California Gold Rush: by Lauren Burt

James Wilson Marshall was a skilled carpenter trained by his wheelwright father

in New Jersey. Marshall was building a sawmill for California land developer John Sutter

in Coloma Valley near Sacramento when he observed something glittering in the new

millrace that had been allowed to flow overnight. He described the nugget as "half the

size and shape of a pea." "It made my heart thump," he later recalled, "for I was certain it

was gold." Examining the nugget, he exclaimed to his fellow workmen, "Boys, by God, I

believe I have found a gold mine."

The impact of Marshall's find that afternoon at Sutter's Mill in the Sierra Nevada

foothills was enormous, and became known worldwide. Although Marshall's discovery

occurred in 1848, the electrifying news did not reach the East Coast and other parts of the

world until a year later, triggering the Gold Rush of '49, the greatest stampede of gold

seekers in......

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Title: California Gold Rush
Approximate Word Count: 1524
Approximate Pages: 7 (250 words per double-spaced page)

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