Gold Rush

The Gold Rush was a big event in U.S history. James

Marshall was the first to discover gold in Coloma, California.

Many people thought Columbus was the first to discover

gold. That was not true.

By 1847 a settler named John Sutter decided to add a

tannery and other buildings to his fort in northern California.

For that he was going to need plenty of lumber. A skilled

thirty-five-year-old carpenter from New Jersey named James

Marshall, had agreed with Sutter to supervise the construction

of a sawmill in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. Along the

American River, which provide waterpower. Both men chose

the location of Coloma. Marshall’s direction were for the

workers to began building the mill.

In January 23,1848, the sawmill was nearly done.

There was a problem with the tailrace that Marshall

discovered, in the long ditch that had been dug below the

wheel of the mill. The problem was that...