Being a millwright by trade, as there was a ready cash sale for lumber, I concluded to seek a location in the mountains and erect a mill, to supply the valley with lumber. Some time in April, 1847, I visited New Helvetia, commonly known as the "Fort" where I made my resolution known to John A. Sutter, sen., and requested of him an Indian boy, to act as an interpreter to the mountain Indians in the vicinity of the American river or Rio del los Americanos, as it was then called. At first he refused, because, he said that he had previously sent several companies, at various times and by different routes, for that purpose, all of whom reported that it was impossible to find a route for a wagon road to any locality where pine timber could be procured, and that it was the height of folly to attempt any such thing.
Capt. Sutter at length, however, promised me the desired interpreter, provided I would stock some six or eight plows for him first, of which he was in immediate want, which I readily agreed to do. While I was employed upon this job there was much talk at the Fort concerning my contemplated trip to the mountains; and Messrs. Gingery, P.L. Wimmer and McLellan having resolved also to take a trip with the same object in view, came where I was working and asked me where I expected to find a road and timber, and I promptly gave them my views and directions.
They departed, I believe in company, but finally separated, and P.L. Wimmer found pine timber and a road, on what is now known as the Sacramento and Diamond Springs road and about the 12th of May, Gingery and Wimmer commenced work about thirteen miles west of the (now called) Shingle Spring House.
On the 16th of May, having completed my work for Capt. Sutter, I started with an Indian boy--Treador, and W.A. Graves (who is now residing in Butte county and who had assisted me in my work and heard the conversation between Gingery, Wimmer and McLellan) accompanied me for the purpose of seeing the mountains. On the 18th of May we entered the valley of Culluma [Coloma] and on the 20th Gingery joined our company. We then travelled up the stream now called Weber creek--the Indian name of which is Pul-Pul-Mul--to the head of the creek; thence higher in the mountains until we arrived at the South Fork of the American river where it divides into two branches of about equal size; from whence we returned by Sly Park and Pleasant Valley to the Fort.
On my arrival I gave Capt. Sutter an account of my trip, and of what I had discovered. He thereupon proposed to me a partnership; but before we were ready to commence operations, some persons who had tried in vain, to find Culluma, reported to Sutter that I "had made a false representation, for they could find no such place." To settle matters, Capt. Sutter furnished me with a Mission Indian, who was alcalde of the Cosumnes tribe, as an interpreter and guide, trusting partly to the Indian's report, as to the propriety of the proposed partnership.
The report which I had made on my first trip having been fully confirmed by observations on the second, the co-partnership was completed, and about the 27th of August we signed the agreement to build and run a saw-mill at Culluma. On the third day (I think) afterwards, I set out, with two wagons, and was accompanied by the following persons, employed by the firm of Sutter and Marshall, viz., P.L. Wimmer and family, James Barger, Ira Willis, Sidney Willis, Alex. Stephens, Wm. Cunce, James Brown, and Ezekiah Persons.
On our arrival in the Valley we first built the double log cabin, afterwards known as Hasting's & Co. store. About the last of September, as Capt. Sutter wanted a couple of capable men to construct a dam across the American river at the grist-mill--I sent the two Willis,' as the most capable; (Wm. Cunce being in feeble health left about the same time) and I received Henry Bigler, Israel Smith, Wm. Johnston and ---- Evans in return; and shortly afterwards I employed Charles Bennett and Wm. Scott, both carpenters. The above named individuals, with some ten Indians, constituted my whole force.
While we were in the habit at night of turning the water through the tail race we had dug for the purpose of widening and deepening the race, I used to go down in the morning to see what had been done by the water through the night; and about half past seven o'clock on or about the 19th of January--I am not quite certain to the day, but it was between the 18th and the 20th of that month--1848, I went down as usual, and after shutting off the water from the race I stepped into it, near the lower end, and there, upon the rock, about six inches beneath the surface of the water, I DISCOVERED THE GOLD. I was entirely alone at the time. I picked up one or two pieces and examined them attentively; and having some general knowledge of minerals, I could not call to mind more than two which in any way resembled this --sulphuret of iron, very bright and brittle; and gold, bright, yet malleable; I then tried it between two rocks, and found that it could be beaten into a different shape, but not broken. I then collected four or five pieces and went up to Mr. Scott (who was working at the carpenters bench making the mill wheel) with the pieces in my hand and said, "I have found it."
