1848 - 1855

James Marshall's discovery at Coloma brought with it the tumultuous Gold Rush as fortune-seekers from around the world came to California.

Anza-Borrego Desert SP (Southern Emigrant Road)

Auburn SRA (gold discovered 1849; first mining company chartered in the state at Boston Bar in 1850; mining companies and towns: Louisiana Bar, Murderer's Bar, New York Bar, Vermont, Buckners Bar, Sailors Bar, Sliger Mine, Hinchy Mine, Bauer Mine, Dukens Mine, French Hill Mine, Vore Mine, Tahmaroo Bar, others)

Benicia Capitol SHP (Fischer-Hanlon House--Gold Rush hotel, Capitol used by legislature from February 4, 1853 to February 25, 1854)

Bidwell Mansion SHP (John Bidwell discovered gold on the Feather River July 4, 1848 and used his earnings to buy Rancho Chico; Treaty G--one of 18 unratified treaties between U.S. government and Native Americans signed at Rancho Chico in 1851)

Calaveras Big Trees SP (while hunting game for the Union Water Company in 1852, Augustus T. Dowd sighted the Big Trees; bark of the "Mother of the Forest" stripped and reassembled for an 1850s exhibit in New York and the Crystal Palace Exhibition in London to show the wonders of California; stump of the "Discovery Tree" used as a dance floor for a 4th of July 1854 cotillion)

Castle Crags SP (gold mining began in 1851; Battle of Castle Crags 1855)

Castle Rock SP (after working the gold fields, Charles Henry "Mountain Charley" McKiernan settled in the Santa Cruz Mountains in 1850 and continued to prospect)

Clear Lake SP (Native Americans provided labor for gold fields, Bloody Island Massacre; Redick McKee, representing the U.S. government meets with headmen of 8 local Native American groups on the south shore of Clear Lake to sign a treaty that was later never ratified)

Columbia SHP (gold discovered March 27, 1850 by the Hildreth party; town of Columbia established; J.A. Jackson established first store in a permanent structure)

Donner Memorial SP (Emigrant Trail used by gold seekers, adventurers, and others)

Durham Ferry SRA (ferry established in 1850 to transport miners and others)

El Rancho Pacheco SP (Pacheco Pass channeled the mass migration of gold seekers traveling between coastal towns and the "diggings")

Empire Mine SHP (George Roberts discovered gold-bearing quartz in 1850; Roberts and others sold claims to consortium who consolidated claims)

Folsom Lake SRA (gold discovered 1848; in the vicinity of Beal's Bar, John Sinclair with 50 Indians were among the first to mine on the North Fork of the American River; Coloma Road; several mining towns established along the banks of the American River: Mormon Island, Rattlesnake Bar, Rattlesnake Flat, Red Bank, Salmon Falls, Smith's Bar, Whiskey Bar, Condemned Bar, Negro Hill; Natoma Water and Mining Co.)

Fort Humboldt SHP (established January 1853, under the command of Capt. Robert C. Buchanan to check the violence between miners and settlers and Native Americans)

Fort Tejon SHP (founded in 1854 to guard the area and control Tejon Pass)

Henry Cowell Redwoods SP (Gold Gulch)

Humboldt Lagoons SP (miners and suppliers traveled enroute to the Trinity and Klamath mines of the 1850s)

Humboldt Redwoods SP (miners traveled through area to and from Trinity gold fields)

Indian Grinding Rock SHP/Chaw'se (gold mined nearby by Stevenson's New York Volunteers Regiment in 1848)

Lake Oroville SRA (Bidwell Bar--gold discovered by John Bidwell July 4, 1848; Beckwourth Trail; hydraulic mining)

Lakes Earl and Talawa (Coast Rangers and Klamath Rangers skirmish with Native Americans in 1855)

Leland Stanford Mansion SHP (Gold Rush merchant Shelton Fogus built the original house; Gold Rush banker D.O. Mills lived here in 1860; Leland Stanford, arriving in California in 1852, made his early wealth selling merchandise to miners in the gold fields)

MacKerricher SP (Mendocino Indian Reservation established in 1855 for Indians dispossessed by gold miners and settlers)

