The American River, Coloma, California

More than one person here told me this week that it was 1848, not the more well-known 1849 that a gold discovery brought hundreds of thousands of men to this part of the world.  It was 98% men and just two percent women.

In Sacramento we toured Fort Sutter, where plans were to offer parcels of 200 acres to settlers who would come to the fort to get their horses shod, their grain threshed, and all of their groceries.  In return they would have to agree to take cattle out into their homesteads and develop farms.

It was going well, and thousands took up the offer. But then when gold was found right near where this photo was taken, it was forget about the logging, forget about the cattle. Men left their families and struck out determined to get rich.

Today jewelry stores in Placerville will buy your gold from you, and one guy actually does get quite a bit of gold out of the river with his pan. They give you a tiny vial to put your flakes in, and sometimes it’s darn hard to keep track of what’s gold and what’s fool’s gold.