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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