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72 PIONEERS OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY

Espenosa one nugget from which was realized $1,928, which
was the largest piece known to have been taken from this locality
In 1841, Wilkes' exploring expedition visited the coast, James B.
Dana, mineralogist, accompanying the party. In the following year
in his work on mineralogy, Dana mentions that gold was found in
the Sacramento Valley and that "rocks similar to those of the au-
riferous formations" were observed in Southern Oregon.
May 4, 1846, Thomas 0. Larkin, United States Consul at Mont-
erey, said, in an official letter to James Buchanan, Esq., then Secre-
tary of State: "There is no doubt that gold, silver, quicksilver,
copper, lead, sulphur and coal mines are to be found all over Cali-
fornia, and it is doubtful whether, under their present owners, they
ever will be worked."
On the 7th day of July, 1846, the American flag was hoisted at
Monterey and the country taken possession of by the United States.
Marshall Discovers Gold at Coloma: January 19, 1848, James W.
Marshall, while engaged in digging a race for a saw mill at Coloma
( thirty-five miles east from Sutter' s Fort) found some pieces of
yellow metal which he and a half dozen men working with him at
the mill supposed to be gold. He felt confident that he had made a
discovery of great importance, but he knew nothing of either chem-
istry or gold mining, and he could not prove the nature of the metal
or tell how to obtain it in paying quantities. So Marshall's col-
lection of specimens continued to accumulate and his associates began
to think there might be something in his gold mine after all.
In the middle of February, Bennett, one of the party employed at
the mill, went to San Francisco, and returned with Isaac Hum-
phreys, a man who washed gold in Georgia, and who, after a few
hours' work, declared the mines to be richer than those of his own
state.
By means of a rocker, he obtained daily about one ounce of gold
and soon all the hands of the mill were rocking for the precious
metal.
The record of the discovery of gold, as related by Parsons in his
biography of Marshall, is somewhat different from that published
by Brown, and gives to Marshall alone the credit of discovery.
Other Gold Discoveries: Pierson B. Redding, the owner of a
large ranch at the head of the Sacramento Valley, visited the min-
ing works at Coloma and immediately resolved to commence wash-
ing on his own property, which he thought was of a similar forma-
tion, and in a few weeks he had begun mining on a bar on Clear
Creek, nearly two hundred miles northwest from Coloma. His
example was followed by John Bidwell, who, having seen Sutter's
works, commenced prospecting on the bars of Feather River, sev-
enty-five miles northwest from Coloma.
In February, 1848, the treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo was made,
and Mexico ceded California to the United States. By the end of