Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park Brochure

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Marshall Gold Discovery

State Historic ParkP.O. Box 265

Coloma, California 95613

(530) 622-3470

2004 California State Parks (rev. 9/07) Printed on Recycled Paper

Our MissionThemission o theCaliorniaDepartment oParks and Recreation is to provide or thehealth, inspiration and education o thepeople o Caliornia by helping to preservethe states extraordinary biological diversity,protecting its most valued natural and

cultural resources, and creating opportunitiesor high-quality outdoor recreation.

Caliornia State Parks supports equal access.Prior to arrival, visitors with disabilities whoneed assistance should contact the park atthe phone number below. To receive thispublication in an alternate ormat, write tothe Communications Oce at the ollowingaddress.

For inormation call: 800-777-0369916-653-6995, outside the U.S.

711, TTY relay service

www.parks.ca.gov

CALIFORNIA STATE PARKS

P. O. Bo 942896

Sacramento, CA 94296-0001

Discover the many states of California.

Marshall GoldDiscovery

State Historic Park

onday 24th. This day

some kind o mettle wasound in the tail race

that looks like goald, frst

discovered by James Martial,

the Boss o the Mill.

From Henry Biglers DiaryJanuary 1848

M


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A long Californiashistoric Highway 49,tucked neatly into a beautiully

orested valley in the Sierra

oothills, Marshall Gold

Discovery State Historic Park

straddles the South Fork o

the American River. Here,

on January 24, 1848, James

Marshall ound some gold

fakes in the streambed and

sparked one o historys

largest human migrations.

PARK HISTORY

Native People

For thousands o years, the Nisenanand oothill Miwok people built their

dome-shaped houses in villages along

the streams and tributaries that drained

the American, Cosumnes, Bear and Yuba

Rivers. They called their home along

the American River Cullumah,

now known as Coloma. Prior to

oreign intrusion, they lived on a

diet o animals, acorns, seeds and

ruits. The hollowed out holes in a

large bedrock in the parkthe last

remaining evidence o the native

peoples presence hereshow

how they processed the acorns that

ormed their main diet. As river

people they enjoyed an abundance

o reshwater sh as well as waterowl,

elk, deer and small game.

Until they met ur trappers in the

late 1820s, the native people had little contact

with the outside world. However, by the late

1830s, diseases introduced by the newcomers

nearly decimated them. When gold was

discovered along the American River in the

Coloma Valley, hordes o gold-seekers seized

control o the Caliornia Indians shing and

gathering sites. By 1849 the

remaining native people who

had survived the combined

hardships o disease and

conficts with settlers haddispersed to more remote

areas o the Gold Country. A

ew turned to mining, and a

ew worked or John Sutter.

JANuARY 24, 1848

THE GOLD DISCOVERY

John Sutter was ounder

o New Helvetia,

later named Sacramentoand a vastagricultural empire in the Sacramento

Valley. He partnered with James W.

Marshall to go into the lumber business.

They selected Coloma Valley, 45 miles

east o Sutters ort, as a mill site because

it had a river or power and stands o large

ponderosa pine trees or lumber. As equal

partners, Sutter would urnish the capital,

and Marshall would oversee the mills

construction and operation.

In the all o 1847, Marshall began

construction o the mill with a labor orce

that included both Indians and members

o the U.S. Army Mormon Battalion. A low

dam was built across the river to unnel

part o the stream into the diversion

channel that would carry it through the

mill. By January o the next year, the mill

was ready to be tested. However, the

tailrace, which carried water away rom the

mill, was too shallow, backing up water

and preventing the mill wheel rom turning

properly. To deepen the tailrace,

each day the Indian laborers

loosened the rock. At night,

water was allowed to run through

the ditch to wash away the loosedebris rom that days diggings.

On the morning o January

24, 1848, while inspecting the

watercourse, Marshall spotted

some shiny fecks in the tailrace.

He scooped them up, and ater

bending them with his ngernail

and pounding them with a rock,

he placed them in the crown o his hatand hurried to announce his nd to

the others. He told the mill workers,

Watercolor o an Eastern Miwokwoman ashioning a seed gathering

basket by Seth Eastman

PhotocourtesyofCalifor

nia

StateLibrary,Sacramento,California

Artwork courtesy o W. Duncan and NevinMacMillan, and Aton Historical Society Press

John A. Sutter

The Marshall Monument


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o a Chinese invasion. Hostilities among

the miners helped spark discriminatory

taxes and laws enorced only against

oreign miners.

