gold in california
You might think that gold was first found in California in 1848 at Sutters Mill. Maybe your textbooks said that, maybe your teacher said that. Well most of the time they are right, but this time they are wrong. Gold was first originally found hundreds of years before the gold rush by the Miwok tribe. That was before other people were there and they just stumbled across it thinking it was nothing. Then as the years passed more and more people came to California looking for land and they found gold. But, this time they knew it was gold. So of course they sold it. But unlike when James Marshall found gold in California they kept a secret. So, besides the Miwok, about 10 people found gold before Marshall found it at Sutters Mill in 1848. But when Marshall did find gold in 1848 his boss John Sutter wanted to keep it a secret but of course Marshall had to tell just one person. Then that person would have to see if it was true. Then he would find it and have to tell just one person. Then that person would have to do the same thing and he would tell one person. This would go on, and on until people would start telling a lot of people until people all over the world heard about it and wanted to see if it was true so they would come, and once they found gold they wouldn't stop mining for gold until they found all of the gold in the American River where it was originally found. But after a little while there wasn't much gold left there, so people went to other rivers thinking that if it was in the American River it would be in other rivers too. This is how the California Gold Rush started.