CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, NORTHRIDGE
CALIFORNIA
GOLDEN TREASURE
A graduate project submitted in partial satisfaction of the
requirements for the degree of Masters of Arts in
Secondary Educati.on
by
Mari.lyn Joyce Van Schaack
January, 19.77
The graduate project of Marilyn Joyce Van Schaack is approved:
~·.John
Dr.
a:
Bar~abas
Rayaen ,]
Hughes
Dr.~George)(orbeer,
Committee Chairman
California State University, Northridge
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The following people are acknowledged for their
kind assistance:
Dr. Donald Perrin, for professional guidance and
encouragement;
Mr. Ted Bliss, for his narration;
Mr. Mark Rudd, for technical recording assistance;
Mr. James L. Van Schaack, my husband, without whom
this project could never have been completed;
Mr. Chris Van Schaack, my son, whose hobbies took us
to California Ghost Towns;
Mr. Tony Yarbrough, for assistance in film duplication.
Marilyn Joyce Van Schaack
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Paoe
.A.C KNOWLEDGMENTS
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ABSTRACT
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SCRIPT
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
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ABSTRACT
CALIFORNIA
GOLDEN TREASURE
by
Marilyn Joyce Van Schaack
Masters of Arts in Secondary Education
The objective of California Golden Treasure,
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11
an
audiovisual presentation, is to introduce and give an overview
of early California history.
The time period in the presentation
includes exploration, colonization, revolution and war, Gold Rush
days and development of cities leading to Statehood.
Populations
of the past claiming California include migrating Indians, Spanish,
English, Mexicans (descendants of Indians and Spanish), Europeans,
plus those migrating from all over the world during the Gold Rush
days.
These peoples were the initial citizens of what has become
the State of California.
Secondary students are the intended audience for this
project.
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It is well-known that they are
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media oriented.
the teacher does well to utilize that orientation.
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Hence,
Moreover,
many of them are unaware of the living history residing outside
metropolitan areas.
This project seeks to acquaint them into
the history of California and the opportunities for personal
exploration by seeing the State.
One such trip along Highway 49
provided the writer with much of the material for this project.
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SCRIPT
CALIFORNIA
GOLDEN TREASURE
Introduction
Credits
The name California was oossibly chosen from a
Spanish novel in 1510 about a mythical aueen named Calafia.
She reigned on an island -- inhabited by only black women
with weapons of qold, the only metal on the island,
At this time California was thought to be an
island and the futile Spanish search for this mythical
kinqdom was to continue for many years.
In 1519, Spain sent Hernando Cortez and his army
to Mexico searching for gold.
After the conquest of Mexico,
Cortez and other explorers looked for the mythical Kingdom
of Cibola, or the seven qreat cities of qold, far in the
north.
Discovery of Alta California is credited to
Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo. who, for Spain, entered the San
Dieqo Bay in 1542. This man was the first European to set
foot on California soil, and California was suooosed to
belong to Soain thereafter.
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The noted English explorer, Sir Francis Drake,
claimed California for the Enqlish in 1579.
near San Francisco Bay.
Drake landed
He was impressed by the beauty of
the land and the friendly natives.
Drake named California
Nova Albion or New England and sailed for home.
For one hundred and fifty years California was
forgotten.
Then Spanish officials in Mexico became alarmed
as foreign vessels of the English, French, Dutch and Russians
threatened New Soain's frontiers with activities in the
Pacific.
The Soanish sent an overland party led by Don
Gasoar de Portola.
He laid out a presidio, or fort, in the
north at Monterey.
The presidio was to quard against foreiqn
settlement.
Three more presidios and three oueblos, or
cities, were also built in California.
Colonization had begun.
Father Junioero Serra was also sent to California
to found a series of missions in 1769.
Durinq the next fifty-
four years the Franciscan Fathers established twenty-one
missions along the El Camino Real.
These adobe shrines
were to become the cornerstone of a new world.
Each of the missions had two to three thousand
Indians.
qion.
The Indians were instructed in the Catholic reli-
They were tauqht to farm the land and herd the cattle.
They did the labor of the missions.
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Also settling California were perhaps one hundred
colonists• families of Mexican descent who had been enticed
by land offers in the pueblos by 1799.
There were also less
than thirty-five land grants ceded to private persons in the
entire Spanish period.
For fifty years the pastoral civilization
in Cali-
fornia had remained isolated from trre Old and New Worlds
except for occasional visits of foreign vessels.
In 1812, the Russians founded a colony sixteen
miles north of San Francisco Bay called Fort Ross.
The
Russians built a sturdy stockade, planted orchards, grew
grain, potatoes and otrrer crops while hunting sea otters
off the Californian coast.
Only about one hundred persons
lived at the Fort and traded with the peoole of California,
although formal permission was never given the Russians to settle
in the country.
In 1822, the Republic of Mexico had won her independence from hEr mothEr country, Spain.
The Spanish colo-
nists of California pledged their allegiance to thE Republic
of Mexico.
The Mexican Constitution of 1824 set up a new
federal form of government.
By 1833, the new government of Mexico turned the
mission lands from the Church to private property.
Indians were to receive part of the new lands.
The
Most traded
away or lost trreir land. Many Indians worked on ranches and
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others returned to the mountains and valleys from where they
had come, and by 1846 six hundred private land grants were
sold by the Mexican governors or given to rancheros, the first
people to be called Californians.
Each ranchero had to become
a Mexican citizen and a Catholic.
Mexican citizens were pre-
ferred to foreign settlers.
The vagueness of descriptions of
the land grants would lead to land disputes.
Land problems
were ignored by the Republic of Mexico during her ownership of
California from 1822 to 1848.
The oroblems of the early forties
in Mexico forced the Mexican government to abandon many of its
California presidios.