Malakoff Diggins SHP (gold discovered 1851; Derbec Mine; Kallengurger Mine; Last Chance Mine and Mill; hydraulic mining began c.1853; North Bloomfield Gravel Mining Co.; town of North Bloomfield)

Marshall Gold Discovery SHP (gold discovered by James Marshall January 24, 1848 in the tailrace of Sutter's sawmill; Summer 1848, American military governor of California, Col. Richard B. Mason tours the gold fields of Coloma; December, 1848--Sutter's sawmill in production under the new ownership of John Winters and Alden S. Bayley; 1850--town of Coloma surveyed and Main Street laid out)

Millerton Lake SRA (mining in the area in 1850, Rootville founded in 1850, Fort Miller founded May 26, 1851 to check the escalating violence among settlers, miners and Yokut Indians)

Monterey SHP (Brig.-Gen. Bennet Riley arrived in Monterey April 12, 1849 to assume the office of civil governor of California; September 1, 1849--convention delegates assemble in Monterey to write a constitution; the First Brick House constructed; Casa del Oro; California's First Theater, Customs House, Larkin House, Pacific House, First Brick House, Casa del Oro, Sherman-Halleck Adobe)

Old Sacramento SHP ("gateway" to the goldfields, wholesale and retail supply center for the mines; August 17, 1849--first river steamboat in California, the "George Washington," arrives at Sacramento from Benicia; the Eagle Theatre, first theater built in California for that purpose, opens with The Bandit Chief October 18, 1849; City Hotel built in the summer of 1849 using timbers from John Sutter's grist mill; February 27, 1850--City of Sacramento incorporated)

Old Town San Diego SHP (gold-seekers promote the town's development; March 27, 1850 the City of San Diego is incorporated)

Palomar Mountain SP (Nathan Harrison--a slave, came to California in the Gold Rush)

Picacho SRA (1850s placer gold mining)

Pigeon Point Light Station (the clipper ship Carrier Pigeon wrecked May 6, 1853)

Pio Pico SHP (Pío Pico's rancho furnished beef to miners)

Plumas-Eureka SP (Eureka gold quartz vein discovered in 1851--mammoth deposit yielded more than 2 million dollars in 14 year period; Jamison City--tent town in 1853)

Point Lobos SR (1851 Whaler's Cabin; September 22, 1853--first telegraph opened in California, connecting the lighthouse at Point Lobos with San Francisco)

Point Sal SB (placer mining on the beach in the 1850s)

Prairie City SVRA (Prairie City townsite northeast of park--1853 height of prosperity; Natoma Water and Mining Company)

Prairie Creek Redwoods SP (Gold Bluff Beach--gold discovered 1850; Miners Ridge Trail--pack train route for miners)

Railtown 1897 SHP (railroad line traverses earlier Gold Rush mining areas)

Red Rock Canyon SP (possible route of the so-called "Death Valley Forty-Niners")

Samuel P. Taylor SP ('49er Samuel Taylor purchased land with his earnings derived from mining)

San Juan Bautista SHP (supply depot for nearby quicksilver mines; Castro-Breen House; Plaza Hotel)

San Luis Reservoir SRA (ranchers drove cattle over Pacheco Pass to furnish miners with meat)

Shasta SHP (gold discovered at nearby Reading's Bar in 1848; town of Reading Springs, renamed Shasta, established in 1849; Shasta becomes a wholesale and retail center for the region)

Sonoma SHP (Blue Wing Inn famous Gold Rush hostelry; U.S. troops occupied the Sonoma Barracks)

South Yuba River (gold discovered in 1849)

Sutter's Fort SHP (gold found at Sutter's Mill January 24, 1848; James Marshall informs his partner John Sutter about his discovery of gold at the Coloma sawmill; fort became a destination for gold seekers; October 14, 1848--John Sutter transfers his property around the fort to his son John Sutter, Jr.; John Sutter bankrupt by 1852)

Trinidad SB (chief supply point for the Trinity and Klamath mines of the 1850s)

Turlock Lake SRA (miners came to the region to prospect in 1852)

Weaverville Joss House SHP (joss house served the Chinese miners in the region--built in 1874 to replace earlier one that burned)

William B. Ide Adobe SHP (goods for Northern Mines off-loaded from riverboats along the river; William B. Ide made a small fortune in the Northern Mines; the Adobe Ferry)