Eureka! The Discovery of Gold in California Part Three
Many elementary schools across the country are now studying the California Gold Rush. This short, continuing story is intended to aid teachers in their efforts to share with their classes the significance of this historical events. Teacher who use the story in this week’s lessons can register to win a copy of the book Frontier Teachers.
Marshall could not seem to saddle his horse fast enough. Down through the beautiful California country he rode to Sutter’s Fort. As he came closer he glances at the herds of cattle browsing on the lush grass. He nodded when Sutter’s Mexican cowhands, the vaqueros, called cheerful greetings, waving their high sombreros.
The Fort was the only American strong hold in the territory. John Sutter had obtained land from Mexico. He had been loyal to the country until California was practically taken over by the Unites States toward the end of the Mexican war. But now he was in sympathy with America. His Fort was at the California end of the only wagon trail from the States, and he gave aid and work to any Americans who came that way.
Now as Marshall rode through the gateway in the adobe walls surrounding Sutter’s Fort, he seemed to enter a city in itself. Here were shops and sheds and houses. He heard the clang-clang of a blacksmith’s hammer on anvil, and the soft Spanish song of a Mexican woman as she slapped tortillas on a flat stone.
Marshall strode at once to Sutter’s house, and startled his boss with his air of excitement.
“What is this, Mr. Marshall?” asked John Sutter in his quiet way.
Marshall carefully opened his small bag and emptied its contents on a desk. Sutter leaped over to it, his eyes lighting up. “Looks like that is gold, Mr. Marshall. Where did it come from?”
“From the tail race of the mill. There’s more there. Lots more.”
The ranch owner put his plump finger against his nose thoughtfully. “Now, how can we find out – ah, I know.” He went to a bookcase and took out a small encyclopedia. “Here we have it. Yes, I can try it out.”
He pored over the book for some time, reading the rules given for testing gold to find out if it was pure or mixed with other metals. Then he sent Marshall out to get silver coins from anybody who had them in the Fort. With about three and a half dollars in silver balanced on a small scale they figured it out. This was pure gold, unmixed with silver or copper!
John Sutter sat in his big chair for a long time, and stared across at his silent millwright. Gold! The word was like magic. How much would the river, and perhaps all his land, contain? Down under those waving fields of grain, those pastures where his horses and cattle and sheep grazed by the thousand – was there pure gold? What would this do to his little kingdom, where he ruled like a lord? He frowned, and chewed his under lip. Somehow this news brought a fear of losing what he had struggled so long to gain.
“Mr. Marshall,” he said quietly, “perhaps we had better not talk about this yet. Perhaps we had better think first of what to do? Let us preserve silence, for a while.”
Marshall nodded slowly. Here was a fortune. He had found it. It would be well to keep it secret from those who would perhaps steal it from him. He went to saddle his horse. As he rode into the foothills, the sun spread across the wind-blown fields of grasses and turned them all to shining, gleaming gold. A golden earth! Golden streams! A golden land!
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