![]() ![]() Many chose to take arduous routes around the horn of South America, across Panama, or up through Mexico while more than half of the prospectors took overland trails across the North American continent. Thousands of prospectors set out for the gold country of California. Polk spoke of California’s gold in his Annual Message of December 1848. The gold rush intensified the following year, after United States president James K. Samuel Brannan, a Latter-day Saint entrepreneur, seized on the gold discovery to expand his retail business, taking gold specimens to San Francisco and shouting up and down one of the main streets, “Gold! Gold! Gold, from the American River!” Within weeks, most San Francisco residents had left for the goldfields, and Brannan was operating the only store between the American River and the city. Many battalion veterans left for the Salt Lake Valley during the summer of 1848, but others decided to remain in California. The Saints’ mining camp near Sacramento, the first substantial camp of its kind in the Sierras, came to be called “Mormon Island.” Many soon flocked to sites along the American River to look for gold. Bigler shared the news with other Latter-day Saints, and word quickly spread near the mill and around San Francisco. He also searched downstream for more gold, and within days he had collected more than his month’s wages. One of the battalion veterans, Henry Bigler, recorded the discovery of gold in his journal. Each test appeared to confirm that they had found gold. The group tried biting one of the specimens, smashing it with a hammer, and tossing it into a fire. He collected the particles in his hat and showed them to the other workers. One morning in January 1848, Sutter’s partner, James Marshall, was inspecting the construction of a waterwheel channel when he noticed particles in the mill’s tailrace. Depiction of the discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill by artist Valoy Eaton. ![]()
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