Okla-homey
1/24/2006, 07:06 AM
January 24, 1848 Gold discovered at Sutter's Creek
156 years ago today, a millwright named James Marshall discovered gold along the banks of Sutter's Creek in California, forever changing the course of history in the American West. At one time the absolute ruler of what amounted to a private kingdom along the Sacramento River, John Sutter saw his immense wealth and power overrun in the world's rush to pick California clean of gold.
http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/1161/zzzzzp41t1fd.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
John Augustus Sutter, c.1870
A tributary to the South Fork of the American River in the Sacramento Valley east of San Francisco, Sutter's Creek was named for a German immigrant of Swiss parentage who came to Mexican California in 1839. John Augustus Sutter became a citizen of Mexico and won a baronial grant of nearly 50,000 acres in the lush Sacramento Valley, where he hoped to create a thriving colony.
http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/968/zzzzzzsutterfort6ox.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Sutter's fort
He built a sturdy fort that became the center of his first town, New Helvetia, and purchased farming implements, livestock, and a cannon to defend his tiny empire. Copying the methods of the Jesuit-run Spanish missions throughout Mexico, Sutter induced the local Indians to do all the work on his farms and ranches, essentially treating them as little more than slaves. Indians who dared leave Sutter's empire without permission were often brought back by armed posses to face brutal whippings or even
execution.
http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/8786/zzzzzsut4lh.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
A reproduction of Sutter's fort exists in Sacramento.
In the 1840s, Sutter's Fort became the first stopping-off point for overland white emigrants coming to California to build farms and ranches. Though sworn to protect the Mexican province from falling under the control of the growing number of Americans, Sutter recognized that his future wealth and influence lay with these gringo settlers. With the outbreak of the Mexican War in 1846, he threw his support to the Americans, who emerged victorious in the fall of 1847.
http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/3488/zzzzzsutter8hb.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Sutter, c.1850
With the war over and California securely in the hands of the United States, Sutter hired the millwright James Marshall to build a sawmill along the South Fork of the American River in January 1848 to meet the local demand for lumber. In order to redirect the flow of water to the mill's waterwheel, Marshall supervised the excavation of a shallow "millrace" -- IOW, a trench.
On the morning of January 24, 1848, Marshall was looking over the freshly cut millrace when a sparkle of light in the dark earth caught his eye. Looking more closely, Marshall found that much of the millrace was speckled with what appeared to be small flakes of gold, and he rushed to tell Sutter.
http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/3140/zzzzz000000a36kc.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
After an assayer confirmed that the flakes were indeed gold, Sutter quietly set about gathering up as much of the gold as he could, hoping to keep the discovery a secret. However, word soon leaked out and, within months, the largest gold rush in the world had begun.
http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/9341/zzzzz1848goldrushlrg1gs.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Just a few of the hundreds of thousands from all over the world who flocked to northern California to get rich. Most didn't.
Ironically, the California gold rush was a disaster for Sutter. Though it brought thousands of men to California, the prospectors had no interest in joining Sutter's despotic agricultural community. Instead, they overran Sutter's property, slaughtered his herds for food, and trampled his fields.
By 1852, New Helvetia was ruined, and Sutter was nearly wiped out. Until his death he spent his time unsuccessfully petitioning the government to compensate him for the losses he suffered as a result of the gold rush he unintentionally ignited. In 1880, just two weeks after Congress adjourned without voting on a $50,000 sum to partially compensate Sutter for his personal losses at the hands (and picks) of whacked-out "Gold Bugs," Sutter died.
http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/9656/insane7zo3fu.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
156 years ago today, a millwright named James Marshall discovered gold along the banks of Sutter's Creek in California, forever changing the course of history in the American West. At one time the absolute ruler of what amounted to a private kingdom along the Sacramento River, John Sutter saw his immense wealth and power overrun in the world's rush to pick California clean of gold.
http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/1161/zzzzzp41t1fd.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
John Augustus Sutter, c.1870
A tributary to the South Fork of the American River in the Sacramento Valley east of San Francisco, Sutter's Creek was named for a German immigrant of Swiss parentage who came to Mexican California in 1839. John Augustus Sutter became a citizen of Mexico and won a baronial grant of nearly 50,000 acres in the lush Sacramento Valley, where he hoped to create a thriving colony.
http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/968/zzzzzzsutterfort6ox.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Sutter's fort
He built a sturdy fort that became the center of his first town, New Helvetia, and purchased farming implements, livestock, and a cannon to defend his tiny empire. Copying the methods of the Jesuit-run Spanish missions throughout Mexico, Sutter induced the local Indians to do all the work on his farms and ranches, essentially treating them as little more than slaves. Indians who dared leave Sutter's empire without permission were often brought back by armed posses to face brutal whippings or even
execution.
http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/8786/zzzzzsut4lh.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
A reproduction of Sutter's fort exists in Sacramento.
In the 1840s, Sutter's Fort became the first stopping-off point for overland white emigrants coming to California to build farms and ranches. Though sworn to protect the Mexican province from falling under the control of the growing number of Americans, Sutter recognized that his future wealth and influence lay with these gringo settlers. With the outbreak of the Mexican War in 1846, he threw his support to the Americans, who emerged victorious in the fall of 1847.
http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/3488/zzzzzsutter8hb.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Sutter, c.1850
With the war over and California securely in the hands of the United States, Sutter hired the millwright James Marshall to build a sawmill along the South Fork of the American River in January 1848 to meet the local demand for lumber. In order to redirect the flow of water to the mill's waterwheel, Marshall supervised the excavation of a shallow "millrace" -- IOW, a trench.
On the morning of January 24, 1848, Marshall was looking over the freshly cut millrace when a sparkle of light in the dark earth caught his eye. Looking more closely, Marshall found that much of the millrace was speckled with what appeared to be small flakes of gold, and he rushed to tell Sutter.
http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/3140/zzzzz000000a36kc.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
After an assayer confirmed that the flakes were indeed gold, Sutter quietly set about gathering up as much of the gold as he could, hoping to keep the discovery a secret. However, word soon leaked out and, within months, the largest gold rush in the world had begun.
http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/9341/zzzzz1848goldrushlrg1gs.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Just a few of the hundreds of thousands from all over the world who flocked to northern California to get rich. Most didn't.
Ironically, the California gold rush was a disaster for Sutter. Though it brought thousands of men to California, the prospectors had no interest in joining Sutter's despotic agricultural community. Instead, they overran Sutter's property, slaughtered his herds for food, and trampled his fields.
By 1852, New Helvetia was ruined, and Sutter was nearly wiped out. Until his death he spent his time unsuccessfully petitioning the government to compensate him for the losses he suffered as a result of the gold rush he unintentionally ignited. In 1880, just two weeks after Congress adjourned without voting on a $50,000 sum to partially compensate Sutter for his personal losses at the hands (and picks) of whacked-out "Gold Bugs," Sutter died.
http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/9656/insane7zo3fu.jpg (http://imageshack.us)