On This Day: Gold Discovered at Sutter''s Mill in California
Jan 24, 2011· On Jan. 24, 1848, James W. Marshall discovered gold in a river near Sutter''s mill, sparking the California Gold Rush. "I Discovered the Gold" Capt. John A. Sutter owned about 48,000 acres in the great Central Valley of California and collaborated with millwright James W. Marshall to build a sawmill in the nearby outpost of presentday Coloma.