Yuba County
History
Chapter VII - Gold Discoveries
The finding of gold at Coloma by Marshall was not the real discovery of the precious metal in the territory. But the time and circumstances connected with it, together with the existing state of affairs, caused the rapid dissemination of the news. People were ready and eager for some new excitement, and this proved to be the means of satisfying the desire. From all parts of California, the Coast, the United States, and in fact, the World, poured in the vast hordes of gold-seekers. The precious metal had been found in many places, but the most notorious of these discoveries were the following. Baptiste Rouelle, who settled on Feather river in 1848, was a Canadian Frenchman, and had been trapping many years in the Rocky mountains, whence he had found his way into New Mexico, where he lived for some years and followed placer-mining. From New Mexico he came to the southern part of California at the opening of 1841, or the year previous. At all events, in the fall of 1841, he discovered gold about twenty-five miles north-east of the Mission of San Fernando. The mines were not sufficiently rich to attract notice, though some pieces of gold weighing an ounce were found; nevertheless, forty or fifty people, mostly from New Mexico of the class called "Greasers," worked there. What little gold they obtained was disposed of at Los Angeles for what they could get.. Their average wages were possibly twenty-five cents per day. General Bidwell visited the mines in March, 1845, and although the work had been going on for three and a half years, they had scarcely penetrated twenty feet into the gold-yielding gravel bank.
In the summer of 1843, there came to this Coast from England, a very learned gentleman named Dr. Sandels. He was a Swede by birth, and received his education in London, after which he went to South America and located. Subsequently he sold his place for $189,000, and removed to Mexico. Here by unlucky speculation and robbery he was left impoverished and was compelled to return to England. His daughter's husband was a wealthy nobleman, and thereafter Dr. Sandels traveled under the patronage and auspices of his son-in-law. Soon after his arrival on the Coast, the Doctor visited Captain Sutter. The Captain always thought there must be mineral in the country, and requested Dr. Sandels to go out into the mountains and find him a gold mine; the Doctor discouraged him by relating his experience in Mexico, and the uncertainty of mining operations, as far as his knowledge extended, in Mexico, Brazil, and other parts of South America. He advised Sutter never to think of having anything to do with the mines; that the best mine was the soil, which was inexhaustible. However, at Sutter's solicitation, Dr. Sandels went up through his grant to Hock Farm, and thence through the Butte mountains up the Sacramento valley as far as the location of Chico. While passing over the black adobe land lying between the Butte mountains and Butte creek, which resembled the gold wash in Brazil, Dr. Sandels remarked:- "Judging from the Butte mountains, I believe that there is gold in this country, but I do not think there will ever be enough found to pay for the working." Dr. Sandels was hurried, as the vessel upon which he was to take passage was soon to sail, and he could not spare the time to pursue his search to any more definite end.
When General Bidwell was in charge of Hock Farm, in the month of March, or April, 1844, a Mexican by the name of Pablo Gutteirez was with him, having immediate supervision of the Indian vaqueros, taking care of the stock on the plains, "breaking" wild horses, and performing other duties common to a Californian rancho. This Mexican had some knowledge of gold mining in Mexico, where he had lived, and after returning from the mountains on Bear river, at the time mentioned, he informed General Bidwell that there was gold up there. When asked if he had seen it, he answered "no," but explained that there was every sign of it, and that there "was surely gold in the mountains." In enumerating the signs, he mentioned the appearance of a heavy black sand. General Bidwell proposed that they should go and make the actual discovery of the metal; the Mexican was most willing, but said that he could not do so without a batea. He talked so much about that Mexican mining implement, that General Bidwell was led to coincide with him in the belief that only be means of the batea could gold be extracted from this sand. They went up into the mountains on the north side of Bear river, and Gutteirez pointed out the very place, the gulch, and the same black sand which he had previously declared showed the signs of gold. An agreement was entered into between them that they should keep the matter a profound secret, and that some means should be devised for procuring this wonderful batea. The Mexican proposed that General Bidwell should advance the money for him to go to Mexico for the desired article, but the General was suspicious that this was a plan for securing sufficient capital for his return to his native land. So it was decided that the matter should rest for a couple of years, until General Bidwell had saved enough to take them both in a vessel around the Horn to Boston, where it was expected that Yankee ingenuity could fashion, from the description given by the Mexican, an instrument of the correct size and shape to do the work of the Mexican batea. The secret was kept until 1844, when the visit of Sutter and his party to Governor Micheltorena was made. In the last of 1844, or first of 1845, Gutteirez was killed, and with his death the hope of carrying to a successful issue their discovery died out in the mind of General Bidwell. Had the General known that the implement so minutely described by the Mexican, as being of such peculiar construction as to size and shape, was nothing more nor less than a wooden bowl, and that any tin pan or ordinary receptacle would have been of equal service, the discovery of gold in this region might have been chronicled four years earlier.
Captain Sutter always had an unconquerable desire for the possession of a saw-mill, by which he could himself furnish the necessary material for the construction of more improved buildings than the facilities of the country could at that time afford. Around his fort, in 1847, was a person named James W. Marshall, who had a natural taste for mechanical contrivances, and was able to construct, with the few crude tools and appliances at hand, almost any kind of a machine ordinarily desired. It was to this man that Sutter intrusted <sic> the erection of the long contemplated and much needed saw-mill. The contract was written by Mr. John Bidwell, then Captain Sutter's Secretary, and signed by the parties. Marshall started out in November, 1847, equipped with tools and provisions for his men. He reported the distance of the selected site to be thirty miles, but he occupied two weeks in reaching his destination, being compelled to travel in a very indirect manner, and encountering a severe rain storm. On his arrival, he commenced the labor of cutting timber for the mill, and the construction of suitable appliances for using the water for propulsion. The mill being ready for use, the machinery was started, but it was found that the race needed deepening. It was on the morning of January 19, 1848, that Marshall, while examining the race to find where it was necessary to cut it out, saw through the clear water on the granite bed, bright particles of metallic substance. These he picked up, and this proved to be the first important discovery of gold in California. Sutter was not within fifty miles of the location of the discovery at the time. John Bidwell was the first to carry the news to San Francisco. This discovery by Marshall was entirely accidental, and although it is certain that gold would have been found at a later period, yet, if any credit is due, it should justly attach to Captain John Sutter, whose energy and capital were the primal causes of the discovery which opened out a new vista for California.