considerable cost.

Mr. Marshall was living near the mill, and informed me that many persons were employed above and below him, that they used the same machines as at the lower washings, and that their success was about the same, ranging from one to three ounces of gold per man daily. This gold, too, is in scales, a little coarser than those of the lower mines. From the mills Mr. Marshall guided me up the mountain on the opposite or north bank of the South Fork, where, in the beds of

small streams, or ravines, now dry, a great deal of the coarse gold has been found. I there saw several parties at work, all of whom were doing very well. A great many specimens were shown me, some as heavy as four or five ounces in weight; and I send three pieces, labeled No. 5, presented by a Mr. Spence. You will perceive that some of the specimens accompanying his hold, mechanically, pieces of quartz, that the surface is rough, and evidently moulded in the crevice of a rock. This gold cannot have been carried far by water, but must have remained near where it was deposited from the rock that once bound it. I inquired of many people if they had encountered the metal in its matrix, but in every instance they said they had not, but that the gold was mixed with washed gravel, or lodged in the crevices of other rocks. All bore testimony that they had found gold in greater or less quantities in the numerous small gullies or ravines that occur in that mountainous region.

Captain Weber informed me that he knew that these two men had employed four white men and about a hundred Indians, and that, at the end of one week's work, they paid off their party and left with $10,000 worth of this gold. Another small ravine was shown me, from which had been taken $12,000 worth of gold. Hundreds of similar ravines, to all appearances, are as yet untouched. I could not have credited these reports had I not seen, in the abundance of the precious of the precious metal, evidence of their truth. Mr. Neligh, an agent of Commodore Stockton, had been at work about three weeks in the neighborhood, and showed me, in bags and bottles, over $2,000 worth of gold; and Mr. Lyman, a gentleman of education and worth of every credit, said he had been engaged with four others, with a nachine on the American Fork, just below Sutter's sawmill, and they worked eight days, and that his share. was at the rate of fifty dollars a day; but, hearing that others were doing better at Weber's place, they had removed there, and then were on the point of resuming operations.

I might tell of hundreds of similar instances; but to illustrate how plentiful the gold was in the pockets of common laborers, I will mention a simple occurrence which took place in my presence when I was at Weber's store. This store was nothing but an arbor of bushes, under which he had exposed for sale goods and groceries suited to his customers. A man came in, picked up a box of sedlitz powders and asked its price. Captain Weber told him it was not for sale. The man offered an ounce of gold ($16), but Captain Weber told him it only cost fifty cents, and he did not wish to sell it. The man then offered an ounce and a half, when Captain Weber had to take it. The prices of all things are high; and yet Indians, who before hardly knew what a breech-cloth was, can now afford to buy the most gaudy dresses.

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that of Brannant & Co., had received in payment for goods $36,000 worth of this gold from the 1st of May to the 10th of July; other merchants had also made extensive sales. Large quantities of goods were daily sent forward to the mines, as the Indians, heretofore so poor and degraded, have suddenly become consumers of the luxuries of life. I before mentioned that the greater part of the farmers and rancheros had abandoned their fields to go to the mines; this is not the case with Captain Sutter, who was carefully gathering his wheat, estimated at 40,000 bushels. Flour is already worth at Sutter's $36 a barrel, and soon will be fifty. Unless large quantities of bread stuffs reach the country, much suffering will occur; but as each man is now able to pay a large price, it is believed the merchants will bring from Chili and Oregon a plentiful supply for the coming winter.

The most moderate estimate I could obtain from men acquainted with the subject was that upwards of four thousand men were working in the gold district, of whom more than half were Indians, and that from $30,000 to $50,000 worth of gold, if not more, was obtained daily. The entire gold district, with very few exceptions of grants made some years ago by the American authorities, is on land belonging to the United States. It was a matter of serious reflection with me how I could secure to the government certain rents or fees for the privilege of procuring this gold; but upon considering the large extent of country, the character of the people engaged, and the small scattered force at my command, I resolved not to interfere, but permit all to work freely, unless broils and crimes should call for interference. I was surprised to learn that crime of any kind was very infrequent, and that no theft or roberies had been committed in the gold district. All live in tents, in bush houses, or in the open air, and men have frequently about their persons thousands of dollars' worth of this gold; and it was to me a

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