BGuthrie Photos: CA -- Coloma -- Marshall Gold Discovery SHP -- Exhibits

CA -- Coloma -- Marshall Gold Discovery SHP -- Exhibits:

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. GOLDX_140719_028.JPG: The Gold Discovery: January 24, 1848 In this valley, James Marshall found gold. This chance discovery started the California Gold Rush.
2. GOLDX_140719_030.JPG: The foothill Indians: The Nisenan, Miwok, and Miadu Indians lived in this valley in small groups. They found everything they needed in the natural world to support them. For food, they fished, hunted, trapped, and harvested plants and seeds. They used natural materials to make clothing, housing, tools, and medicine. Over the centuries, they developed a rich social and spiritual life in this way, the foothill people sustained their culture for thousands of years.
3. GOLDX_140719_036.JPG: The Gold Rush: With news of the discovery, thousands of gold seekers surged into Northern California and the Coloma Valley. For some lucky miners the Gold Rush brought great fortune. For the Indians who called this valley home, it brought devastation.
4. GOLDX_140719_048.JPG: Life in Peril: In 1808 Lieutenant Gabriel Goraga led the first recorded Spanish expedition to the Sacramento Valley> Other explorers, hunters, and settlers followed. With the arrival of each foreigner, the world of the Indian unraveled a little more. In 1833 John Work came with more than a Hudsons' Bay Company trapping party; he unknowingly carried with him the deadly disease malaria. Exposed to this illness for the first time, Indians died in such numbers that in many villages no one survived. Setting the Stage: John Sutter arrived in California in 1839. An ambitious man, Sutter found this sparsely populated Mexican colony a place of boundless opportunity. he secured an enormous land grant in the Sacramento Valley. There he established Sutter's Fort as the base of his empire-building dreams. To carry out his plans, Sutter needed lumber, always in short supply. In 1847, Sutter formed a partnership with James Marshall to build a sawmill on the American River. On the day that Marshall reached down to pick up a glimmering flake in the tailrace of the mill, their fortunes took an unprecedented turn.
5. GOLDX_140719_057.JPG: July 31, 1846: Abroad the ship, Brooklyn, 200 Mormon colonists lead by Sam Brannan arrive in Yerba Buena (San Francisco). This is one of three Mormon groups to come to California in the 1840s and 50s. With their large presence in the state, Mormons will play an important part in many aspects of the Gold Rush. August 28, 1847: James Marshall with a group of Indians and Mormons sets out from Sutter's Fort, Sacramento to Coloma to begin work on the sawmill. Over the 45 mile trip, they carry their tools and supplies in an ox-cart and drive a flock of sheep for food. January, 1848: By now work on the sawmill was in full swing. The millworkers included former members of the Mormon Battalion, Indian laborers from Sutter's Fort, and Peter Wimmer with his wife, Jennie, who was the camp cook and their children.
6. GOLDX_140719_060.JPG: January 24, 1848: Henry Bigler, one of two workers to keep diaries, wrote: "Monday 24th this day some kind of mettle was found in the tail race that looks like goald, first discovered by James Martial, the Boss of the Mill." Workers soon begin to divide their time between building the mill, and hunting for gold after work hours and on Sundays. February 2, 1848: A two-year war with Mexico officially ends with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The United States gains control over California, Nevada, Texas, Utah, most of Arizona and New Mexico and parts of Colorado and Wyoming. With no territorial government in place, in the coming rush, access to gold will be free to everyone. February 4, 1848: Sutter and Marshall attempt to stake the first mining claim by singing a twenty-year lease with a local Indian tribe. In exchange for 12 square miles of land, they promise to give the Indians clothing and farm tools. The lease agreement is officially denied. California's military governor, Color Richard Mason states in rejecting the claim that the United States does not recognize "the rights of Indians to lease, rent, or sell their lands."
