James W. Marshall Strikes Gold

On Jan. 24, 1848, James W. Marshall (above) found a shiny metal substance at Sutter’s Mill near Coloma, California. Marshall was working as a foreman, building a mill for pioneer John Sutter. Marshall did the honest thing and took the metal he found to Sutter, and the two men tested it, proving it was gold.
Marshall is widely credited with the find that sparked the Gold Rush, but was he really the first to strike gold in the area?