It is not always easy to pinpoint an exact time and place for the origin of a movement that changes the face of the country, but the discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill in Coloma, California is the exact place that started the Gold Rush of 1849. James Marshall was John Sutter’s partner and he was running the mill when he discovered flakes of gold in the Trail run from the mill. This find led to the movement of thousands of people to California territory and accelerated the adoption of California as a state in 1850.
