Gold! (9 page)

The idea of gold would change that, and someplace in
his
heart, James Polk knew it.

Once Americans knew there was gold to be taken from California dirt, that anyone could come and do it, thousands would come streaming to the state. Maybe even hundreds of thousands. It was hard to know what effect that would have on the future, but in the present, such a boom would be a boon to the economy.

Miners would have to buy what they needed somewhere, and they would need transportation to get to California. The idea of a transcontinental railroad had been bandied about by one railroad magnate or another, but supplying transport to men and cargo to California from the East Coast could turn into a profitable situation for the companies that had the vision to expand.

It all relied on Thomas Larkin's observations. His vivid prose provided Secretary Buchanan, and later President Polk, with the first authoritative report of Marshall's discovery and what it would mean to the United States in the future. In the process, Larkin gave an up-to-date account of what it was like to pan for gold at the beginning of the California Gold Rush:

San Francisco (Upper California), June 1, 1848.

Sir: I have to report to the State Department one of the most astonishing excitements and state of affairs now existing in this country, that, perhaps, has ever been brought to the notice of the Government.

On the American fork of the Sacramento and Feather River, another branch of the same, and the adjoining lands, there has been within the present year discovered a placer, a vast tract of land containing gold in small particles. This gold, thus far, has been taken on the bank of the river, from the surface to eighteen inches in depth, and is supposed deeper and to extend over the country.

On account of the inconvenience of washing, the people have up to this time, only gathered the metal on the banks, which is done simply with a shovel, filling a shallow dish, bowl, basket, or tin pan, with a quantity of black sand, similar to the class used on paper, and washing out the sand by movement of the vessel.

It is now two or three weeks since the men employed in those washings have appeared in this town with gold, to exchange for merchandise and provisions. Nearly 20,000 dollars of this gold has as yet been so exchanged. Some 200 or 300 men have remained up the river, or are gone to their homes, for the purpose of returning to the Placer,
and washing immediately with shovels, picks, and baskets; many of them, for the first few weeks, depending on borrowing from others.

I have seen the written statement of the work of one man for sixteen days, which averaged 25 dollars per day; others have, with a shovel and pan, or wooden bowl, washed out 10 dollars to even 50 dollars in a day. There are now some men yet washing who have 500 dollars to 1,000 dollars. As they have to stand two feet deep in the river, they work but a few hours in the day, and not every day in the week.

A few men have been down in boats to this port, spending twenty to thirty ounces of gold each—about 300 dollars. I am confident that this town (San Francisco) has one-half of its tenements empty, locked up with the furniture. The owners—storekeepers, lawyers, mechanics, and labourers—all gone to the Sacramento with their families.

Small parties, of five to fifteen men, have sent to this town and offered cooks ten to fifteen dollars per day for a few weeks. Mechanics and teamsters, earning the year past five to eight dollars per day, have struck and gone. Several U.S. volunteers have deserted. The U.S. barque
Anita
, belonging to the Army, now at anchor here, has but six men. One Sandwich Island vessel in port lost all her men; and was obliged to engage another crew at 50 dollars for the run of fifteen days to the Islands.

One American captain having his men shipped
on this coast in such a manner that they could leave at any time, had them all on the eve of quitting, when he agreed to continue their pay and food; leaving one on board, he took a boat and carried them to the gold regions—furnishing tools and giving his men one-third. They have been gone a week.

Common spades and shovels, one month ago worth I dollar, will now bring 10 dollars, at the gold regions. I am informed 50 dollars has been offered for one. Should this gold continue as represented, this town and others would be depopulated. Clerks' wages have risen from 600 dollars to 1000 per annum, and board; cooks, 25 dollars to 30 dollars per month. This sum will not be any inducement a month longer, unless the fever and ague appears among the washers.

