Gold! (10 page)

A person without a machine, after digging off one or two feet of the upper ground, near the water (in some cases they take the top earth), throws into a tin pan or wooden bowl a shovel full of loose dirt and stones; then placing the basin an inch or two under water, continues to stir up the dirt with his hand in such a manner that the running water will carry off the light earths, occasionally, with his
hand, throwing out the stones; after an operation of this kind for twenty or thirty minutes, a spoonful of small black sand remains; this is on a handkerchief or cloth dried in the sun, the emerge is blown off, leaving the pure gold. I have the pleasure of inclosing a paper of this sand and gold, which I from a bucket of dirt and stones, in half-an-hour, standing at the edge of the water, washed out myself. The value of it may be 2 dollars or 3 dollars.

The size of the gold depends in some measure upon the river from which it is taken; the banks of one river having larger grains of gold than another. I presume more than one half of the gold put into pans or machines is washed out and goes down the stream; this is of no consequence to the washers, who care only for the present time.

Some have formed companies of four or five men, and have a rough-made machine put together in a day, which worked to much advantage, yet many prefer to work alone, with a wooden bowl or tin pan, worth fifteen or twenty cents in the States, but eight to sixteen dollars at the gold region. As the workmen continue, and materials can be obtained, improvements will take place in the mode of obtaining gold.

How long this gathering of gold by the handful will continue here, or the future effect it will have on California, I cannot say. Three-fourths of the houses in the town on the bay of San Francisco are deserted. Houses are sold at the price of
the ground lots. The effects are this week showing themselves in Monterey. Almost every house I had hired out is given up. Every blacksmith, carpenter, and lawyer is leaving; brick-yards, saw-mills and ranches are left perfectly alone.

A large number of the volunteers at San Francisco and Sonoma have deserted; some have been retaken and brought back; public and private vessels are losing their crews; my clerks have had 100 per cent advance offered them on their wages to accept employment. A complete revolution in the ordinary state of affairs is taking place; both of our newspapers are discontinued from want of workmen and the loss of their agencies; the Alcaldes have left San Francisco, and I believe Sonoma likewise; the former place has not a Justice of the Peace left.

The second Alcalde of Monterey to-day joins the keepers of our principal hotel, who have closed their office and house, and will leave to-morrow for the golden rivers. I saw on the ground a lawyer who was last year Attorney-General of the King of the Sandwich Islands, digging and washing out his ounce and a half per day; near him can be found most all his brethren of the long robe, working in the same occupation.

To conclude, my letter is long, but I could not well describe what I have seen in less words. If the affair proves a bubble, a mere excitement, I know not how we can all be deceived, as we are situated. Most of the land, where gold has been discovered, is
public land; there are on different rivers some private grants. I have three such purchased in 1846 and 1847, but have not learned that any private lands have produced gold, though they may hereafter do so. I have the honour, dear sir, to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

(Signed.)THOMAS O. LARKIN.

In his second letter, Larkin goes out of his way to downplay his observations. But they are right on the money. The gold fields were not only yielding huge amounts of placer gold, but also the real stuff, in the veins below the surface, had yet to be mined. And yet the state was suffering in some ways.

With everyone going to the gold fields, there was no one left to assume the regular jobs of blacksmith or merchant, for example. And law and order had broken down, too. All the police in San Francisco and other towns close to Coloma, had gone to the gold fields. It would be the rule of the gun and the knife and the noose for some time to come.

Yet Larkin was optimistic. He foresaw a huge population shift, a veritable migration from east to west, of Americans hunting for gold in the California gold fields. He saw the good that could come out of a “gold rush.” The state and the nation would profit from the influx of new blood, new ideas.

Twelve days after Larkin wrote his second letter, the
California Star
newspaper published this article:

The excitement and enthusiasm of Gold Washing still continues–increases.

