Rare Historic & Large 3.8 g California Coloma Gold Nugget "Crushed Face!"

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The American GOLD RUSH (Own Part of the US GOLD History) California goldfields in the Sierra Nevada and northern CaliforniaThe Gold Rush started at Sutter's Mill , near Coloma , California. On January 24, 1848 James W. Marshall , a foreman working for Sacramento pioneer John Sutter , found pieces of shiny metal in the tailrace of a lumber mill Marshall was building for Sutter, along the American River . [ Marshall quietly brought what he found to Sutter, and the two of them privately tested the findings. The tests showed Marshall's particles to be gold. Sutter was dismayed by this, and wanted to keep the news quiet because he feared what would happen to his plans for an agricultural empire if there were a mass search for gold. However, rumors soon started to spread and were confirmed in March 1848 by San Francisco newspaper publisher and merchant Samuel Brannan . The most famous quote of the California Gold Rush was by Brannan; after he had hurriedly set up a store to sell gold prospecting supplies, [ 6 ] Brannan strode through the streets of San Francisco, holding aloft a vial of gold, shouting "Gold! Gold! Gold from the American River!" With the news of gold, Families trying their luck at agriculture in California decided to go for the gold, becoming California's first pioneer miners.At the time gold was discovered, California was part of Alta California, which was ceded to the U.S. after the end of the Mexican-American War with the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo on February 2, 1848.On August 19, 1848, the New York Herald was the first major newspaper on the East Coast to report that there was a gold rush in California; on December 5, President James Polk confirmed the discovery of gold in an address to Congress . Thus , waves of immigrants from around the world, later called the "forty-niners," invaded the Gold Country of California or "Mother Lode." As Sutter had feared, he was ruined; his workers left in search of gold, and squatters took over his land and stole his crops and cattle. The story of the Gold Rush begins.San Francisco, California had been a tiny town before the GOLD rush began. When residents learned about the discovery, it at first became a ghost town of abandoned ships and businesses whose owners joined the Gold Rush, but then boomed as merchants and new people arrived. The population of San Francisco exploded from perhaps 1,000 in 1848 to 25,000 full-time residents by 1850. As with many boomtowns, the sudden influx of people strained the infrastructure of San Francisco and other towns near the goldfields.People lived in tents, wood shanties, or deck cabins. Wherever gold was discovered, hundreds of miners would collaborate to put up a camp and stake their claims. With names like Rough and Ready, Jackass Gulch, and Hangtown, each camp often had its own saloon and gambling house.Routes to California in 1849In what has been referred to as the Pioneer Gold Rush, there was no easy way to get to California; forty-niners faced hardship and often death on the way. Firstly, most Argonauts , as they were also known, traveled by sea. From the East Coast, a sailing voyage around the tip of South America would take five to eight months, & cover some 18,000 nautical miles (33,000 km ilo meters). An alternative was to sail to the Atlantic side of the Isthmus of Panama , to take canoes and mules for a week through the jungle , and then on the Pacific side, to wait for a ship sailing for San Francisco.There was also a route across Mexico starting at Veracruz . Many gold-seekers took the overland route across the continental United States, particularly along the California Trail . [ 18 ] Each of these routes had its own deadly hazards, from shipwreck to typhoid fever and cholera .To meet the demands of the arrivals, ships bearing goods from around the world - porcelain and silk from China , ale from Scotland - poured into San Francisco as well. Upon reaching San Francisco, ship captains found that their crews deserted and went to the gold fields. The wharves and docks of San Francisco became a forest of masts, as hundreds of ships were abandoned. Enterprising San Franciscans turned the abandoned ships into warehouses, stores, taverns, hotels, and one into a jail. Many of these ships were later destroyed and used for landfill to create more buildable land in the boomtown.Merchant ships fill San Francisco harbor in 1850 or 1851Within a few years, there was an important but lesser-known surge of prospectors into far Northern California , specifically into present-day Siskiyou , Shasta and Trinity Counties . Discovery of gold nuggets at the site of present-day Yreka in 1851 brought thousands of gold-seekers up the Siskiyou Trail & throughout California's northern counties. Settlements of the Gold Rush era, such as Portuguese Flat on the Sacramento River , sprang into existence and then faded. The Gold Rush town of Weaverville on the Trinity River today retains the oldest continuously used Taoist temple in California, a legacy of Chinese miners who came. While there are not many Gold Rush era ghost towns still in existence, the well-preserved remains of the once-bustling town of Shasta is a California State Historic Park in Northern California.Gold was also discovered in Southern California but on a much smaller scale. The first discovery of gold, at Rancho San Francisco in the mountains north of present-day Los Angeles , had been in 1842, six years before Marshall's discovery, while California was still part of Mexico . [ However, these first deposits, and later discoveries in Southern California mountains, attracted little notice and were of limited consequence economically.Attack by Native Americans on miners' settlementBy 1850, most of the easily accessible gold had been collected, and attention turned to extracting gold from more difficult locations. Faced with gold increasingly difficult to retrieve, Americans began to drive out foreigners to get at the most accessible gold that remained. The new California State Legislature passed a foreign miners tax of twenty dollars per month, and American prospectors began organized attacks on foreign miners, particularly Latin Americans and Chinese .In addition, the huge numbers of newcomers were driving Native Americans out of their traditional hunting, fishing and food-gathering areas. To protect their homes and livelihood, some Native Americans responded by attacking the miners. This provoked counter-attacks on native villages. The Native Americans, out-gunned, were