From “Hutchings’ California Magazine,” November 1857 Sutter Looks Back at the Events What a great misfortune was this sudden gold discovery for me! It has just broken up and ruined my hard, restless, and industrious labors, connected with many dangers…
Category: Gold Country History
The Discovery of Gold, by John Sutter, Part II
From “Hutchings’ California Magazine,” November 1857 AT THE MILL IN COLOMA The next morning we went to the tail-race of the mill, through which the water was running during the night, to clean out the gravel which had been made…
The Discovery of Gold, by John Sutter, Part I
There are a lot of different stories about the discovery of gold at Coloma by James Wilson Marshall. Some were written by people who were alive at the time, some were written by historians at a much later time. This…
Theodore D. Judah, Part II – The Transcontinental Railroad Begins
On June 28, 1861, the new Central Pacific Rail Road of California incorporated with Leland Stanford serving as president, Collis Huntington vice president, Mark Hopkins treasurer, and Theodore Judah as chief engineer. A transcontinental railroad was now more than just…