"What is it?" inquired Scott.
"Gold," I answered.
"Oh! no," returned Scott, "that can't be."
I replied positively,--"I know it to be nothing else."
Mr. Scott was the second person who saw the gold. W.J. Johnston, A. Stephens, H. Bigler, and J. Brown, who were also working in the mill yard, were then called up to see it. Peter L. Wimmer, Mrs. Jan Wimmer, C. Bennet, and J. Smith were at the house; the latter two of whom were sick; E. Persons and John Wimmer (a son of P.L. Wimmer), were out hunting oxen at the same time. About 10 o'clock the same morning, P.L. Wimmer came down from the house, and was very much surprised at the discovery, when the metal was shown him; and which he took home to show his wife, who, the next day, made some experiments upon it by boiling it in strong lye, and saleratus; and Mr. Bennet by my directions beat it very thin.
(Eds. Note: The woman Mrs. Wimmer was an experienced hand, having worked on a placer claim in Southern Carolina some years earlier during the heyday of that state's Gold rush. She was familiar with the technique which jewelers use to determine gold, as the metal will not dissolve in a hot solution of lye and potassium bicarbonate and every other metal will. She was the one who declared the metal gold, as every other person in the camp doubted it to be. She had insisted on the test. It is not well known today that the workers had set up a sluice in the race for the express purpose of finding gold. A year earlier workers from the State government, a party of geologists had surveyed the area, and declared because of the frequent findings of quartz in the surrounding hills that it would be a prime area for placer gold. In fact some prospectors were working in the area for a few years previous, but had probably kept their finds, if any, secret, as many of that trade would do, fearing claim jumpers. Marshall suppressed his knowledge and the purpose of his investigations of the mill tail race to his boss, Sutter, as he did not want to appear to be working against his contract's intent, which was cutting timber.)
Four days afterward I went to the Fort for provisions, and carried with me about three ounces of gold, which Capt. Sutter and I tested with nitric acid. I then tried it in Sutter's presence by taking three silver dollars and balancing them by the dust in the air, then immersed both in water, and the superior weight of the gold satisfied us both of its nature and value.
(Editor's Note: It was known that sulphides and silver will dissolve in nitric acid but gold would not. Few today would recognize that the same weight of silver will not weigh the same as gold in water. But this is true, as the water is displaced more by the more voluminous weight of silver, thus supporting it more, even on a balance. The coinage of the time was very nearly pure silver. If Marshall weighed 10 grams of silver and 10 grams of gold, he would have noticed the same weight of the two materials on the balance in air, and a difference of 0.43 grams of greater weight of the gold in water. Such an apparatus for determining the relative SG of minerals in water and air is called a Jolly Balance and it was widely used to determine the purity of gold dust in Goldfields in America since the very early days before the 1849 Gold Rush.)
About the 20th of February, 1848, Capt. Sutter came to Coloma, for the first time, to consummate an agreement we had made with this tribe of Indians in the month of September previous, to wit:--that we live with them in peace on the same land.
About the middle of April the mill commenced operation, and, after cutting a few thousand feet of lumber was abandoned; as all hands were intent upon gold digging. In December, 48, Capt. Sutter came again to Coloma, and some time in that month sold his interest in the mill to Messrs. Ragley and Winters, of which new firm I became a member. The mill was soon again in operation, and cut most of the lumber of which the town of Coloma was built.
The first piece of gold which I found, weighed about fifty cents. Mr. Wimmer, having bought a stock of merchandise some time about May or June, 1848; and Mrs. Wimmer being my treasurer, used four hundred and forty dollars of my money to complete the purch ase; and among which was the first piece of gold which I had found. Where that went or where it is now, I believe that nobody knows.
(Eds. Note: 50 cents of gold in one piece, would be about one gram back then. Gold was $16.00 an Troy ounce. Worth $30.00 today. It's size if it were a cube would be 0.37 CM on a side. (0.15 inches). That would make one heck of a "plink" if dropped in a pan. A jocular reference prospectors make about gold they search for, is, "They judge the gold where they dig by the sound it makes when dropped in a pan". Very few grains found in any placer river will make a sound when dropped in gold miner's pan.)
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