The Pickens sentinel. [volume] (Pickens, S.C.) 1871-1903, 1880-11-18
The GOLDEN Age,
Story of the Discovery of Gold in
California.

1t was in the month of January, 1848,
IN small shanty in the rather squaIid
little hamlet of Yerba Buena, on the Bay
OF San Francisco, that two young men
from the States, having just printed on
hand-press the $50 copies of their
weekly paper, sat down upon stools,
weary, faint and discouraged, to talk
over the prospects of the country and be-
moan the fate that had cast them where
society and money were so scarce. They
were Americans, but the land of their
birth was as remote to them then as st.
Petersburg to a peasant of the Amoor
valley. They longed to return, but
never expected to be rich enough. The
Mexican war was just ended a few
months before. The treaty of Guada-
lnpe Hidalgo gave California to the
United States. The California so ceded
included the present State of that name,
Nevada, and most of Utah. It was an
empire larger than France and England.
Divided by range of mountains almost
MS lofty as the Alps and longer than the
Carpathlans, running from north to
south, the eastern half was terra incog-
nlta OF barren desert buttes and mount
ain spurs, containing throughout it's
whole extent but one feeble settlement
OF whites, known as Mormons. Un-
known savages of the lowest aboriginal
type dominated oil the rest. The west
ern half, as 1T then appeared, was one
great valley covered with bright flowers,
rank Verdure, clumps of majestic oaks,
wooded hills, sloping from the coast
range on the west and the Sierras on the
east, hills, plains and valleys alive with
herds of deer, elk, antelope and cattle
and horses as wild as the game; the
charming panorama enlivened and per-
fected by sparkling rivers, whose waters
were as clear as the cloudless sky above
them, their banks fanked with O dense
growth of ash, maple, alder, willow,
hazel, cottonwood. sycamore, wild grape
vines, and, toward their confluence with
the bays, waving tule of the darkest
green, resembling at first sight the great
cornfields on the lowlands of the Ohio
In oil this vast valley region there was
but one white settlement. It was known
as Suffers Fort.
1t was located near the confluence of
the Rio dc los Americanos with the Sac
ramento. To the far south, beyond the
sources OF the San Joaquin river, not
tar from the Pacific ocean, stood the
Ciudad de los Angeles" Mexican in
its construction and population. A
Catholic mission at Santa Barbara and
another at San Luis Obispo (Saint Louis,
the Bishop; another at Monterey on
the bay OF that name another at Santa
CLARA in the lovely valley of that name
smother called Mission de San Jose not
far from the latter, and another at the
village of Yerba Buena, which has since
grown into the city of San Francisco.
1t was then a collection of adobes, built
around the public square we now call
" the Plaza" The waters Of the bay
extended as far as Montgomery street,
where the Bank Exchange now stands,
and few whalers and small coasting
Bchooners lay at anchor 800 yards from
shore, about where the postoffice now
stands on Battery street. There were
also American settlements at Sonoma
and Napa, composed of farmers who
emlgrated from the Western States q
few years before, and here and there
arose along the borders of the tule the
smoke from the hut of the lonely trap
per OF beaver. These, with the ranches
OF the old Dons, their corrals and the
inevitable adobe dwellings,, surrounded
by 1nnumerable cattle and horses, made
up the sum Of what there was of civilized
and seml"civilized life in California at
the time the two young printers of Yerba
6uena we're discussing their situation.
NOW aud then q vessel put into the bay
o1 Monterey, or San Francisco. or San
Diego, to load with hides, or O. whaler
for repairs, dropping few Mexican
dollars or doubloons, which were the
currency Of the country. 1t was. to an
active or ambitious mind, a dull and
listless life; but to the majority. who
loved ease, q healthy climate and beauti.
fuly-diversifed scenery.
Apleasing land Of drowsy head It was,
" dreams that hit before the half-shut eye,
ana OF gay castles in the clouds that pass,
Forever flashing through summer sky.
About the same hour that the two
1erba Buena printers were deploring
thelr fate of isolation from the busy
world, scene was enacting that was to
nave greater effect upon the material
interests OF modern society than any
event since the discovery of America.
LII was on the 10th day of January, 1848,
on the south fork of the American river,
nity-tour miles east of Suffers Fort.
early IN the morning of that day, James
". marshall, who was building o mill
Tor himself and Sutter, from which they
expected to supply the ranches and set
uements with pine lumber, picked up
from the bedrocks of the race of the mill
small piece of yellow metal. It weighed