James Marshall wasn’t looking for gold back in January 1848. But his unexpected discovery at Sutter’s Mill east of Sacramento changed California and the nation forever. And while most of the action in the Gold Rush took place from Mariposa north to El Dorado County, there was also lots of activity closer to our region. Today on KVPR’s Central Valley Roots, we explore Gold Rush sites, closer to home.
Just south of Mariposa, Mormon Bar was one of the earliest camps, dating from 1849. Members of the Mormon Battalion produced gold there for a short time, followed by a wave of Chinese-American prospectors. The Chowchilla River and Fresno River also drew prospectors, as well as settlements like Hildreth and Grub Gulch.
Then there was Coarse Gold Gulch in the hills of today’s Madera County. In 1850, as many as 10,000 called this settlement home. Eventually the name was shortened to Corasegold, which still exists today. To the southeast, there were gold mining camps like Fine Gold and Temperance Flat, near today’s Millerton Lake. The town of Millerton was also home to Gold Rush prospectors. While the town is now under the waters of Millerton Lake, when Friant Dam was built, the U.S. Government recovered around $200,000 worth of gold from the San Joaquin River.
Further south, gold deposits were more sparse, though mining did take place near Big Dry Creek east of Clovis, and at Trimmer, near today’s Pine Flat Dam on the Kings River. In Tulare County, the community of White River near Porterville also produced a successful gold mining operation. Then there is the Kern River, where gold was discovered in 1851 in Greenhorn Gulch, giving birth to communities like Havilah, Keyesville and Kernville, which we’ll explore in another episode.