The Californian
, printed here, stopped this week.
The Star
newspaper office, where the new laws of Governor Mason for this country are printing, has but one man left. A merchant, lately from China, has even lost his China servants. Should the excitement continue through the year, and the whale-ships visit San Francisco, I think they will lose most all their crews. How Col. Mason can retain his men, unless he puts a force on the spot, I know not.

I have seen several pounds of this gold, and consider it very pure, worth in New York 17 dollars to 18 dollars per ounce; 14 dollars to 16 dollars in merchandise is paid for it here. What good or bad
effect this gold mania will have on California, I cannot fore tell. It may end this year; but I am informed that it will continue many years.

Mechanics now in this town are only waiting to finish some rude machinery, to enable them to obtain the gold more expeditiously, and free from working in the river. Up to this time but few Californians have gone to the mines, being afraid the Americans will soon have trouble among themselves, and cause disturbance to all around.

I have seen some of the black sand, as taken from the bottom of the river (I should think in the States it would bring 25 to 50 cents per pound), containing many pieces of gold; they are from the size of the head of a pin to the weight of the eighth of an ounce. I have seen some weighing one-quarter of an ounce (4 dollars). Although my statements are almost incredible, I believe I am within the statements believed by every one here. Ten days back, the excitement had not reached Monterey. I shall, within a few days, visit this gold mine, and will make another report to you. In closed you will have a specimen.

I have the honour to be, very respectfully, (Signed.) THOMAS O. LARKIN.

P.S. This placer, or gold region, is situated on public land.

Larkin's letter is an astonishing historical document. In one fell swoop, Larkin describes how an
agriculturally based economy, which the United States had been since its inception seventy-two years before, had changed overnight into an industrial one. The gold discovery was prompting science and technology to come up with new ways to extract the ore from the ground.

Equally clear is the value the discovery could have if the United States chose to enforce its title to the very land on which the prospectors were prospecting. The confidential agent shows a distinct lack of bigotry, rare in the nineteenth century, but for a man of Larkin's breeding, not uncommon. He sees the gold fever seizing everyone regardless of race—Chinese, white makes no difference; regardless of profession, from sailors to merchants, all of them united in one common goal: the pursuit of gold.

At first glance, it looked like Marshall's discovery had brought out the greed in people's character. But looked at more closely, and Larkin saw this, the gold and the possibility of getting it offered hope and redemption to literally anyone. There was an egalitarian aspect to the gold fields that was distinctly American that Larkin refers to, specifically that anyone with a pan could find the stuff; there was no magic to it. Placer gold was so plentiful, all you had to do was literally dip your pan in the black sand, sift through it, and just about every time, you were going to find some shiny flecks in the bottom of your pan.

During the next four weeks, Larkin rode out from San Francisco and went to Sacramento and on to the gold
fields. When he got back to his base in Monterey, he sat on his veranda and wrote his next letter to Secretary Buchanan, which would be delivered to the president:

Monterey, California, June 28, 1848.

Sir: My last dispatch to the State Department was written in San Francisco, the 1st of this Month. In that I had the honour to give some information respecting the new “placer,” or gold regions lately discovered on the branches of the Sacramento River. Since the writing of that dispatch I have visited a part of the gold region, and found it all I had heard, and much more than I anticipated. The part that I visited was upon a fork of the American River, a branch of the Sacramento, joining the main river at Sutter's Fort. The place in which I found the people digging was about twenty-five miles from the fort by land.

I have reason to believe that gold will be found on many branches of the Sacramento and the San Joaquin rivers. People are already scattered over one hundred miles of land, and it is supposed that the “placer” extends from river to river. At present, the workmen are employed within ten or twenty yards of the river, that they may be convenient to water. On Feather River, there are several branches upon which the people are digging for gold. This is two or three days' ride from the place I visited.

At my camping place I found, on a surface of two
or three miles on the banks of the river, some fifty tents, mostly owned by Americans. These had their families. There are no Californians who have taken their families as yet to the gold regions; but few or none will ever do it; some from New Mexico may do so next year, but no Californians.

