The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1898-01-02
Mining

During this, the opening month OF tn
new year, the half-century celebration
of MarshalIs discovery of gold on SUIT
ter's creek in 1S4S is to be celebrated
and Los Angeles, following the example
Of San Francisco, is to do honor to the
mining pioneer.
While this is very commendable ano
eminently proper. it is also commemorate
and proper that it be borne in mind that
Marshalrs discovery of gold-like Co
lumbus' discovery of America-was a
discovery of what had been already pre-
viously discovered. AS matter OF aoso-
lutte fact, gold was found In Southern Cal
ifornia during the month OF June, 1884,
and was, in a twofold manner, accident
al. A Mexican mineralogist, Don Andres
Castillero, travelling from Los Angeles
to Monterey, while passing over the Las
Virgenes rancho, gathered some small,
water-worn meteorological pebbles,
known by Mexican placer miners as
'tepustete"-a variety of pyrites-which
he exhibited at the residence of Don
Jose Antonio de la Guerra y Noriega in
Santa Barbara, where he was guest,
and stated that wherever these pebbles
were lOuuu III piaSc IL W as q SOON AHN'
cation of placer gold fields.
One Francisco Lopez, a vaquero and
for some years previously major-domo
at San Fernando mission, who was then
living upon the Piru rancho, was pres
ent and heard the statement and saw
the pebbles. Not long after this incident
Lopez made the discovery of gold while
turning UP wild onions with his knife in
c.. ID; non On q
Francisco rancho. The news of that
discovery attracted hundreds of people,
who engaged in washing the sands and
earth for the precious metal. From these
mines was obtained the first gold
shipped from California to the United
States mint at Philadelphia. 1t was
consigned to the care of Alfred Robin
son by Don Abel Stearns, and went in a
merchant sailing ship around Cape
Horn. A certificate of it's deposit in the
mint and also the letter of Robinson to
Don Abel, under date of August 6,
1S43, from New York, giving the partic-
ulars in connection with the disposition
of the gold are in the archives of the
Society of Pioneers at San Francisco.
While the above are historical facts
beyond dispute. there is some doubt as
made. Col. j. j. Warner, an old 81 pio-
neer, gives the most reliable account in
IAN Historical Sketch of Los Angeles
County" and fixes the date as June. 1S41,
and quotes Don Ynacio del Vale of Cam
ulos, on whose ranch the discovery was
made, and who was appointed the same
year of the find as encargado de justicia
or auxiliary alcalde, expressly for the
mir district Don A hpl SteQrnS QiVpS
the date March, 1912; Bandini, April,
1912, and Coronel positively asserts it
was in 1912. Whichever date may be the
correct one, certain it is. at least, that
the existence of both gold and silver in
California was we'll known some years
before Marshall made his find. Alfred
Robinson, a pioneer of 1928, and already
alluded to as having been the bearer of
the first parcel of gold sent east. pub
lished a book in 1916, two years before
Marshalls discovery, wherein he men
tions q mine at Alisal, near Monterey,
from which considerable quantities of
silver ore had been taken. This" he
says, was the first mine discovered in
California. At one time the mania for
mining was SO great that every old wo
man had her specimen of what she
called ore, and" he adds, "rich mines of
placer gold were discovered near the
Mission San Fernando"
Evidently the gold fever had been
rife in California before the days of 49,
What the San Feliciano diggings yielded
Is moot point. Don Abel Stearns put it
at from $4,000 to $4,000 a year up to the
time of the American occupation in 1S47.
Bancroft says that by 1S43, 1000 ounces Of
gold (worth about S3S, 000) had been taxi
en- from the San Fernando mines, the
greater portion of which was shipped to
the United States.
The neophytes at the mission of San
Luis Rey also obtained gold from the
streams that ran through the mission
grounds, and Bancroft is authority for
the statement that the padre used to
hammer the small nuggets into the
shape of pills, and when he left the
province was said to have 100000 worth
of these precious pellets
Alexander Mcdonald. the former min
lister to Persia, like all his predecessors
at the shah's court, is a bachelor. The
United States, he says, does not send
married men to the court of Teheran
because the journey is almost too rough
for woman