Smithsonian Press--Legacies--1Treasure House--First gold found at Sutter's Mill, California, 1848

Legacies: Collecting America's History at the Smithsonian, by Steven Lubar and Kathleen M. Kendrick

First gold found at Sutter's Mill, California, 1848 First gold found at Sutter's Mill, California, 1848
On January 24, 1848, James Marshall found this tiny piece of gold in a stream near John Sutter's sawmill in northern California. News of the discovery inspired the great Gold Rush of 1849. Marshall and Sutter gave the gold nugget to a U.S. Army officer in San Francisco, who sent it to Washington, D.C., to the National Institute, a predecessor of the Smithsonian Institution. When the institute's charter expired in 1862, its collections were transferred to the Smithsonian.

See also: Intriguing Objects

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