James Marshall :)
James Marshall :)
Most of the places where the Gold Rush occurred in California were in Northern California. There are also gold deposits around the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
Sierra
In 1849, thousands of people hurried to California when they heard that gold had been discovered in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Sadly, most of them were doomed to disappointment; however, there were many large fortunes made during the California Gold Rush.
Gold has been found in many different places over the years. Gold has been found in: Iraq,California,Sierra Nevada,Africa, It is a natural occurance. You can find gold in nature.
The Gold Rush was mostly focused on two areas of California: the Northern California gold fields and the Sierra Nevada gold fields. It started when gold was discovered at Sutter's mill in Coloma - which lies on the edge of what became the Sierra Nevada gold fields. The Sierra Nevada gold fields stretched from several miles north of Feather River to several miles south of Mariposa, CA. A smaller portion of the gold seekers concentrated in the Northern Califonia gold fields which lay in the present-day Siskiyou, Shasta and Trinity Counties. Gold was also discovered in Southern California but on a much smaller scale. The first discovery of gold in the mountains north of present-day Los Angeles had been in 1842, six years before the discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill. However these deposits and later discoveries in Southern California mountains, attracted little notice and were not really part of the gold rush.
The Sierra Nevada Mountains.
Although it is difficult to state who actually found the very first Gold nugget in California, it has been stated that James W. Marshall discovered the first nugget in California. It is stated that he found this nugget on January 24, 1848.
The Sierra Nevada mountains signified gold for many of the newcomers moving west.
After being released from slavery, James Pierson Beckwourth made his living as a fur trapper. He eventually discovered the Beckwourth Pass, which allowed people to travel through the Sierra Nevada mountains on their way to California for the Gold Rush.
California and Nevada.
Nevada is the Silver State, so more silver was discovered than gold.