7. GOLDX_140719_063.JPG: February 4, 1848: Sutter and Marshall attempt to stake the first mining claim by singing a twenty-year lease with a local Indian tribe. In exchange for 12 square miles of land, they promise to give the Indians clothing and farm tools. The lease agreement is officially denied. California's military governor, Color Richard Mason states in rejecting the claim that the United States does not recognize "the rights of Indians to lease, rent, or sell their lands." March 15, 1848: In the beginning, news spreads slowly. The first newspaper account appears on the back page of the San Francisco's The Californian. The brief account read: Gold Mine Found: In the newly made raceway of the sawmill recently erected by Captain Sutter, on the American fork, gold has been found in considerable quantities. One person brought thirty dollars' worth to New Helvetia [Sutter's Fort], gathered there in a short time. California, no doubt, is rich in mineral wealth; great chances her fro [here for] scientific capitalists. Gold has been found in almost every part of the country." May 12, 1848: Mormon entrepreneur Sam Brannan stirs gold fever through the streets of San Francisco when he dramatically waves a bottle of gold flakes over his head shouting: "Gold, Gold, Gold from the American River!" Some attribute this promotion to the beginning of the Gold Rush. In the next two years, newspapers around the world spread the word that California's immense quantities of gold were free for the taking.
8. GOLDX_140719_065.JPG: August 18, 1848: Military Governor Mason officially reports on his tour of the California gold fields. He states the reason he made no statement on the discovery earlier was that "I could not bring myself to believe the reports that I heard of the wealth of the gold district until I visited it myself." Now convinced these reports were not exaggerated, the enthusiastic account he sends to Washington DC is accompanied by 230 ounces of gold, and a map of the mill site. December 10, 1848: President James K. Polk officially reports on the gold discovery to Congress. December 31, 1849: By the end of 1849, by land and sea, from every state and from around the world, more than 90,000 gold seekers rushed into California.
9. GOLDX_140719_074.JPG: Before the Rush: For thousands of years before the appearance of European explorers, the Nisenan, Maidu, and Miwok Indians called this area home. They interacted closely with their environment and enjoyed an independent, self-sustaining lifestyle. Explore a moment in time with the Sierra foothill Indians. A moment in time before the discovery of gold... before the entire world rushed in.
10. GOLDX_140719_081.JPG: Golden Opportunities: Marshall's discovery accelerated everything. By summer of 1848, hopeful treasure hunters crowded the trail to Coloma. Within a year, mining replaced agriculture as California's economic mainstay. Within three years, California became the nation's thirty-first state. Within five years, cities, schools, libraries, hospitals, a postal service, roads, and bridges existed where none had been before. In these few short years, the world came to view California as a place of golden opportunities, a reputation that endures today.
11. GOLDX_140719_084.JPG: Devastation: At the time of the Gold Rush, foothill tribes were weakened by disease and armed only with primitive weapons. They were unable to stop the tidal wave of people who invaded their homeland. It is estimated that as many as 300,000 Indians lived in California before contact with Europeans and Americans. By 1860 their population had fallen to less than 30,000 people. Those who remained were treated as aliens in their own land. California's native people suffered terrible hardships during the Gold Rush. Miners polluted streams and rivers and killed game. They trampled plants and cut down trees upon which the Indians depended Indians not only endured the loss of their land but also ongoing prejudice and discrimination. Yet they survived. The number of Native Americans in California has returned to nearly what it was at the time of the gold discovery. They continue to celebrate their heritage and teach their children history, culture, and the wise use of natural resources.
12. GOLDX_140719_087.JPG: Saw Mill Timbers: Where do you get lumber to build the first mill? From the forest surrounding the Coloma valley. This exhibit represents the construction of one of California's earliest water operated saw mills, custom made by some of the earliest pioneers. Three of the timbers from the original 1848 mill are displayed here.
13. GOLDX_140719_092.JPG: Where Gold is Found: Gold is found in small quantities nearly everywhere in the earth's crust> Miners can only profit when they locate it in sufficient concentrations, typically in one of two types of deposits: a lode or a placer deposit. Lode deposits consist of veins of gold that have formed in cracks in the earth. Placer deposits consist of loose gold that has accumulated in valleys, often amid the sand and gravel of riverbeds like that of the American River. In some cases, prospectors who arrived early in the California Gold Rush literally filled their pickets with such gold-bearing rocks and nuggets.
