Gold Nugget

Object Details

referenced

Sutter, John

Polk, President James K.

Loesser, Lucian

Description

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.

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.

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.

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."

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.

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.

1848

Associated Date

1848

ID Number

CL.135(1861).01

accession number

135

catalog number

135(1861).01

Object Name

gold nugget

Physical Description

gold (overall material)

Measurements

overall: .7 cm; x 9/32 in

Place Made

United States: California, Coloma, Sutter's Mill

referenced

United States: California, Coloma

United States: California

Related Publication

Kendrick, Kathleen M. and Peter C. Liebhold. Smithsonian Treasures of American History

On the Water online exhibition

Related Web Publication

http://americanhistory.si.edu/onthewater

See more items in

Work and Industry: Mining

Work

Natural Resources

Coins, Currency and Medals

Exhibition

On the Water

Exhibition Location

National Museum of American History

National Museum of American History

subject

Gold Rush

Migration

Fishing

related event

California Gold Rush

Expansion and Reform

Record ID

nmah_741894

Metadata Usage (text)

CC0

GUID (Link to Original Record)

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746a5-6325-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa