The First California Gold Rush

By 2tfx, 26th Sep 2014 | Follow this author | RSS Feed | Short URL http://nut.bz/3_v_rvsu/

Posted in WikinutWritingHistory

This is the story of the first gold discovery in California

The Oak of the Golden Dream

The story of the California gold rush is known by most Californians, James Marshall discovered gold in the American River at Sutter's Mill on January 28, 1848.



What is not as well known is the fact that this was not the first gold discovered in California. During the time of Mexican rule, Francisco Lopez a forty year old rancher was herding cattle on a relative's ranch near Los Angeles on March 9, 1842. with two friends Manuel Cota and Domingo Bermudez.



According to the legend, Francisco Lopez claimed to have fallen asleep under an oak tree dreaming about gold. When he woke up, He placed his knife into the dirt to dug up some wild onions. When he took the onions out of the ground, gold flakes clung to the roots!



Lopez's brother Pedro, who was the foreman at the Mission San Fernando too some samples to a Los Angeles merchant named Abel Stearns. The gold was then sent to a man named Alfred Robinson at the United States mint in Philadelphia. The gold was real and valued at nineteen dollars and ounce!



2000 miners from the Mexican state of Sonora soon arrived to work the mines.



Ygnacio Del Valle was named the first manager of the mining district.



In November 1842, two hundred ounces of gold were mined. By 1848 one hundred twenty five pounds was extracted before the mines were exhausted.



The news of the discovery reached the United States on October 1 1842 in an article by Sydney Morse in an abolitionist newspaper in New York City.



The area around Placerita Canyon was used in the early twentieth century as the location for Hollywood westerns starring William S. Hart, John Wayne and Gene Autry.



The old Oak Tree still survives in Placerita Canyon. It is still called the "Oak of the Golden Dream". It is designated as a California historic landmark number 168.



The Oak can be seen in Placerita Canyon State Park in Santa Clarita, CA. The park is run by Los Angeles County.