14. GOLDX_140719_097.JPG: Finding Gold in the Tailrace: Because gold is so heavy when it tumbles downstream it settles through the sand and gravel to the lowest point it can go. In January, 1848 James Marshall and his mill workers were working trying to dig the mill's water channel deep enough to allow the water to race back into the river. They dug down as far as the solid bedrock where gold had settled into the lowest crevices.
15. GOLDX_140719_101.JPG: An Extraordinary Metal: Gold does not tarnish and is easily shaped. It can be pressed into thinner sheets and drawn into finer wires that any other metal. Many countries of the world use gold for money. Artists fashion gold into jewelry, statues, and other works of art. Gold is found in computers, radios, television sets, and on spacecraft. This metal also has important uses in dentistry and medicine. The frenzy created by Marshall's gold discovery is one example of the lengths to which people throughout history have gone to acquire this lustrous and prized metal.
16. GOLDX_140719_110.JPG: To the memory of Daniel Browett Ezrah H. Allen and Henderson Cox who was supposed to have been murdered and buried by Indians on the night of the 27 of June 1848.
17. GOLDX_140719_129.JPG: Marshall's Cribbage Board
18. GOLDX_140719_144.JPG: Placer Mining
19. GOLDX_140719_149.JPG: They came to California to make their fortune and then go home. Few knew anything about gold or mining. Men who descend into the hearts of mountains in back-breaking toil, stand waist deep in icy waters, put up with many unbelievable hardships, all in anticipation... the hope of striking it rich.
20. GOLDX_140719_152.JPG: The Chinese in the Gold Rush
21. GOLDX_140719_156.JPG: Burrowing under the gravels for rich pockets of gold was called "coyoting." Miners would sink a shaft and create a small open-pit mine as they tunneled along the bedrock layer in search of the pay streak. Many lost their lives in these diggings due to sudden unexpected cave-ins in the poorly constructed tunnels. As the accessible rich gravels were rapidly depleted. Miners were forced to develop efficient methods of dealing with larger quantities of low grade pay dirt. Various forms of the sluice, a sloping through with riffles or blocks to trap the gold, were developed. The Long Tom was used alone or at the head of a sluice line to wash very coarse gold-bearing gravels. The upper trough could handle large amounts of sand and gravel, while the steady flow of water washed the finer materials down into the screen or sluice below. The sands collected here were usually reworked in a rocker or pan.
22. GOLDX_140719_164.JPG: Using a rocker, one man could work twice as much sand and gravel as he could be panning. The next development was a 4-man team, each one doing a part of the operation: digging, transporting gravel and water, or working the rocker. Placer mining methods used gravity to concentrate heavier materials, such as gold, by washing away the lighter materials. The earliest miners found rich, accessible gold deposits that allowed them to make a profit while panning small quantities of gold-bearing gravel. Fifty washed pans were a man's daily labor quota and $15 a day was considered breaking even, gold rush prices being what they were.
23. GOLDX_140719_186.JPG: Hydraulicking
24. GOLDX_140719_192.JPG: Hydraulic mining was one of the cheapest methods to recover gold from river gorges. One or two men could process hundreds of tons of earth daily, making it practical to mine very low grade gravels. Monitors directed huge jets of water at hillsides washing soil, sand and gravel down through a series of sluices that caught the heavier gold bearing particles. The muddy tailing drained into streams, lakes and rivers. This waste eventually overwhelmed the waterways and brought court injunctions that ended hydraulicking in 1884. Malakoff Diggins State Park is the best surviving example of a hydraulic mining site.
25. GOLDX_140719_199.JPG: Hardrock Mining
26. GOLDX_140719_208.JPG: As placer gold deposits were depleted, miners began following gold to its source in quartz veins deep within the mountains. Early mine shafts were sunk as steep inclines following the gold bearing veins. Later, vertical shafts and crosscuts were built forming an intricate system of tunnels and excavations stretching hundreds of miles beneath the surface. There were a few large mining companies which employed thousands: however, the many small mines dotting the countryside accounted for much of California's fame as a gold producing state. Bodie, Cuyamaca Rancho, Plumas Eureka and Empire Mine State Parks contain hard-rock mines.
