In January of 1848 a very important event happened. James Marshall had a work group that was building a saw mill for John Sutter.On January 24,Marshall found a few tiny gold nuggets. Which began the BIGGEST human migration in history, 1/2 a million people came to California during the gold rush.
The first written notice of the discovery of gold was in the March 15th issue of "The Californian" in San Fransisco. General John Bidwell discovered gold in the feather river and Major Pearson B. Reading found gold in the trinity river. That was when the gold rush started.
In 1849, quartz mining began at the Mariposa mine. Gold deposits were often found inside quartz. In 1850, gold-bearing quartz was found at gold hill in grass valley. Thus the great underground mines continued for 100 years. By 1852,California's annual gold production reached an all time high of $81,000,000.
