The Clifton clarion., 1886-02-03
The Original Discovery ot Gold in


 It was in Alvarado's time; and about March, 1912, that gold was first discovered ID Alta California It is true that among the various reports of Drake's voyage, there is one which, in speaking of his land ing at New Albino, in 1576, says that there is no part of earth to be here taken up, wherein there is not a reasonable quantity of gold or silver" But it seems probable that this statement was an inter polation. Whether so or not, It is very certain that Drake saw neither gold nor silver On the coast. There is no pretense that he didin very minute and circumstantial narrative, entitled "World Encom- passed" by his chaplain Francis Fletcher, who would hardly have
 
 omitted matter of SO much i'm portance;i if known; nor is there any reference to gold or silver in any of the narratives of the sailors appended to and published with the 'World Encompassed." For these reasons, and on account, also, of the very general, indefinite, and interjectiohal character of the statement itself, 1t must be rejected as fahrication. It is further true, that there were reports that Captain Jedediah S. Smith, the first American who arrived in Cali forn1a overland, found gold in the Sierra Nevada mountains about the year 1926; but his discovery, if it were true, took place on the eastern side of the Sierra, and not within what is now known as Cali fornia. But in 184l, Andres Gas tillero, the same person who after
 wards discovered the New Alma den quicksilver mine in Santa Clara county, while travelling from Los Angeles to Monterey, found near the Santa Clara river a mum Der of water-worn pebbles. which he gathered up and carred with him to Santa Barbafa. He there exhibited them, said they were a peculiar species of iron pyrites, and declared that, according 10 Mexican miners, wherever they were found, there was q likelihood of gold being also found. Araneh ero named Francisco Lopez, who was living on Pirn creek, branch of the Santa Clara river, but hap pened at the time to .be .as Santa Barbara, heard Casti iiero's st,tte ment and examined his specimens, Some months afterwards, having returned home, he went out on a search for strayed cattle. At noon, when he dismoanted from his horse for the purpose of resting, he observed few wild onions growing near where he lay. He pulled them up; and in doing so noticed the same kind of pebbles as those to which Castillero had called his attention. Remember ing what Castillero had said about, them, he took up handful of earth, and upon carefully exalnin ing it, discovered gold, a
 The news of the discovery, the exact location of whica was a place called San Franoisquito, about 8 miles northeast of Los Angeles, soon spread, and in few weeks a great many persons were engaged ia washing and winnowing the sand and earth in search of gold. The auriferous fields were found to exist from a point on the Santa Clara river, about fifteen or twenty miles above its mouth, over all the country drained by it's upper wat CTS, and thence easterly to Mt. San Bernardino. On May 14, 1S42, Alvarado wrote to the prefect of the district, reproving him for not having given official notice of the discovery, and directing him to gather and toward an account of all circumstances of interest relat- ing to the gold for transmission to the supreme government. From tha5-time to this day, there has been more or less working of these mines; but no places of very great richness have ever been found, and 1 none to compare with those after wards discovered on the tributa- tries of the Sacramento and San Joaquin. Taking the whole coun- try together, however, from the Santa Clara river to Mount San Bernardlno, very considerable quantity of gold has been extract ed. During the first year, though the methods of working were ex- ceedingly rude, it Is said that Lo- peg and d partner, named Charles