(1848) DISCOVERY OF GOLD IN CALIFORNIA, John S. Hittell

Before the time of the great gold discovery of 1848, the metal had been found in California, but the mines from which it was taken were poor and yielded small returns for years of working.  The discovery in 1848 influenced the whole world, giving new life to trade and industry everywhere.  The first published report of gold in California appeared in Hakluyt’s account of Sir Francis Drake’s visit to the coast in 1579.  The observations of Drake’s men are supposed by some to have been made at a point not far from San Francisco.  The Hakluyt statement, however, is disbelieved by many historians.  The Spaniards and Mexicans who later visited the coast are known to have found gold at many places, and especially near the Colorado River, but they discovered no mines worth working.  Reports of great mineral wealth in California were repeated up to the time of the American conquest, but they commanded little confidence among mining experts.

Although gold was found in what is now San Diego County in 1828, Alexander Forbes, the historian of California, wrote in 1835 that no minerals of particular importance had been discovered in Upper California, nor any ores of metals.  About 1838 a gold placer was discovered in the ca+-on of San Francisquito, forty-five miles northwest of Los Angeles, and this was the first California mine that produced any considerable amount of metal.  It was worked for ten years and then abandoned for richer diggings in the Sacramento Valley.  The average yield for the ten years was probably about six thousand dollars.  After the return of the Wilkes exploring expedition of 1842, James D. Dana, its mineralogist, mentioned places in California at which he had observed or inferred the existence of gold.  But his report led to no gold-hunting, and had only a scientific interest.

The great discovery of 1848, and its world-wide effects, are described in the following account by Hittell, which forms a part of Hubert H. Bancroft’s voluminous History of the Pacific States.

As Edmund Hammond Hargraves is the hero of the Australian, so is James W. Marshall of the Californian, gold discovery.  Before giving the account of his discovery, however, I will quote the following passage from a letter written on May 4, 1846, by Thomas O. Larkin, then United States consul at Monterey, California, to James Buchanan, Secretary of State: 

“There is said to be black lead in the country of San Fernando, near San Pedro [now Los Angeles County].  By washing the sand in a plate, any person can obtain from one dollar to five dollars per day of gold that brings seventeen dollars per ounce in Boston; the gold has been gathered for two or three years, though but few have the patience to look for it.  On the southeast end of the island of Catalina there is a silver mine from which silver has been extracted.  There is no doubt but that gold, silver, quick-silver, copper, lead, sulphur, and coal mines are to be found all over California, and it is equally doubtful whether, under their present owners, they will ever be worked.”