“My eye was caught with the glimpse of something shining in the bottom of the ditch. I reached my hand down and picked it up; it made my heart thump, for I was certain it was gold. Putting one of the pieces on a hard river stone, I took another and commenced hammering. It was soft and didn’t break; it therefore must be gold.”
-James Marshall
January 24, 1848
Gold!
It is December 5, 1848, and the news has spread like brush fire through New York — gold has been found in California, and certain fortune is yours for the taking.
But fortune is at least 3,000 miles away.
Our journey begins in your hometown of Kinderhook, New York, where you work as a clerk for a shipping company.
You have been living with your widowed father since your school days, saving your extra pay to move to New York City.
Today, though, you realize it’s the West Coast that beckons, and that fate has found you flush with cash as the news sweeps through town.
Gold has been discovered in California.