Many of our countrymen are not disposed to do us justice as regards the opinion we have at different times expressed of the employment in which over two thirds of the white population of the country are engaged. There appears to have gone abroad a belief that we should raise our voices against what some one has denominated an “infatuation.” We are very far from it, and would invite a calm recapitulation of our articles touching the matter, as in themselves amply satisfactory. We shall continue to report the progress of the work, to speak within bounds, and to approve, admonish, or openly censure whatever, in our opinion, may require it at our hands.

It is quite unnecessary to remind our readers of the “prospects of California” at this time, as the effects of this gold washing enthusiasm, upon the country, through every branch of business are unmistakably apparent to every one. Suffice it that there is no abatement, and that active measures will probably be taken to prevent really serious and alarming consequences.

Every seaport as far south as San Diego, and every interior town, and nearly every rancho from the base of the mountains in which the gold has been found, to the Mission of San Luis, south, has become suddenly drained of human beings. Americans, Californians,
Indians and Sandwich Islanders, men, women and children, indiscriminately.

Should there be that success which has repaid the efforts of those employed for the last month, during the present and next, as many are sanguine in their expectations, and we confess to unhesitatingly believe probably, not only will witness the depopulation of every town, the desertion of every rancho, and the desolation of the once promising crops of the country, but it will also draw largely upon adjacent territories—awake Sonora, and call down upon us, despite her Indian battles, a great many of the good people of Oregon. There are at this time over one thousand souls busied in washing gold, and the yield per diem may be safely estimated at from fifteen to twenty dollars, each individual.—

We have by every launch from the embarcadera of New Helvetia, returns of enthusiastic gold seekers—heads of families, to effect transportation of their households to the scene of their successful labors, or others, merely returned to more fully equip themselves for a protracted, or perhaps permanent stay.

Spades, shovels, picks, wooden bowls, Indian baskets (for washing), etc., find ready purchase, and are very frequently disposed of at extortionate prices.

The gold region, so called, thus far explored, is about one hundred miles in length and twenty in width. These imperfect explorations contribute to establish the certainty of the placer extending
much further south, probably three or four hundred miles, as we have before stated, while it is believed to terminate about a league north of the point at which first discovered. The probable amount taken from these mountains since the first of May last, we are informed is $100, 000, and which is at this time principally in the hands of the mechanical, agricultural and laboring classes.

There is an area explored, within which a body of 50,000 men can advantageously labor. Without maliciously interfering with each other, then, there need be no cause for contention and discord, where as yet, we are gratified to know, there is harmony and good feeling existing. We really hope no unpleasant occurrences will grow out of this enthusiasm, and that our apprehensions may be quieted by continued patience and good will among the washers.

California Star

Saturday, July 10, 1848

Four days later, on July 14, the
California Star
ceased operations. There was no one left to publish the paper because all of its employees had migrated to the gold fields. In San Francisco, people had heard of the discovery and some had already started for the gold fields. Yet most had hung back out of careful reconnaissance; they would wait until people they knew had gone and confirmed before they, too, left their lives for the lure.

Sam Brannan, the San Francisco merchant who was
partners with Jed Smith at Sutter's Fort, decided to rid San Francisco of that indecisiveness. Certain to profit if the rush to the gold fields included the residents of the clapboard and tent town, on May 12, 1848, Brannan did the “pitch” of his life: he arrived in San Francisco with gold samples and ran through the town brandishing them and shouting of the discovery of gold in Coloma.

“Gold, gold on the American River!” Brannan shouted, waving a bottle of the yellow particles.

Brannan claimed to have just come from the gold fields. He had seen unimaginable wealth there accumulated in just days! Anyone could get wealthy, anyone, just by scooping up the ground. What Brannan didn't know was the scope of the gold discovery. No one did; it could only be suspected. Brannon was only looking to drum up interest for his business. Instead, he ignited a rush to the gold fields. As for San Francisco, the city became a ghost town overnight as everyone, every able bodied man, fled for the gold fields.

