California Gold Rush | The First Strike | 1
American History Tellers
00:00
Sutter's Gold Mine
In 1847 many of Sutter's Native American laborers died in a measles epidemic. This forced him to find another business venture to keep his expensive estate afloat. He hired James Marshall, a 37 year old carpenter and veteran of the Mexican-American War. Their first task was to dig a water channel to power the mills wheel But their digging led to an unexpected discovery In January 1848 Marshall found several nuggets of gold in the channel. Soon rumors about the discovery of gold began leaking out to nearby towns like the tiny seaport of San Francisco.
Transcript
Play full episode