The easy-to-nd placer gold at Coloma

played out early. By 1857 many miners had

let, but a ew Chinese miners remainedto work the played-out placer sites. Two

structures used by the Chinese remain in

the park todaythe Man Lee building,

which housed a Chinese trading and

banking company as well as a hardware

store, and the Wa Hop Store, once leased

to a Chinese merchant o that name.

They currently house exhibits o gold

mining techniques and the mercantilegoods needed by the Chinese miners.

Boys, by God, I believe

Ive ound a gold mine.

When Mr. Scotta

carpenter working on the

mill wheeldisputed his

claim, Marshall replied

positively, I know it to benothing else. Marshall

pounded it on a rock, and

the cook, Jenny Wimmer,

boiled it in lye soap. It

passed all their testsit

was pure gold.

Four days later Marshall

rode to the ort with

samples o the gold.Sutter consulted his

encyclopedia, tried various tests, and

conrmed Marshalls conclusion. Mindul

o their investment in the mill, they agreed

to keep the news secret until the mill

was in operation. Ater all, this was not

the rst time gold had been discovered

in Caliornia, and there was no reason

to assume that this nd was particularlyimportant.

But it was a secret that could not bekept. In a letter to General MarianoVallejo, Sutter bragged about thediscovery. Mormon elder Sam Brannan,who operated a general store at the ort,went to the mill to see or himsel. SeveralMormon mill workers readily gave him a

tithe o the gold they had ound. WhenBrannan visited San Francisco in May,he paraded the streets waving a quininebottle ull o gold, shouting, Gold! Gold!

Gold rom the American

River! By the end o May,

San Francisco was reported

to be hal empty as the

able-bodied men departed

or the mines. The excitement

grew when an army ocercarried a tea caddy ull o gold

to Washington, D.C. Shortly

ater President James K.

Polk conrmed the rumors,

thousands came to join the

trek to the Gold Country.

CHINESE IMMIGRANTS

News o the gold discovery

spread throughout the world.In China, Caliornia was called

Gum SanGold Mountain. Chinese workers,

lured to Caliornia by a promised golden

mountain rom which they could literally carve

out their ortune, were feeing years o war and

poverty. Chinese miners at Colomathought

to have numbered about 50were so ecient

at nding gold that other miners complained

PhotobyBettySederquist

The Wah Hop buildinga Gold Rush-era Chinese store

Early drawing o Sutters Mill, c. 1849

Living history program at the parks 49er Family Festival


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A renzy had

seized my soul...piles o gold roseup beore me atevery step; castleso marbelthousands oslavesmyriadso air virgins...

the Rothschilds,Girards, and

AFRICAN AMERICAN

SETTLERS

According to the Gooch-

Monroe amilys oral history,

Peter and Nancy Gooch

came to Coloma as slaves

in 1849. The ollowing year

Caliornia became a ree

state. Peter Gooch worked

in construction and at

odd jobs, and Nancy did

domestic chores or the

miners. By 1861 Nancy

had saved enough money

to buy the reedom o her

son, Andrew Monroe, whowas still a slave in Missouri.

Andrew brought his wie, Sarah, and their

three children to Coloma, where they became

respected armers. In the 1940s the State

purchased some o the Monroe landholdings

rom Andrew Monroes son, Pearley, which

included the original site o Sutters Mill and the

site o Marshalls gold discoverythe oundation

o todays park. The entire Gooch-Monroe amilyare buried in the parks Pioneer Cemetery.

COLOMA, QuEEN OF THE MINES

In the wake o the hopeul gold seekers

came merchants, doctors, lawyers, gamblers,

ministersall the services required to supply a

miner and relieve him o his burdensome gold

dust. From Coloma the miners moved up the

canyons and into the mountains. With each new

strike, and as the placer gold gave out, Colomadeclined in population. By1857 the El Dorado

County seat had been transerred to nearby

Placerville. By then the Chinese were almost

the only miners working the

gravel bars near the discovery

site, and Coloma again became

a peaceul community, with

agriculture and transportation

its economic base.

