Historedia
Episode 1 of 2

Discovery at Sutter's Mill

When
January 24, 1848
Where
Sutter's Mill
Part of
James W. Marshall finds gold at Sutter's Mill, starting the California Gold Rush

Marshall found gold flakes in the mill tailrace on January 24, 1848, triggering the Gold Rush.

On January 24, 1848, James W. Marshall noticed shiny flecks in the channel bed while examining the mill's tailrace. He found gold flakes in the South Fork American River at Coloma. Bigler recorded the date in his diary. This discovery set off the California Gold Rush, a major event in US history.

Sources

  1. James W. Marshall Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-15
  2. Sutter's Mill Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-04
  3. California gold rush Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-20

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.