Sutter wasn't a fool. He knew he would be one if he didn't at least try his hand in the gold fields, when it appeared to be so plentiful and all around him. Maybe the governor wouldn't give him his sawmill, but he could file a claim like anyone else. He had been unable to stop the gold seekers from pursuing their dreams at the expense of his own. He therefore decided to try his hand at the mines.

In the summer of 1848, he set out from his fort with Indians and other hired labor. He went south of
Coloma, following a creek, until he found a likely-looking spot and began panning for gold. Eventually word got out that Captain Sutter of the Swiss Guard was himself mining. Figuring the captain was enriching himself, men flocked around him to do the same.

A town grew up around a muslin tent where the miners gathered on rainy Sundays. Looking for a name, someone proposed using the name of its most famous citizen. That seemed like a good idea, and the town was dubbed “Sutter's Creek.” Unfortunately, John Sutter wasn't a miner. He had brought his hired help with him to do the hard work, and that did not stand well with the other prospectors. If a man did the work, he should get the spoils. It wasn't right for others to profit on another man's labor.

It made no difference. Sutter's workers weren't good miners either. None of them ever hit pay dirt. Sutter returned to his fort, never to mine again. But the town named after him stayed. By 1850, the placer gold had petered out and Sutter's Creek was in danger of becoming a ghost town. Then in 1851, quartz, another valuable mineral, was found in the vicinity. Quartz mining began and saved the town, though Sutter never set foot there again.

Sutter's Fort

November 11, 1848

Friend …

Have contrived to borrow a sheet of paper from an officer attached to Colonel Mason's command.
I embrace this opportunity of communicating to you some idea of the excitement at present pervading in this district.

About the discovery of such great quantity of the precious ore gold, when I wrote last to my father's at home, I was a quiet and painstaking merchant of San Francisco, my stock in trade consisting of everything and anything that I might come across in the way of domestic utensils.

No sooner, however, had the news reached us of the discoveries at Marshall's that I was instantly deserted by my clerks and even my French Canadian cook, who boasts of having made all imaginable dishes to suit the dainty palate of one or the other of the Iturbide family of Mexico, cut, stick and run, leaving me “alone in my glory.”

What in this emergency was I to do? Nobody would serve me, in my brief hour of need. I therefore followed the example of my neighbors and there I am, up to my “flanks” in mud, water and c. with a curiously shaped trowel in one hand and a “cradle” in the other, scraping and hawling [sic] up lumps of gold at each endeavor.

I have, so far, got together 2500 dollars worth of gold and have only been at work a month. My “partners,” however, Hackett and Carr, have made a still better thing of it, having struck a richer spot than that yon whoever I am at work. I assure you, I often think of the pleasant hours were have passed at that restaurant on NY and wish that I could find
an opportunity of spending some of my hold there, as “once upon a time” I did.

There are a number of U.S. deserters staying about and I should not be at all surprised if the entire regiment followed soot [sic]. As for apprehending all deserters, that would be a difficult matter. In fact, it is a dangerous matter to send out other soldiers to apprehend them, as they also would desert, and Col. Mason would have no effective body left to enforce obedience to his orders.

As there will doubtless be many among you who will be impregnated to visit this fortune-favored region, as soon as the news of the late discovery shall have reached you, I have judged it not malapropos to furnish you with some information respecting the climate, produces of the country, etc. etc. for there will I dare say be many who will locate permanently in the country. You would be astonished to see how rapidly town and villages (of rough material, it is true) are beginning to spring up around the concentrating points on the gold district.

During the summer and greater part of the fall, the winds on the coast about San Francisco blow from the west and never from the ocean. The mornings are pleasant and clear, the temperature of the atmosphere during the major part of the data is about then same. There is little really cold weather during the winter here; in fact you would be astonished and delighted, should you come out
there yourself at the change between the climate at gore and that here.