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176 Years Ago Today Gold Was Discovered In California


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Many people think that gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill in January of 1848 but it was actually discovered on March 9, 1842 in Southern California.  That is the official 'story' here:

 

http://www.hometownstation.com/santa-clarita-latest-news/in-history-placerita-canyon-celebrates-176th-anniversary-of-the-oak-of-the-golden-dream-224619 

Mitchel

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Mitchel, I'm sure there were small discoveries in California before James Marshals, but this certainly was  not the spark that started the 49ers rush and mass migration of travelers, as this article tries to imply. Ive read many  journals from the early 49ers and never a mention of any Lopez or Placrita canyon.

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If you looking for a true story here it is.I did post this some time back.

I’d stop to ask this lady if I could hunt around this old building and she said yes. Then she told me of a gold ring she had found. She was pulling up carrots out of her garden when here was a carrot that had grown through this gold ring. The funny thing she had lost that same ring in early spring when she was planting that garden.

That was a treasure she lost and found.

Chuck

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  • 2 years later...

Here is a bit more history about Southern California gold.

You have to read about a little bit of 'other' history but there are some gems in this article for local gold prospectors.

https://signalscv.com/2020/11/the-time-ranger-special-clint-mckinney-tom-frew-issue/  

MORE TALES OF SCV GOLD — We keep adjusting our calendars about the first discovery of gold in California and Santa Clarita. For years, the date of the first major gold strike was thought to be in 1842 in Placerita Canyon by don Francisco Lopez. Other reports place that date even earlier in San Francisquito Canyon in the 1820s. In a conversation with The Signal by Judge John Powell, who served as magistrate here for 50 years in the 19th and early 20th centuries, that first gold discovery was even earlier. According to Powell, from a conversation he reportedly had with Andres Pico (of Pico Canyon fame and brother to California Gov. Pio Pico), Piute Indians found large gold nuggets in the Placerita Creek all the way back in 1796. (That would be the same year as the Lost Padre Mine in Castaic, where millions were taken out in gold.) The exact location was described as “… in the bedrock of the narrows in Placerita Canyon, 4 miles from (downtown Newhall).” The Indians brought them to the padres at the brand new construction site of the San Fernando Mission. The missionaries built rockers and sluice boxes and mined the gold. According to The Signal of Nov. 19, 1920, “No one seems to know just how much gold was mined, but it is supposed to have been a considerable sum.”

 

 

THE GOLD MINE THAT WOULD NOT GO AWAY — Annie Rose Briggs rediscovered the historic Lost Padre Mine northeast of Castaic. The cave had originally been discovered by Indians and had been worked by padres and their neophytes, pulling out $3 million in gold from 1843 and on. The mine was boarded up and hidden by the padres and rumor is they hid the gold in the hills rather than give it to the Mexican government. A Dr. Bragg later “rediscovered” the pit, trading a thoroughbred horse for the location. Dr. Bragg hired a local Newhall gunfighter, Bronco Charley Riley, to manage it. Riley’s crew mined an additional $1 million from it. One day, in a drunken rage, Riley murdered eight Indian miners and buried them in the cave. He threatened to kill Dr. Bragg, too, saying he was tired of doing all the work and the horse-racing doctor getting all the money. Dr. Bragg, fearing for his life, never returned to his own mine. A few days later, Bronco Charley was sleeping off a drunk in a clapboard lean-to shack when someone snuck up on the cabin, stuck a shotgun through a hole in the wall and just about blew Riley’s head clean off.  Most of the gold and silver was gone from the cache, but there was a rich vein of quartz that Mrs. Briggs made a comfortable profit from.

ANNIE’S GOLD, PART II — Just for the record, my good pal Clint McKinney and his dad rediscovered the Lost Padre in 1968, working for an elderly Annie Briggs. When they showed her the entrance, she fired them on the spot, then blew the place to smithereens.

 

 

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More gold history in California.

http://altcoinbeacon.com/2020/11/18/discover-the-impressive-history-of-the-american-gold-rush/ 

 

I just looked at the end of this article again and it has some info about Bitcoin.  Please ignore it or maybe I should just delete the link?

We'll let Steve decide.

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There are some 'sources' along the East Fork and up higher but I understand now they are enforcing the Monument status and giving out tickets to panners.  I don't know what they do to someone who has a metal detector.

Then there is that 'frog thing' in Piru Creek.  I also understand there is a 'Friends of San Francisquito Canyon' group but I knew someone that got away from the bullets and found a few nuggets on a red hill up there.  I didn't.

 

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