The National Republican., 1885-11-17
TIE GOLD-FINDERs.
Discoveries which Antcdato the Incl
dent at Suffers Mill.


An official report made to the director Of
the mint brands as fiction the pleasing
stories In the school histories that gold was
first discovered in California at Suffers
Mill. James Marshall, so the fable ran,
was walking by the mill-tail looking at the
water, when the gllstcnlng Of the nugget
III the sands caught his eyes. He
stopped down, picked IL up, and
then rode at full speed to the fort, which
stood on the present site Of Sacramento
In subsequent years Marshall has had 10
divide the honor attaching to the discovery
of gold in California with Peter l.. Weimor,
poor man, who was with him when the
nugget was found. Weimcr claimed that
he first saw the gold and called his com
panion's attention to II, but Marshall had
the horse and carried the unknown metal
to the fort, so that he got the credit for the
"nndn
Tho lapse Of time has served to increase
the heat Of the controversy over this credit
for discovery, and in the search for truth
facts have been collatcd which greatly di-
minish the importance history has attached
to the incident at Suffers Mil. Mr.. Walter
A. Skdmorc, who makes the report to the
California was well known nearly ahundred
years ago.
Gen. NJ G.. Vallejo, who reached Cali
fornia in 1910, and who is an authority on
the earlier annals of the coast, states that
in 1924, while on a military expedition TO
the region which is now Kern and San Ber-
nardino counties, he found Russian living
between the Kings and Kern rivers, who
was, and had been for some time, mining
fu fnfN f.0ll al 4,
all the then known appliances for separat-
ing the. metal. About that time, and for
years later, Gen. Vallejo used to remit gold.
dust, in the sealed quilts Of the vulture, to
the authorities at the City of Mexico.
Capt. Walter Comstock, a whaler, who
was In the employ Of the Grinnells, of New
York, has asserted that he took gold from
California In 1924, and nearly every vessel
which put into the harbor of Yorba Buena.
now San Francisco, in those times carried
away gold.
Prof. Hanks, the California mlneralogist,
has evidence that placer was discovered
near the Colorado river, in San Diego
county, in 1115. For twenty years before
1913, the date of the discovery at Suffers
Mill, gold diggings We're operated on the
upper waters of the Santa Clara river.
Gold dust to the value of 100000 was
taken out.
DuJ lot W lCusJ IWO OCGUlUrleS before IlleSe
records of actual mining California had the
rather mythical reputation of possessing
gold In abundance. An old work, pub
lished in Europe in the sixteenth century,
contained this
''The soldiers of Vasquirus Coronatus
having found no gold in Vcvola, In order
not to return to Mexico without gold, re-
solved TO come to Quivera, Cal, for they
had heard much Of its gold mines, and that
TatarraXas, the powerful king Of that coun-
try, was amply provided with riches.n
Sir Francis Drake, in 1879, visited the
coast Of California and entered the bay
which bears his name. On his return to
England he gave suchIa glowing account
of the country that IIakluyt, an historian of
that day, in writing Of California, said
there was no part of the soil that did not
contain a reasonable quantity of gold or
silver. This early knowledge, however,
was not altogether reliable. No precious
metals have ever been found IN the district
nrouul Drakpis Inv