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N0KFQ > TODAY 24.01.12 20:19l 63 Lines 3048 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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Subj: Today in History - Jan 24
Path: IZ3LSV<IW0QNL<IK6ZDE<I0OJJ<GB7CIP<GB7YEW<N9PMO<GB7LDI<N0KFQ<KB0WSA
Sent: 120124/1736Z 16792@KB0WSA.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.4.47
Jan 24, 1848:
Gold discovered at Sutter's Creek
A millwright named James Marshall discovers gold along the banks
of Sutter's Creek in California, forever changing the course of
history in the American West.
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 Swiss immigrant who came to Mexican California in 1839.
John Augustus Sutter became a citizen of Mexico and won a grant
of nearly 50,000 acres in the lush Sacramento Valley, where he
hoped to create a thriving colony. 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 Spanish missions, Sutter
induced the local Indians to do all the work on his farms and
ranches, often treating them as little more than slaves. Workers
who dared leave his empire without permission were often brought
back by armed posses to face brutal whippings or even execution.
In the 1840s, Sutter's Fort became the first stopping-off point
for overland Anglo-American 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 Anglo 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.
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. In order to redirect the flow of water to the
mill's waterwheel, Marshall supervised the excavation of a
shallow millrace. 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. 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.
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 in 1880, 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.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ KB0WSA.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: n0kfq@winlink.org
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