THE DISCOVERERIn the late 1830s, New

Jersey native James

Marshall traveled

west to Missouri,

where he worked

as a carpenter and

armed along the

Missouri River. When

his doctor advisedhim to seek a healthier

climate, Marshall joined a wagon

train bound or Oregon in 1844,

and in June 1845 he headed or

Caliornia with a small party o settlers.

He arrived at Sutters ort in July and was

immediately hired as a wheelwright and

carpenter. Cratsmen with his experience

were scarce in Caliornia. Marshall purchaseda ranch on Butte Creek, but ater ghting

alongside the Americans during their conquest

o Caliornia in 1846, he returned home to

discover his cattle strayed or stolen. He met

again with John Sutter, who gave him the task

o nding a site to build their new sawmill.

With the gold discovery, the sawmill at

Coloma quickly lost its sleepy, peaceul

aspect. In July 1848 Colonel Richard B. Masonvisited the mill site and estimated the areas

population at 4,000. By December 1848,

fooding caused Sutter to sell his interest in

James Wilson Marshallas sketched in 1849

the mill, and Marshall took on two new

partners. Later, management problems

entangled the mill in legal diculties, and

ater 1850 it was abandoned. Marshall

spent the next ew years searching or

gold, with little success. In 1857 he bought

teen acres o land in Coloma or $15 and

built a cabin near the Catholic church.

Investing in new and exotic varieties

o grapevines, he planted a vineyard

on the hillside above the cemetery,

dug a cellar, and began to make

wine or sale. By 1860 his vines

were doing so well that his entry in

the county air received an award,

but in the late 1860s, a series osetbacks sent him prospecting

again. During this time Marshall

became part owner o a quartz mine

near Kelsey. Hoping to raise unds

to develop the mine, he went on a

lecture tour, only to nd himsel stranded

Astors appearedto me but poor people.

Diary o J. H. Carson, 1852

The Monroe amily: William, Grant, Pearley,Andrew Jr. (top); Cordelia, James, Andrew

Sr., Sarah (middle); Garfeld (bottom)


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penniless in

Kansas City. In

a philanthropic

gesture, Leland

Stanord paid

Marshalls are

to New Jerseywhere he visited

his mother and

sister. Ater a

ew months,

he returned

to Kelsey and

moved into the

Union Hotel.

In 1872 theState Legislature passed a bill to pro-

vide Marshall a pension o $200 a month

or two years. He paid some debts and

equipped a blacksmith shop in Kelsey.

The state pension was reduced by hal or

the next our years, but it ended in 1878

amid criticism o Marshalls personal hab-

itsespecially his weakness or liquor.

Marshall continued to work in hisblacksmith shop and in the small gold

mines he owned near Kelsey. When he

died on August 10, 1885, at the age o

75, the man who dug his grave on the

hillside was Andrew Monroe, the son o

Nancy Gooch. In 1890 a monumental

statueCaliornias rst State Historic

Monumentwas commissioned and

placed on the hill overlooking the gold

discovery site to mark the location o

Marshalls grave.

What if gold had not been

discovered?

Caliornia was a pastoral backwater

and wilderness in 1848. Nine days

ater Marshalls ateul discoveryat

the conclusion o the Mexican-

American Warthe United Stateshad been granted this land as

part o a treaty. Its non-Indian

population was about 14,000. At the

time, only a ew hundred overland

pioneers had ound ways to bring

their wagon trains across the deserts

and mountains to Caliornia. But

that all changed with the discovery

o gold.Between 1848 and 1852, the worlds asci-

nation with Caliornia caused its non-Indian

population to boom to more than 200,000.

Few Forty-Niners intended to remain in

Caliornia permanentlymost had come to

seek their ortune and then

return home. But many sent

or their amilies and stayed,

while others returned later tobecome permanent residents.

Over the next 50 years,

roughly 125 million ounces o

gold taken rom the hills had

a critical eect on Caliornias

early development. I gold

had not been discovered,

Caliornias climate, resources

and location might have been

ignored or a much longer

time. There would have been

PhotobyRicHorner

PhotobyRicHorner

little interest in building a transcontinental

railroad to bind the nation together. More

importantly, without Marshalls momentous

discovery, a more gradual infux o

oreigners rom the U.S. might have been

quietly absorbed into Caliornias Spanish/

Mexican cattle- and agriculture-basedeconomy. However, James Marshall spotted

a shiny bit o metal in the tailrace at Sutters

mill, giving rise to one o the most culturally

diverse and technologically advanced

populations in the world.

