Another day, another amazing journey through the eyes of curious young people! Today we went on a long trek to Coloma, California, the site of the first discovery of gold by James Marshall. Mr. Marshall was going about an ordinary day’s work on January 24, 1848 with some co-workers to check on the workings of John Sutter’s Saw Mill when he noticed something shiny in the water and bent to retrieve it. He said, “Boys, I believe I’ve found a Gold Mine!” This was the beginning of the California Gold Rush. Because of this one fateful moment in history, the state of California was populated and formed. Not only did people from all over America forsake everything in their desire to “Strike it rich”, but word spread quickly all over the world causing a mass migration to the area. This was amazing due to the fact that there were no phones or internet! The news was spread by word-of-mouth. Ironically, both Mr. Marshall and Mr. Sutter died in near poverty!

I almost couldn’t contain my excitement as we walked the very grounds that these two historic men walked so many years ago. We were privileged to watch two blacksmiths show and teach us a small part of their skills. Before our eyes, one of the blacksmiths created an “S” hook out of iron. He placed it in the fire until it was glowing red! He was explaining this procedure and stopped himself because the iron was beginning to cool and then would not be pliable. Thus the term “Strike while the iron is hot” came about from men who were blacksmiths. We learned about the many cultures of people who came in hopes of finding treasure. Unfortunately, many never found riches, but a hard difficult life in the mountains of California.

The ‘icing-on-the-cake’ was watching five brilliant teens struggle to find a minute piece of gold dust in a pan full of rocks, sand, and other semi precious gems such as garnets. They realize how hard the miners must have worked to make a living. Their backs were sore after bending over and swishing around the contents in their pans in hopes of finding a speck of gold at the bottom. The students were informed that back in 1849, gold was worth about $11.00 an ounce. Today, it is worth almost $700.00.

Reading about historic events in books is wonderful. Watching documentaries on the television is exciting. However, nothing can compare to experiencing it first hand!