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170 years ago today gold was discovered in California ...
291fifth
Posts: 25,257 ✭✭✭✭✭
... and it wasn't at Saddle Ridge!
All glory is fleeting.
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Gold was discovered around 1781 in California (237 Years ago ) in a place most people have never heard of. I work that claim now.
I'll bet it was close to Saddle Ridge!!
bob
What a time it must have been!
Yes for the store owners and rich mine owners, Not so much for the miners.
Delete. As you were. Keep discussing.
And by a distant 4th great uncle of mine, James Marshall. A little known fact about him that comes from the family is that he was in contact with the Mormon Battalion that was in California making their way to Utah and converted to the LDS faith, but later let that lapse. The Mormons in California at the time were only there having transited via Panama to make their way to the Great Salt Lake Valley - but working their way there took them through the mining areas where they found a large deposit of gold at a place still called Mormon Bar.
In honor of the anniversary, here's one of the finest examples of the first reported coin struck during the California Gold Rush, the Norris, Gregg, Norris $5:
What is now proved was once only imagined. - William Blake
While not the first private coining establishment, Moffat & Co. was by far the most important in the first period of California private gold minting.
This crusty piece is ex-RYK...
Time to rev up the DeLorean and head back to Sutter's Mill circa 171 years ago...
My great-great grandmother Minerva came out to California in a covered wagon and arrived in 1852. She met my great-great grandfather (who came out via ship) there.
I like to think that this little coin came out at the same time.
United States $5 1846
The Mysterious Egyptian Magic Coin
Coins in Movies
Coins on Television
The two guys that found the first gold were running a saw mill and wanted to keep the discovery quiet so it would not adversely effect their business. I doubt they knew just how big the deposit was.
The men that discovered it died broke.
That's about right. Then my Great grand daddy, came out from Indiana to start looking. Dry pan for him. But at least he bought the ranch that six generations of us Hydrants still live on. According to the deed, he paid $10 American gold dollars for the whole spread. Bought it from the Rancho El Sobrante De Rincon. King of Spain's original land grant. I'm thankful to that man every day. I'd like to know where he got those "10 American gold dollars" and where they are today. Maybe someone on this forum has one. You never know. Also, the beautiful Mrs. Hydrants family came out about the same time in the 1850's. Her cousins are still working the family claim up around Hangtown. California gets a bad rap. Yea, it is weird out here. But it's our home. We got deep roots here. We're Americans. Just like you. And......THIS PLACE IS PARADISE!!!!!
And 170 years later they're bankrupt.
You're right. But with all due respect, the whole darn U.S.A. is also bankrupt as far as I can see.
I wonder if there's still an enormous amount of gold in California that hasn't been discovered?
Absolutely, It is expensive to recover tho.
Keep an eye on large CA land purchases by Chinese.
Well we are in California, and we protect our land. No Way California lets China come in to rip land.
An amazing period in our history..... very romanticized - far more than the reality of life at the time. Treasures were found and lost and many died trying to find the golden dream. While California is beautiful (I lived there for several years), today it is a very different place to live. Cheers, RickO
"While California is beautiful (I lived there for several years), today it is a very different place to live."
I have lived in California my whole life. Today California is better than ever.
We have Gold everywhere, My area has no toll roads. Free Beach Parking. Recreational Pot, Eff U Sessions.
AND.......
Free access to the worlds largest fishing hole ....... webcam I can watch all day ..... let it load, worth it ....
https://ljbtc.com/Beach/Weather-Tide-Beach-Cam
Another forum member recommended the book Men to Match My Mountains by Irving Stone. Just finished it. Great read and many thanks to whoever brought this book to my attention. Covers CA, NV, CO and UT from about 1840 to 1900. Much therein about the key role gold and silver played in the growth of the West. A good pairing with the more recent The Oregon Trail by Rinker Buck.
Gold was discovered in California, and it really changed things in Dahlonega, Georgia.
Lured by a better chance to strike it rich in California, a large number of Dahlonega miners decided it was time to move out west. M. F. Stephenson, who was the assayer at the Dahlonega Mint, pleaded with them not to go.
During an impassioned speech in the town square, he cried, (paraphrased) “There’s millions of dollars of gold in those hills! There’s no reason to California!” From this came the shorter phrase, “There’s gold in them thar hills!”
It didn’t matter many of them made the long journey west often around the tip of South America which could take nine months to a year or the short route though Panama, which could be four months or so.
A few years later, some of them came back to Dahlonega bringing their gold with them. Roughly 80% of the gold that was deposited at the Dahlonega Mint in 1853 was California, not Georgia gold. Chances are this 1853 half eagle had part of its roots in California.
I have read Men to Match My Mountains cover to cover many times. My copy is a paperback that belonged to my grandmother. Obviously it has been read a lot, it is taped together!
So aside from James Marshall the rest of my family went out there by wagon train in the 1850s and settled in what was then known as Michigan Bar and also Pokerville - now Plymouth. My great grandfather worked in the Kennedy Mines until the cave-in in 1922 and my great grandmother forced him to get another job in the Central Valley. Some of my family was still gold mining up into the early 1970s when I was very young. I remember going into the mine once when I was about 5-6 years old.
I hope they don't look in my bank. The bank is in California.
Your sanctuary state is doing a great job.
Well, we'll let them come in and rip whatever they want if they cry enough to the press.
Uh, let's not get political, but just where would TN., KY, and AR, etc. be without living off the back of California?
Well, just Love coins, period.
The Joads liked California.
And in keeping with that theme, here is a gold piece I once owned that was privately minted from gold that came from the California Gold Rush and also minted in 1849:
... and one that I still own that was minted by the U.S. government in 1850 from gold that came from the California Gold Rush of the same time period: