If luck were a critical factor in the discovery of gold that initiated the California Gold Rush, probably the unluckiest man of that period was no other than the original discoverer himself, James Wilson Marshall. Few people know about Marshall's ironically tragic life after he made his great discovery, from which he did not profit; he died with assets barely sufficient to cover his funeral expenses. Marshall's gold discovery more than 150 years ago arguably began the modernization of California.

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The events that set the world in motion to the new El Dorado began almost by accident–John Sutter decided to build a sawmill in partnership with his employee, James Marshall, in 1847. Born on October 8, 1810, in New Jersey, where his great-grandfather had served as a signer of the Declaration of Independence, the young Marshall received an adequate education for that era. He also was taught his father's trade as a carpenter and wheelwright. His early years were marked by conflicts with his stern Baptist father and rejection by two young women, each of whom he had hoped to marry. Marshall never did marry.

Hoping to get on with his life under better circumstances, young James headed west, drifting into the Ohio Valley during the 1830s and for a while settling in Missouri. In 1844, he arrived in Oregon by wagon train. After spending a long, wet winter doing carpentry in Oregon's Willamette Valley, Marshall soon wandered south to California where he worked for Sutter, making tools, furniture, spinning wheels, looms and virtually anything else that could be made from wood. In 1846, the restless Marshall joined the Bear Flag Rebellion and served under John C. Frémont as the Mexican War spread into California. In 1847, having been discharged, he returned to Sutter's employ.

Marshall convinced Sutter that a partnership in a sawmill in the Sierra Nevada foothills would be a profitable venture, and he set out to find a suitable location. On the south fork of the American River, 45 miles northeast of Sutter's Fort, near a Maidu Indian village called Cullumah (Coloma), Marshall began construction. He enlisted the services of local Indians and Mormon veterans of the Mexican War to build the mill, which was nearly complete by late 1847. Each night Marshall directed the river's flow through the millrace to allow erosion to deepen the channel and carry away the debris from the previous day's work.

On January 24, 1848, during his regular morning inspection, he made the discovery that would change the course of California and even American history. He spotted a gleam in the bottom of the ditch, scooped up a handful of gravel, examined it closely and concluded that he had found what appeared to be gold. Before taking samples to Sutter, who had financed the building of the mill, Marshall conducted crude tests to better determine the authenticity of his find by comparing flakes with a $5 gold piece and pounding a nugget on an anvil. He knew that real gold was soft and malleable and would not shatter like fool's gold–iron pyrite or mica. Additional tests at Sutter's Mill convinced the partners that Marshall indeed had found gold. They decided to keep the discovery as secret as possible. Surprisingly, their orders to remain silent generally were followed. For the time being at least, workers at the mill continued to perform their usual tasks, remained reasonably silent and prospected individually on their own time.

Although most Californians who heard of the strike doubted its significance, by May 1848 word had reached San Francisco when a Mormon merchant, Sam Brannan, waved a quinine bottle filled with glittering dust at San Franciscans. 'Gold,' he shouted, 'Gold, gold from the American River!' Within days, half of the city's population had departed, and within weeks, the news had spread as far south as distant, sleepy San Diego.

During 1848, Marshall and Sutter tried in vain to claim ownership of the Coloma property and charge a commission for any gold found by other miners. Only a few of the most naive newcomers paid Marshall any money or respected his self-proclaimed property rights. By the end of 1848, he was forced to sell one third of his timber and mill rights to raise money. He haggled with the eager prospectors so forcefully that they became enraged to the point of finally attacking the millhands and driving Marshall from the site of his discovery. Despite prior appropriation, the greedy miners in their furious rush to get rich quick showed Marshall and Sutter no respect or restraint.

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