often slaughtered. [ 28 ] Those who escaped massacres were many times unable to survive without access to their food-gathering areas, and they starved to death. Novelist and poet Joaquin Miller vividly captured one such attack in his semi-autobiographical work, Life Amongst the Modocs .GOLD GOLD GOLD GOLD THE AMERICAN DREAM Panning for gold on the Mokelumne RiverThe first people to rush to the gold fields, beginning in the spring of 1848, were the residents of California themselves--primarily agriculturally oriented Americans and Europeans living in Northern California , along with Native Americans and some Californios ( Spanish -speaking Californians). These first miners tended to be families in which everyone helped in the effort. Women and children of all ethnicities were often found panning next to the men. Some enterprising families set up boarding houses to accommodate the influx of men; in such cases, the women often brought in steady income while their husbands searched for gold.Word of the Gold Rush spread slowly at first. The earliest gold-seekers to arrive in California during 1848 were people who lived near California, or people who heard the news from ships on the fastest sailing routes from California. The first large group of Americans to arrive were several thousand Oregonians who came down the Siskiyou Trail . Next came immigrants from The Sandwich Islands , by ship, and several thousand Latin Americans, including people from Mexico , from Peru and from as far away as Australia and Chile , both by ship and overland. By the end of 1848, some 6,000 Argonauts had come to California.Only a small number (probably fewer than 500) traveled overland from the United States that year. Some of these "forty-eighters," as these very earliest gold-seekers were also sometimes called, were able to collect large amounts of easily accessible gold--in some cases, thousands of dollars worth each day. Even ordinary prospectors averaged daily gold finds worth ten to fifteen times the daily wage of a laborer on the East Coast. A person could work for six months in the goldfields and find the equivalent of six years' wages back home. Some hoped to get rich quick and return home, and others wished to start businesses in California.It is estimated that approximately 90,000 people arrived in California in 1849--about half by land and half by sea. Of these NUMBERS, perhaps 50,000 to 60,000 were Americans, and the rest were from other countries. Around 1855, it is estimated at least 300,000 gold-seekers, merchants, and other immigrants had arrived in California from around the world. The largest group continued to be Americans, but there were tens of thousands each of Mexicans, Chinese, Britons, and Australians plus French, and Latin Americans, together with many smaller groups of miners, such as Filipinos , Basques and Turks . People from small villages in the hills near Genova, Italy were among the first to settle permanently in the Sierra foothills; they brought with them traditional agricultural skills, developed to survive cold winters. A modest number of miners of African ancestry (probably less than 4,000) had come from the Southern States , the Caribbean plus Brazil .A notable number of immigrants were from China. Several hundred Chinese arrived in California in 1849 &1850 plus in 1852 more than 20,000 landed in San Francisco, CA. Their distinctive Chinese dress and appearance was highly recognizable in the gold fields, and created a degree of animosity towards the Chinese.There were also many women in the Gold Rush . They held various roles including prostitutes , single entrepreneurs , married women, poor and wealthy women. They also were of various ethnicities including Anglo-American, Hispanic , Native , European, Chinese . The reasons they came varied: some came with their husbands, refusing to be left behind to fend for themselves, some came because their husbands sent for them, and others came (singles and widows) for the adventure and economic opportunities. On the trail many people died from accidents, cholera , fever, and myriad other causes, and many women became widows before even setting eyes on California. While in California, women were widows quite frequently due to mining accidents , disease, or mining disputes of their husbands. Life in the gold fields offered opportunities for women to break from their traditional work.* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *THIS AUCTION IS FOR (ONE) RARE, HISTORICAL, NICE and LARGE UNIQUE TOTAL 3.8 g California GOLD Nugget"The Crushed Face": A crushed face is imprinted on the Gold Nugget....WOW Factor(SERIOUS COLLECTOR's Item: Own Part of the US GOLD History)(THIS IS NOT SMALL TINY GOLD FLAKE(s) or TINY NUGGET(s) or Foreign Gold sold in Ebay)Up for sale is <<>> Rare TOTAL 3.8 gram California Gold Nugget. Auction Starts only at $399.99 with " No Reserve"....for HOT SALE Buy It Now. This is a Unique Shinny Gold Nuggets and ONE of a kind and have an unique Mother Nature shape. There are very few Historic Coloma Gold Nuggets left. Most of the Coloma Gold Nuggets were turned into Gold bullion and US Gold Coins in the 19th Century. You own part of this unique rare US Gold History. Gold Nugget is positively tested as real GOLD Nugget by US Dealers.Estimated "unique collector's value" around $525 range or more as Serious Rich COLLECTOR's Item.Please judge the condition of item yourself, I've tried to take the best photo possible and have described the item(s) to the best of my knowledge and ability. You, as the bidder, have the final responsibility to make up your mind about the described item and its quality plus value. Ask any questions prior bidding. By bidding, you agree to the terms and conditions set forth in this listing.Shipping is $10.99 within the USA. $70.00 for Fed Express Internationally. I have ONLY THIS 3.8 gram California Nugget. The value of this Extremely Rare and NICE California 3.8 g Gold Nugget will continue to go up in the coming months and years. This GOLD NUGGET is NOT ONLY GREAT GIFT but also SERIOUS Collectors' ITEM. OWN By of the US GOLD History. You are responsible for your own sales tax.PLEASE E-mail ME or call me at 262-339-8518 WITH ANY QUESTIONS!Insurance is highly encouraged at $15.Note: If you are an international Buyer, please contact me first. Additional International shipping from $7 to $15 may apply for this auction!In hand and ready to ship! All Sales are FINAL for this High Value Item.Type: US California Coloma Gold NuggetQuantity: ONEDimension: Please see PicturesWeight: Total 3.8 gVisit Gold Nugget Store read more

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