Discovering Gold

One of my very favorite thing about California this summer was that I got to spend a day with one of my best friends.

Jill drove up to see us from Palo Alto. Jill just recently moved to California, so we took her to Coloma for a bit of California history.

Coloma is the site of Sutter's Mill where gold was first discovered in 1848. Below is a reconstruction of the mill owned by John Sutter and James Marshall.

Beckett mourned the fact that he was not authorized personnel and thus could not go up into the mill itself. (Thankfully. That looks like a scary place for a 3-year-old.)

We checked out the museums. Beckett really liked this mining car display. Go figure. It involved a train car, train tracks, and a tunnel.

Here's Beckett in front of the Mormon Cabin. Members of the Mormon Battalion, on their way to Utah from Southern California, helped build Sutter's Mill and played a role in starting the gold rush. Henry Bigler wrote in his diary in January of 1848, "this day some kind of mettle was found in the tailrace that looks like goald." Mormon merchant Sam Brannan walked up and down the streets of San Francisco with a bottle full of gold flakes shouting "Gold, gold, gold in the American River!" Sam Brannan became California's first millionaire. How did he make his millions? He sold mining supplies to all the gold rushers. 

Behind us is the gross, swampy spot where gold was discovered. (Rivers change. I'm sure this spot was more fast flowing in 1848.)

After checking out all the historical stuff, we went to pan for gold in the river. The whole river bed is glittery. We scooped up a couple flakes.

The water felt so nice and cool after walking (running in Beckett's case) around in the hot, hot sun.