Gold Nugget
date: label: Date made
content: 1848
label: Associated Date
content: 1848
name: label: referenced
content: Sutter, John
label: referenced
content: Polk, President James K.
label: referenced
content: Loesser, Lucian
notes: label: Description
content: This small piece of yellow metal is believed to be the first piece of gold discovered in 1848 at Sutter's Mill in California, launching the gold rush.
label: Description
content: James Marshall was superintending the construction of a sawmill for Col. John Sutter on the morning of January 24, 1848, on the South Fork of the American River at Coloma, California, when he saw something glittering in the water of the mill's tailrace. According to Sutter's diary, Marshall stooped down to pick it up and "found that it was a thin scale of what appeared to be pure gold." Marshall bit the metal as a test for gold.
label: Description
content: In June of 1848, Colonel Sutter presented Marshall's first-find scale of gold to Capt. Joseph L. Folsom, U.S. Army Assistant Quartermaster at Monterey. Folsom had journeyed to Northern California to verify the gold claim for the U.S. Government.
label: Description
content: The gold samples then traveled with U.S. Army Lt. Lucien Loeser by ship to Panama, across the isthmus by horseback, by ship to New Orleans, and overland to Washington. A letter of transmittal from Folsom that accompanied the packet lists Specimen #1 as "the first piece of gold ever discovered in this Northern part of Upper California found by J. W. Marshall at the Saw Mill of John A. Sutter."
label: Description
content: By August of 1848, as evidence of the find, this piece and other samples of California gold had arrived in Washington, D.C., for delivery to President James K. Polk and for preservation at the National Institute. Within weeks, President Polk formally declared to Congress that gold had been discovered in California.
label: Description
content: In 1861, the National Institute and its geological specimens, including this gold and the letter, entered the collections of the Smithsonian Institution. The Marshall Nugget remains in the collections as evidence of the discovery of gold in California.
place: label: Place Made
content: United States: California, Coloma, Sutter's Mill
label: referenced
content: United States: California, Coloma
label: referenced
content: United States: California
topic: label: Subject
content: Migration
label: Subject
content: Fishing
label: Subject
content: Gold rush
label: related event
content: California Gold Rush
label: related event
content: Expansion and Reform
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Mining
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content: Work
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content: Natural Resources
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content: Coins, Currency and Medals
label: Exhibition
content: On the Water
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
publisher: label: Related Publication
content: Kendrick, Kathleen M. and Peter C. Liebhold. Smithsonian Treasures of American History
label: Related Publication
content: National Museum of American History. On the Water exhibition website
label: Related Web Publication
content: http://americanhistory.si.edu/onthewater
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: CL.135(1861).01
label: accession number
content: 135
label: catalog number
content: 135(1861).01
objectType: label: Object Name
content: gold nugget
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: gold (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: .7 cm; x 9/32 in