I was two nights at a tent occupied by eight Americans, viz., two sailors, one clerk, two carpenters, and three daily workmen. These men were in company; had two machines, each made from one hundred feet of boards (worth there 150 dollars, in Monterey 15 dollars—being one day's work), made similar to a child's cradle, ten feet long, with out the ends.

The two evenings I saw these eight men bring to their tents the labour of the day. I suppose they made each 50 dollars per day; their own calculation was two pounds of gold a-day—four ounces to a man—64 dollars. I saw two brothers that worked together, and only worked by washing the dirt in a tin pan, weigh the gold they obtained in one day; the result was 7 dollars to one, 82 dollars to the other. There were two reasons for this difference; one man worked less hours than the other, and by chance had ground less impregnated with gold. I give this statement as an extreme case.

During my visit I was an interpreter for a native of Monterey, who was purchasing a machine or canoe. I first tried to purchase boards and hire a carpenter for him. There were but a few hundred feet of
boards to be had; for these the owner asked me 50 dollars per hundred (500 dollars per thousand), and a carpenter washing gold dust demanded 50 dollars per day for working.

I at last purchased a log dug out, with a riddle and sieve made of willow boughs on it, for 120 dollars, payable in gold dust at 14 dollars per ounce. The owner excused himself for the price, by saying he was two days making it, and even then demanded the use of it until sunset. My Californian has told me since that himself, partner, and two Indians, obtained with this canoe eight ounces the first and five ounces the second day.

I am of the opinion that on the American fork, Feather River, and Consumnes River, there are near two thousand people, nine-tenths of them foreigners. Perhaps there are one hundred families, who have their teams, wagons, and tents. Many persons are waiting to see whether the months of July and August will be sickly, before they leave their present business to go to the “Placer.”

The discovery of this gold was made by some Mormons, in January or February, who for a time kept it a secret; the majority of those who are working there began in May. In most every instance the men, after digging a few days, have been compelled to leave for the purpose of returning home to see their families, arrange their business, and purchase provisions.

I feel confident in saying there are fifty men in
this “Placer” who have on an average 1,000 dollars each, obtained in May and June. I have not met with any person who had been fully employed in washing gold one month; most, however, appear to have averaged an ounce per day. I think there must, by this time, be over 1,000 men at work upon the different branches of the Sacramento; putting their gains at 10,000 dollars per day, for six days in the week, appears to me not overrated.

Should this news reach the emigrants to California and Oregon now on the road, we should have a large addition to our population. Should the richness of the gold region continue, our emigration in 1849 will be many thousands and in 1850 still more.

If our countrymen in California as clerks, mechanics, and workmen, will forsake employment at from 2 dollars to 6 dollars per day, how many more of the same class in the Atlantic States, earning much less, will leave for this country under such prospects?

It is the opinion of many who have visited the gold regions the past and present months that the ground will afford gold for many years, perhaps for a century. From my own examination of the rivers and their banks, I am of opinion that, at least for a few years, the golden products will equal the present year. However, as neither men of science, nor the labourers now at work, have made any explorations
of consequence, it is a matter of impossibility to give any opinion as to the extent and richness of this part of California. Every Mexican who has seen the place says throughout their Republic there has never been any “placer like this one.”

Could Mr. Polk and yourself see California as we now see it, you would think that a few thousand people, on 100 miles square of the Sacramento valley, would yearly turn out of this river the whole price our country pays for the acquired territory. When I finished my first letter I doubted my own writing, and, to be better satisfied, showed it to one of the principal merchants of San Francisco, and to Captain Folsom, of the Quartermaster's Department, who decided at once I was far below the reality.

You certainly will suppose, from my two letters, that I am, like others, led away by the excitement of the day. I think I am not. In my last I inclosed [sic] a small sample of the gold dust, and I find my only error was in putting a value to the sand. At that time I was not aware how the gold was found; I now can describe the mode of collecting it.