How+It+All+Started

James Marshall was the main reason the California Gold Rush even took place. One morning on January 24, 1848, James Marshall, a construction man at Sutter's Mill, was inspecting the water flow through the mill's tail race. The saw mill was on the banks of the American River in Coloma, California, was owned by John Sutter. On that same morning he found the water not flowing correctly, he also spied a shiny object in the stream waters. James stopped to pick it up and realized that it was a pea-sized gold nugget (Weiser). He brought the nugget to Jane Wimmer to verify that the 1/3 ounce nugget he found was true gold, and it was. Marshall then informed John Sutter of his find. Sutter wanted to keep the finding a hidden, but such a secret was way too big to not tell. So before long a San Francisco newspaper confirmed reports of much gold finds in the area and miners quickly rushed and fled to Sutter's Mill (Weiser). On August 19, 1848 the //New York Herald// was the first newspaper on the East Coast of the U.S. to confirm that there was a gold rush in California. Even the president at the time, James Polk, announced the news to Congress (Weiser). By the end of the summer the first gold seekers were arriving from outside of California. In the fall, people were coming in from northern Mexico and during the winter large numbers from Peru and Chile. Miners were coming to look for gold from many places. As he expected, John Sutter, was ruined by losing all his workers in their search for gold (Weiser). James Marshall was the reason we have gold today and was the history behind the great California Gold Rush.
 * __The Story of James Marshall and the Start of the Gold Rush__**