THE PARK

Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park,

created in 1942, encompasses most o the

historic town o Coloma. With about twohundred year-round residents in town and

the surrounding area, the tree-lined streets

o the park are usually quiet, shady and

serene. Most visitors and students come

during spring, summer and

all or or special events year-

round, including the annual

celebration o the January 24

gold discovery.

A number o historic

buildings and sitesincluding

the blacksmith shop, the Price-

Thomas and Papini homes, the

Mormon, James Marshall, and

Miners cabins, and the Indian

bedrock mortarremain to

remind us o that tumultuous

period. One outstanding

attraction o the park is the ull-

sized replica o Sutters sawmill.

Cemetery and James Marshalls cabin

1858 St. Johns Church


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PLEASE REMEMBER

The museum and historic buildings areopen rom 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. daily,and may be open longer depending onavailability o sta. They are closed onThanksgiving, Christmas and New Yearsdays. Park grounds are open daily, 8:00a.m. to sunset.

Check the current schedule orinterpretive programs at themuseum/visitor center, or

visit the parks website. Call the park to arrange to

have your wedding in eithero the parks historic church-es or on the parks grounds.

There is no camping inthe park, but the Colomaand Lotus communitieshave several private camp-

grounds and stores. Recre-ational gold panning, withhands and pan only, is al-lowed in designated areas.

Help keep the park clean. Whateveryou bring in, please take out with you.

Stay on the trailsshortcuts destroyground cover and speed erosion.The river shoreline has submergedobstacles and an uneven bottom, andthe water level and fow change quicklyand oten. Diving is not permitted.

Dogs must be on a leashand are not permitted

in historic buildings,on trails, outside odeveloped areas, or onbeaches.

To guarantee accessto the park, groups oten or more must makeadvance reservations.For more inormation

call (866) 240-4655,or visit our website atwww.parks.ca.gov.

The original, abandoned and torn down or

its lumber, disappeared in the foods o

the 1850s. The replica, looking much like

the original, was completed in 1968 and is

interpreted or park visitors. Some o the

original mills timbers, reclaimed rom the

river, are displayed nearby. Gold-panningactivities are available year-round.

THE GOLD DISCOVERY MuSEuM AND

OTHER ExHIBITS

Exhibits in the Gold Discovery Museum tell

the story o John Sutter and James Marshall,

and how drastically the simple act o

noticing a small feck o gold would alter the

lives o hundreds o thousands o people

rom that day to the present. The museumalso has Indian and Gold Rush-era exhibits,

including mining equipment, horse-drawn

vehicles, household implements and other

memorabilia, as well as lms about the gold

discovery and early mining techniques.

Next door to the museum are an outdoor

mining exhibit and two original buildings

used by the Chinese. Throughout the park,

the exhibits show the various standardso living as Coloma developed through

time. The Gold Discovery Loop Trail

makes it easy to visit the site o Marshalls

momentous discovery, the original mill site,

as well as other points o interest.

You can walk under native Caliornian

trees, as well as the Chinese Tree o Heav-

en, black locust, Texas mesquite, southern

pecan, Osage orange, persimmon and oth-ers planted by homesick miners as remind-

ers o their ormer dwellings.

ACCESSIBLE FEATuRES

Hiking

The hal-mile Gold Discovery Loop Trail,

rom the museum to the gold discovery

overlook site, is mostly level and hard packed,

but some slopes may require assistance.

PicnickingThe North Beach group picnic area has

accessible tables with generally accessible

restrooms and parking nearby. The picnic

area near the Wah Hop Store and Mann Lee

exhibits has accessible tables that may be

usable with assistance.

Ehibits

The accessibly-designed Gold Discovery

Museum has restrooms, sel-guided

exhibits and an audio-visual theater. Video

captioning and large print brochures are

available.

Accessibility is continually improving.For current details, call the park, or visit

http://access.parks.ca.gov.


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Thispark

issupportedinpartthrougha

nonproftorganization.

Formoreinorm

ation

contact:

GoldDiscoveryParkAssociatio

n

P.O.

Bo

x461Coloma,

CA95613

(530)622-6198www.m

arshallgold.o

rg

Cookingdemonstration

Documents

Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park Brochure