James Marshall, a carpenter from New Jersey, is the man who discovered gold in California and set off the famous gold rush. He worked for John Sutter and partnered with him on a sawmill before stumbling onto the find that changed American history. Marshall's road west took him through the Ohio Valley, Missouri, and Oregon before he landed that carpentry job with Sutter.
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Transcripts
Speaker A:
It's American rewind.
Speaker A:
James Marshall was a young carpenter from New Jersey who didn't get along with his stern father.
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His early life was filled with rejection, including from two young women who he hoped to marry.
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He drifted into the Ohio Valley, settling in Missouri for a while, eventually heading to Oregon by wagon train.
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He put those carpentry skills to work making tools and furniture for John Sutter in California.
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He fought in the Mexican American War and then returned to Sutter, this time as partner in a sawmill along a river.
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Each morning, James would inspect the property, and then, on one fateful January day, he saw something gleaming at the bottom of a ditch.