27. GOLDX_140719_215.JPG: Whether drilling by hand or using the compressed air drill, drilling in hard rock followed the same basic pattern. The hole was started with a short starter drill. As it got deeper, drills were frequently changed, the chisel-bit tips becoming progressively narrower as the length of the drills increased. Water was added to the hole to form a muddy grinding compound and to remove excess dirt particles.
28. GOLDX_140719_223.JPG: Developed in 1878, Lester Allen Pelton's water wheel was almost twice as efficient as some of the older water wheels in use at the time. It powered an electric generator which ran air compressors, hoists and other machinery in mining operations.
29. GOLDX_140719_235.JPG: Processing
30. GOLDX_140719_238.JPG: In the 1890's, a processing method was developed that could recover almost every atom of gold found in tailings, waste and low grade ore. Crushed gold-bearing sands were mixed in a dilute sodium-cyanide solution, dissolving the gold. This liquid was run through beds of fine zinc shavings, the gold settling out as a black sludge. This mixture was then heated in a retort to remove the zinc impurities. The process was so simple anyone could process gold at the digging site. Many miners ran old tailing heaps through their vats in this manner to recover any remaining gold particles.
31. GOLDX_140719_241.JPG: This diagram of a stamp mill portrays an ore processing plant of moderate size commonly found in mining areas between 1860 and 1942. Concentrator Table
32. GOLDX_140719_251.JPG: Retort Furnace Amalgamation is used to recover free gold in both hard-rock and placer mining. A small amount of mercury is poured in a miner's pan, sluice, arrastre or mechanical amalgamator where it combines with gold to form amalgam. This grayish-white pasty mass is collected and cleaned. The gold is then separated from the mercury by heating or retorting and the mercury can be used again.
33. GOLDX_140719_264.JPG: Geology Placer gold originated in quartz veins formed deep beneath the earth's surface. Through uplifting and exposure to surface weathering, the gold was separated from the surrounding rock material. The freed gold was gradually deposited along stream channels in the form of nuggets and dust, gold, being one of the heaviest materials, was deposited whenever the current slowed, settling in cracks and crevices along the river bottom. About 60 million years ago, large wide rivers similar to the rivers of the Sierra Nevada today, concentrated the freed gold in layers of placer deposits hundreds of feet deep. Volcanic activity covered much of this network of streams, trapping and preserving these gold-bearing deposits below layers of basalt. As the landscape and climate changed, newly formed rivers cut across these older channels transporting the depositing the placer gold. Faulting raised some of the older river beds, exposing the gold-bearing layers. Early mining operations concentrated primarily on the accessible placer deposits of rivers only 1 to 2 million years old. Hydraulic miners used the force of water to work the older placer deposits. In the valley where rivers spread out and slowed, dredges worked the old channels as well as the existing river beds. Over 100 million years ago semi-liquid rock called magma was forced up beneath the region that is now the Sierra Nevada. Changing pressure and temperature fractured the overlying rock material, forcing hot, mineral-filled water into the cracks and fissures. As the hot water solution cooled, quartz was deposited in veins, and with it gold. Is is these underground quartz veins containing lode gold that are sought by hard-rock miners.
34. GOLDX_140719_271.JPG: Hydraulic Mining
35. GOLDX_140719_274.JPG: Hard-Rock Mining
36. GOLDX_140719_277.JPG: Placer Mining
37. GOLDX_140719_283.JPG: After marking and registering his claim, the prospector headed for the nearest custom assay office. The assayer analyzed the ore for its gold content, usually by a highly refined smelting operation. Hard rock mines often employed resident assayers to analyze ore samples daily and sometimes more frequently. The assayers' findings would determine if the told was running too thin in a lode to mine profitably -- or how much gold was in a new lode -- or where next to begin digging and blasting.
