Daily capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1896-1899, 1898-01-24

! work on bis Hour mill aud saw-mil
> and seut six Of them to COlOma, wbel
8 Marshall had already begun Jpera
: tlOns, assisted by three white me
J, aud dozen Indians.
}. For four months Marshall and hi
men worked at COlCma, seeing n
visitors and seldom communication
with the fort. The mill had bee
nearly completed, the dam was made
. the race bad been dug, the gates ha
. been put in place, the water had bee
turned into the race To carry ava
some Of the loose dirt and gravel, ami
then bad been turned of again. o.
the afternoon Of January 10. as n,
, claims, Marshall was walking in th,
tall-race, when on It's rotten grant,
bed rock he saw some yellow particles
aDd picked up several Of them. Tn,
largest were about the size Of grain,
OF wheat. They were smooth, bright
and In color much like brass He
thought they were go d, and going t.
the mill told Bigler and the rest that
he had found a gold mine.
| Marshall being known by his COM
paniOns 10 be fauciful and erratic
man, little Importance at the moment
was attached To his statemtnt: but he
hammered his new metal, and found
10 malleable; he put 10 into the fire,
and observed that H. did not readily
melt or change color: he compared It's
color with gold coin, and the more he
examined IL, the more he was con-
vinced that it was gold.
Next morning he made another
visit To the tail race, picked up other
specimens. and putting all he had col
lected, about spoonful, on the rim Of
his nat, went TO the mill, where he
showed them TO the men as added
proof OF his discovery Of gold mine.
After this he set out TO the fort to
obtain his partners opinion OF the
metal Sutter had an encyclopedia,
sulphuric acid and scales, and with
the help OF these, after weighing the
specimens in and out OF water, he de
clared that they were undoubtedly
gold.
Then came the deluge. For six
weeks or more work On the mill at |
ColOma continued without serious in |
terruptiOn while effort was made TO |
Keep Marshall's discovery secret. This |
proved impossible, although at first |
credit was not Willingly given TO the |
report San Francisco began by ridicul-
ing IT, One Of her principal newspa
pers even persisted in treating IL as
an iuposture, long after the rush 10
the place had begun. When the
pioneer miners came TO San Francisco
and showed their gold, however, hest
tation was at an end, and the town
went mad. All business was speedily
suspended; the papers ceased publica-
lion; the churches, nay even the sa-
OOns and gambling houses were de-
serted; scores, and eventually hun
ireds OF ships in the harbOr were
loandoned by their crews, and often
ilSo by their officers and cap
aims; day by day the fever grew and
The migration TO the foothills contin-
ned. It
Moreover, news Of the discovery :
Oon spread to all parts Of the world /
md In the spring of lS49 great mum.
'eTs OF Adventures prepared to set ]
'ut from the most distant points for $
he new EldoradO. 1t was no easy G
Quincy, either by land or sea, and
he victims Of the gold-hunger have q
ever been counted. Those who went Il
" sea VIA the Isthmus OF Pan
ma, were the prey Of knavish specu.
ltOrs In New York, who sold tickets d
Or passage from Panama to San h
'rancisco far beyond the capacity OF
he steamers running between those p
orts. The consequene was that such c
rowds gathered on the Isthmus as j
ngendered epidemics, and hundereds, V
aging been fieeced of all their re- "
,rve funds by the eXorbitant charges, o.
led there and filled nameless graves II
When the California steamer ar le
we'd at Panama the few berths avail VI
Die had to be fought for, and so rap. d
,louS was the steamship company u
nat the price OF a steerage passage lr
san Francisco was fixed at 81 600 W
he whole way by water was filled ol
ith traps and pitfalls for the geld al
ekers, the apparent intention being 10
relieve them OF all supertluities Je
: the time they reached their Jour
,y's end, so that the incentive for el
lrd work In the mines might be w
eater. In
by the overland route there was th
SIS plunderipg Of the travellers, but th
ore privatlon and hardship, the 10
rec thousand miles OF land travel M
ing beset with physical aud eli III
attic difficulties. The long route IN
me To be thickly bordered with hu- in
an graves aud the bleaching Skele- stl
ms OF cattle and horses, aud hun a
eds who had struggled brayely tri
ross the burning, thirsty deserts tn
d alkali plains lost courage when or,
ey reached the frowning Sierra Ne mt
da, and even on the border OF the Su
Dmised land abandoned their enter an
lse and turned back. OF those who ov,
rseyered many perished in the Ea
luntains; many were rescued by re- ha
I parties sent out from California; loo
d multitude overcame all obsta- pla
s and made their way into the val wv
Of the Sacramento,
There rich rewards awaited ma iin
ty Of the goldhunters. The first mel
d washing In 1913 was done on the An
rs of the rivers. where the gravel we
5 shallow, prospecting easy, and the
ming prompt and liberal in its re 10
yield from a days work arc
ny often equal 10 princely rev. raj
le. A little later, the miners, shut Pa
from the river bars by the rainy anC
son, turned 10 the raviueS which sen
we'd In many cases almost as rich as ope
bars. IL was not uncommon for L
n 10 take out $1,000 In day, and the
aSiunally 5000 or more would re rem
rd the days work In lS49 the the
ners generally got sl6 day or Cal
re, aud when a claim Wnnld MOI bee
IA ltlN