Essay About California Gold Rush And California Land Developer John Sutter

California Gold Rush
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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 Marshalls find that afternoon at Sutters Mill in the Sierra Nevada
foothills was enormous, and became known worldwide. Although Marshalls 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 history.
The only hope was to keep the discovery quiet. Sutter and Marshall swore
the mill workers to secrecy, but word got out. When Jacob Wittmer took two
wagons up to the mill on February 9, the Wimmer children apparently told him of
the gold. When he scoffed at the story, it was confirmed by Mrs. Wimmer and the
other adults. Wittmer brought the news back to the fort, and even used some of
the gold to buy a bottle of brandy at the fort store. The store operator sent word to
his partner in San Francisco, the enterprising Sam Brannan. Henry Bigler shared
the news with three of his fellow Mormons who were working on the new flour
mill near Sutters Fort. They visited Coloma and then on the way back to Sutters
Fort prospected at a spot that shortly became the rich diggings of Mormon Island.
On February 10, Sutter himself wrote his impatient creditor, General
Mariano Vallejo: “My sawmill is finished and I have made a discovery of a gold
mine which is extraordinarily rich.” As the word seeped out, Sutter was soon
openly telling visitors to the fort about the discovery.
The first printed notice of the discovery was in the March 15 issue of “The
Californian” in San Francisco. Shortly after Marshalls discovery, General John Bidwell
discovered gold in the Feather River and Major Pearson B. Reading found gold in the
Trinity River. The Gold Rush was soon in full sway.
By ship, horse and wagon, and on foot, hundreds of thousands of men and women
with their families poured into California, leading to the territorys early statehood, and
extending the United States from coast to coast. Thus began one of the largest human
migrations in history as a half-million people from around the world descended upon
California in search of instant wealth. They came in droves, pans in hand, hoping to find
a gleaming spot of yellow beneath the dirt. A few flakes of gold bought dinner and a
place to sleep; a strike could set them up for life.
The 49ers, as they came to be known for the massive migration westward that
started in 1849, after word of the gold discovery had filtered back East, may have
represented some of the hardiest travelers ever. But they hardly knew it at the time. From
farmers to aristocrats who traveled in style, few understood the nature of the trip they
were embarking upon, and many gave up after only a day or two on the trail, earning
themselves the humiliating sobriquet of “backed out Californians” as they backtracked to
their homes and farms. For the hardy thousands who persevered and made it, the trip
alone was as educational as the arrival in the strange land called California. Many took
what they assumed was the easy way, the migration by sea that continued from 1849 for a
decade. The trips typically began anywhere along the Atlantic Coast with ships sailing
southward around Cape Horn and back up to San Francisco. Others sailed only as far
south as Panama, where travelers disembarked, then made a three-day trip by mule and
canoe across land to the Pacific side, where they boarded another ship for the trip north to
San Francisco.
At first the only people who came to look for gold were men from the
coastal towns and ranches, sailors whose ships had brought cargo to San
Francisco, or soldiers loosed in the aftermath of the Mexican War. Only the
best equipped brought tents. Most settled in brush shelters or just laid out their
blankets on the ground. Marshall tried to keep them away from the mill and his
own claims, directing them up and down the river and to tributary streams. Gold