"Some Kind of Mettle"
On January 24, 1848, a young Virginian named Henry William Bigler recorded in his diary one of the most fateful sentences in American history: "This day some kind of mettle was found in the tail race that looks like gold first discovered by James Martial, the Boss of the Mill." Thus was recorded, in a scrawl barely legible, the momentous discovery of California gold by master carpenter James Wilson Marshall while working at a sawmill on the south fork of the American River.
Marshall later said that he made the discovery while inspecting the tailrace of the mill. He found there a glittering particle, caught behind a stone beneath the water. When he showed his find to Johann August Sutter, the owner of the mill, Sutter exclaimed "It's gold--at least twenty-three-carat gold."
For an event of such importance, it's surprising that so little is known about the exact circumstances of the discovery. Marshall was never entirely sure of the date. He later speculated that he had made the discovery "on or about the 19th of January." Several other accounts, including Bigler's diary entry, contradict Marshall.
The first published accounts of the discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill appeared in San Francisco's two weekly newspapers in March 1848. The news caused little excitement...at first.
An enterprising young merchant named Sam Brannan soon saw the possibilities of making a profit from whipping up some gold fever. He stocked his store at Sutter's Fort with merchandise that he thought would be in demand by gold seekers. Then, on May 12, he came to San Francisco, waved a bottle of gold dust in one hand and his hat in the other, and shouted "Gold! Gold! Gold from the American River!"
Brannan's carefully staged announcement had the desired effect. San Franciscans rushed to the American River--some stopping along the way at Brannan's store--to look for gold. The San Francisco Californian ceased publication on May 29, complaining that "the whole country, from San Francisco to Los Angeles and from the sea shore to the base of the Sierra Nevada, resounds with the sordid cry of 'Gold! Gold!! Gold!!!' while the field is left half planted, the house half built, and everything neglected but the manufacture of shovels and pickaxes."
During the summer of 1848, the gold fever spread to Hawaii, Oregon and Utah, and in the fall to Mexico, Peru, and Chile. Altogether about 6,000 "forty-eighters" rushed to the gold fields.
Like ripples in a pond pulsing outward from a skipping stone, news of the California gold discovery circled the globe. At first, reasonable people responded with disbelief. Tales of nuggets as large as hens' eggs were dismissed as tall tales. Only as the initial rumors were confirmed by subsequent reports did reasonable people find themselves possessed by a gold mania. Their intense excitement was compounded by a determination to make up for the time they had lost in doubt.
Monterey resident James H. Carson later recalled that he had remained an "unbeliever" until he saw with his own eyes a sack of gold nuggets, some truly as large as hens' eggs. His description of what happened next is a classic account of the contagion that was raging out of control:
"I looked on for a moment; a frenzy seized my soul; unbidden my legs performed some entirely new movements of Polka steps--I took several--houses were too small for me to stay in; I was soon in the street in search of necessary outfits; piles of gold rose up before me at every step; castles of marble, dazzling the eye with their rich appliances; thousands of slaves, bowing to my beck and call; myriads of fair virgins contending with each other for my love, were among the fancies of my fevered imagination. The Rothschilds, Girards and Astors appeared to me but poor people; in short, I had a very violent attack of the Gold Fever."