The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-09-08

If asked to locate the place where gold
was first discovered in California probably
nine out of every ten of the intelligent
residents of the State of the more recent
arrivals would name Suffers millrace at
Coloma as the spot. Even among the
Argonauts of '49-those searchers after the
golden fleece of Phryxus' ram-who are
popularity supposed to know all about
The days of old,
The days of gold,
probably no larger percentage could give
| correct answer. If the anxious searcher
| for historical truth were to consult the
ordinary run of histories of California he
would find in them repeated and re-
| repeated with slight variations the old,
| old story of Suffers millrace and Mar
shall's wonderful find therein.
| Yet,with all due respect to the historians,
good, bad and Indifferent, with all defer
ence to the opinions of the Argonauts, and
with patriotic regard for the wisdom
of the conscript fathers of the State, who
reared statue to the memory OF Marshall,
the so-called first discoverer of gold, I here
enter a protest against the iteration and
reiteration of the story that Coloma was
the place where gold was first discovered
in California or that Marshall was the first
discoverer and 1848 the year of the dis
covery.
Outside of Bancroft's voluminous his
tory and the published "reminiscences of
pioneers who lived in the country previous
to 1S48, it is very rare indeed to find in any
compilation dignifed by the name of his
tory any mention of the fact that gold had
been found and extensively mined in Cali
fornia previous to 1848.
The fullest and most reliable account of
the first discovery of gold in California is
pioneer of 1881, and published in "a His
torical Sketch of Los Angeles County" Ia
work not out of print). quote from this
sketch:
while statements respecting the exist
ence of gold in the earth of California and
its procurement therefrom have been made
and published as historical facts, carrying
back the date of the knowledge OF the au-
riferous character of the State as far as the
time of the visit of Sir Francis Drake to
the coast, there is no evidence to be found
in the written or oral history OF the mis-
sions, the acts and correspondence OF the
civil or military officers, or in the unwrit-
ten and traditional history of Upper Cali
fornia that the existence of gold, either
with ores or in its virgin state, was ever
suspected by any inhabitant of California
conclusive testimony that the first known
grain of native gold dust was found upon
or near the San Francisco ranch, about
forty miles northwesterly from Los Ange-
les City, in the month of June, 1841. This
discovery consisted of grain gold fields,
known as placer mines, and the auriferous
fields discovered in that year EN- braced the
greater part of the country drained by the
Santa Clara River from point some fif-
teen or twenty miles from its mouth to its
source, and easterly beyond them to Mount
San Bernardino."
The story of discovery as told by Warner
and Don Abel Stearns are similar in the
main facts, differing, however, materially
in the date. Stearns says gold was first
discovered by Francisco Lopez, a native Of
California, in the month of March, 1912, at
a place called San Francisquito, about
thirty miles northwest from this city clos
Angeles). The circumstances of the dis
covery as related by Lopez himself are as
follows: "Lopez, with q companion, was
out in search of some stray horses, and
about midday they stopped under some
they resting under the shade, when Lopez
with his sheath knife dug up some wild
onions and in the dust discovered piece
of gold, and, searching further, found
some. more. He brought these to town
and showed them to his friends, who at
once declared there must be a placer of
gold. This news being circulated numbers
OF the citizens went to the place and COM
menced prospecting in the neighborhood,
and found it to be fact that there was a
placer of gold"
Colonel Warner says: 1.-THE news of this
discovery soon spread among the inhab-
itants from Santa Barbara to Los Angeles,
and in few weeks hundreds of people
were engaged in washing and winnowing
the sands and earth of these gold fields"
Warner visited the mines few weeks
after their discovery. He says: "From
these mines was obtained the first parcel
of California gold dust received at the
United States Mint in Philadelphia, and
which was sent with Alfred Robinson and
went in q merchant sailing-ship around
Cape Horn. This shipment of gold was
1884 ounces before and 1871 ounces after
smelling; fineness, 1926; value, 1914 75-
over $40 to the ounce, a very superior
quality of gold dust"
It may be regarded as settled historical
fact that the first discovery of gold in Alta
California was made on the San Francisco
Rancho in the San Feliciano Canyon, in
the county of Los Angeles. This canyon
is about eight miles northwest OF Newhall
and forty-two miles northwest of Los An
geles. 1t is also an established fact that
the first discoverer was Francisco Lopez,
dlSO hnOWA tHC hdAlC u OuSO,
a vaquero, living at that time on the
Piru Rancho. Lopez had been for many
years previously mayordomo of the San
Fernando mission. The time of the dis
covery is not so satisfactorily settled.
Colonel Warner, usually very reliable,
gives June, 1841, as the date, and quotes
Don Ygnacio del Vale, on whose rancho
the discovery was made, and who was ap-
pointed encargado de justicia to preserve
order in the mining district, as one of
his authorities for that date. Don Abel
Stearps gives the date March, 1912; Ban
DIM, April, 1912. Coronel, who spent some
time in the mines and employed Indians
in mining, asserts positively that it was
made in 1912.
Bancroft is contradictory in his dates.
In the text of his history he gives March,
1912, evidently following Stearns state
ment. In his Pioneer Register he states:
f" = Antonio del Vale died in 1841, the
same year that gold was discovered ON his
ranch" In his photography Of Pastoral
California he refers to manuscript by
Alvarado entitled primitive Descubri-
miento, in which is an interesting account
of the discovery of gold placers in the San
Fernando Valley in 1S41.
William Heath Davis, usually one OF
the most reliable chroniclers OF pioneer
events, in his book, "Si1ty Years in Cali
fornia," gives the date of the discovery