38. GOLDX_140719_286.JPG: River channels were mined by diverting the water into a bypass flume and exposing the river bottom. Chinese wheels set in the bypass flume powered the various mining operations: lifting water and pay dirt into the sluicing flume, and endless bailers to keep the working area dry. At least a dozen men were needed to operate this equipment. This popular operation was not very profitable because gold is usually deposited along banks and bars rather than in the main river channel.
39. GOLDX_140719_294.JPG: Gold Country
40. GOLDX_140719_296.JPG: Modern Argonaut Early miners discovered the deep river gravels were very rich in gold. A few even attempted to recover it by diving in the American River at Coloma. Now, over 100 years later, diving for gold is a popular hobby. Divers equipped with wet suits and an air source use a suction tube to collect material from bedrock crevices and sent it to the surface sluices. Despite the fact that practically every inch of the Sierran streams and rivers have been worked at one time or another, some gold is still being found.
41. GOLDX_140719_302.JPG: Dredging
42. GOLDX_140719_305.JPG: While the dredger inches its way along, the huge buckets empty heir loads into the gold separating equipment within the dredger. The excess materials or tailings are deposited behind the dredger in long rows.
43. GOLDX_140719_307.JPG: Since 1898 floating bucket-line dredgers have processed large amounts of gold-bearing gravel from the Sacramento, Yuba, American and Feather Rivers. The dredgers also worked the ancient river beds of the Sacramento Valley by digging and filling their own work ponds.
44. GOLDX_140719_324.JPG: Wah Hop Store and Bank: Known as the Wah Hop Store and bank, this stone building, as well as the one adjoining it, was built in 1858-59 by Jonas Wilder. Leased to Wah Hop in 1860, the building served the Chinese community of Coloma for many years. It served as the store, bank and as a social center, where news from home, and other Chinese communities around the state could be shared.
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Wikipedia Description: Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park is a state park of California, United States, marking the discovery of gold by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in 1848, sparking the California Gold Rush. The park grounds include much of the historic town of Coloma, California, which is now considered a ghost town as well as a National Historic Landmark District. The park contains two California Historical Landmarks: a monument to commemorate James Marshall (#143) and the actual spot where he first discovered gold in 1848 (#530). Established in 1942, the park now comprises 576 acres (233 ha).

Features

The entire route of California State Route 153 lies within the park, and allows visitors to drive to the top of the hill where the monument to James W. Marshall stands. The Gold Discovery Museum features gold-rush-era exhibits including mining equipment, horse-drawn vehicles, household implements and other memorabilia. The American River Nature Center, operated by the American River Conservancy, features murals of local wildlife, hands-on exhibits, animal mounts and live small animals.

History

In 1886 the members of the Native Sons of the Golden West, Placerville Parlor #9, felt that the Marshall deserved a monument to mark the grave of the "Discoverer of Gold". In May 1890, five years after Marshall's death, Placerville Parlor #9 successfully advocated the idea of a monument to the State Legislature, which appropriated a total of $9,000 for the construction of the monument and tomb, the first such monument erected in California. A statue of Marshall stands on top of the monument, pointing to the spot where he made his discovery in 1848. The monument was rededicated October 8, 2010 by the Native Sons of the Golden West, Georgetown Parlor #91, in honor of the 200th Anniversary of James W. Marshall's birth.

On May 1, 2012, park employee Suzie Matin discovered two pieces of t ...More...
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2014 photos: Trips this year: three Civil War Trust conferences (Winchester, VA, Nashville, TN, and Atlanta, GA), Michigan to visit mom in the hospice before she died and then a return trip after she died, and my 9th consecutive San Diego Comic-Con trip (including Las Vegas, Reno, Carson City, Sacramento, Oakland, and Los Angeles). Ego strokes: Paul Dickson used one of my photos as the author photo in his book "Aphorisms: Words Wrought by Writers". Equipment this year: I mostly used my Fuji XS-1 camera but, depending on the event, I also used a Nikon D7000. Number of photos taken this year: just over 470,000.
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