It was clear another nation would soon
be in control.
Jedediah Strong Smith and his mountain men companions
pushed across the western High Sierras in 1827.
men were in
searc~
These white
of beaver and other fur bearing animals.
They were followed by other Americans moving west,
looking for better climates and farm lands.
Many settled in
Ca 1iforni a.
John A. Sutter 1anded in San Francisco i.n 1839.
He
visited Governor Juan Alvarado, Mexican Governor of California,
to buy rich farm lands. in the Indian wilderness of the Sacramento Valley.
Sutter was given fifty-five thousand acres
where the American and Sacramento Rivers meet, in order to
stop foreign settlers from moving in.
Here, Sutter could
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ship products down the river to the fine harbor in San Francisco.
The valley was on one of the main trails overland from
the east to the west coast.
Sutter founded a fort, olowed and planted his fields,
bought cattle and sheep.
The Indians living nearby worked for
Sutter as needed, in the fields and as soldiers, along with the
white men.
Adobe bricks for walls and buildings were dryinq in
Slowly walls began to rise, two feet thick and eighteen
the sun.
feet high.
Sutter brouqht equipment from the Russian Fort Ross,
as they withdrew when the sea otters were depleted in California
waters.
He purchased lumber, iron tools, a boat and cannons.
By 1841, the fort was completed with cannons in
olace.
Sutter had a main building in the center of the fort
which contained his living quarters.
Along the inner walls
were located a tannery, quarters for soldiers, a gunsmith shoo,
a kitchen, equipment for farming, vaquero quarters and rooms
for overland travelers.
The first emigrants to find their way to Sutter•s
Fort were John C. Fremont, his guide Kit Carson, and his
exolorinq party.
Fremont would chart trails and publicize
routes that attracted more overland travelers to the west.
His role of explorer changed to soldier as Mexico lost her
faltering grasp on California.
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A revolution otherthrew the Mexican qovernment.
Vyinq for power and control were the new Mexican qovernment,
the United States, the Californian and Mexican settlers.
President Polk offered to buy the Califor:nia Territory, but
the new government refused.
A group of revolting Yankees, mostly hunters and
trappers, settled in the Sacramento Valley, seized the
northern most Mexican outoost at Sonoma on June 14, 1846,
proclaiming it the Californian Republic.
Fremont, leader
for the United States would not allow them to fly the stars
and strioes.
The Yankees raised this crudely made emblem
on the flaqoole in the olaza.
The Yankees said, 11 The bear
(strongest animal in California) stands his ground always,
and as long as the stars shine, we stand for the cause. 11
Many years later the famous Bear Flag was adooted
the state emblem.
The Americans at Sonoma had not heard that the
United States was at war with Mexico.
Sutter•s Fort, the
northern capital of Monterey, Verba Buena or San Francisco,
San Jose and San Juan Bautista would all be in the American
hands by August, as Northern Mexican Californians favorably
transferred their allegiance to the United States,
Not a
Shot was fired.
The Southern Californians had closer ties with
Mexico and remained loyal to their home government.
Clashes
7.
occurred with the heaviest casualties in the Battle of San
Pascual Valley (San Diego).
Approximately fifty Americans
were killed at a surprise attack.
The Americans won the
battle in California as the Cahuenqa Capitulations were
signed on January 13, 1847 at Rancho Cahuenga.
by John C. Fremont and Andres Pica.
It was signed
It was a generous docu-
ment.
The war continued in Mexico with battles fought at
Buena Vista, Veracruz and Mexico City.
The war ended in 1848.
The United States thus acquired land from Mexico by war,
treaty, and purchase, paying $25,000,000 to Mexico.
Just ten days before the Treaty of Guadalupe Hildalqo was signed in 1848, a trusted employee of Captain Sutter,
James Marshall, found gold in Coloma.
Sutter and Marshall had signed a contract for the
buildina of a much needed saw mill on the American River at
Coloma, where the lumber was in abundance and water power and
transportation from the river were also available.
It was in the tailrace of the mill that Marshall
found flecks of gold.
He excitedly told his co-workers.
Later, meeting with Sutter, the two men decided to keep the
gold discovery secret until the mineral rights could be
obtained from the Indians.
However, the news quickly leaked
out and Sutter wondered what would become of his
in the
Wilderness~
11
Kin(ldom
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Sam Brannan told the world of the discovery as he
published the news in the San Francisco paper which he owned,
the California Star.
By June, 1848, the news of the discovery of 9old in
California was heard around the world.
This resulted in the
greatest mass migrations in human history.
Men from all over the
world came to California seeking excitement, 9lory, adventure
and wealth.
During the first two months ninety ships with forty
thousand people
came~from
New York, an eight thousand mile trip,
either around the Cape Horn or by land across the Isthmus of
Panama.
It took many months either way.
The harbor of San Fran-
cisco had five hundred ships anchored by July, 1849.
empty as the crews went to
~find
All were
the "Pot of Gold" alonq with
their passengers.
From Missouri it was two thousand long, hard miles
to California.
Fifty thousand immigrants came overland in 1849.
Covered wagons crossed plains, mountains and deserts,
When the
prospectors arrived, some with families, they hardly settled in
their new way of life before staking their claims at the mill
site in Coloma.
The prospectors used crude sluice boxes and oans in
their search for gold.
Nearly ten million dollars was taken
from the American River in 1849.
Within a year, Coloma was built up. Sutter had lost
his fort as no one would work while gold could be picked from
the streams.
Sutter's eldest son, John A. Sutter, Jr., arrived
from Switzerland in 1848.
The elder Sutter transferred his hold-
inqs to his son, who had the downtown Sacramento area surveyed,
subdivided into lots and sold.
Sacramento was soon developed into a busy city as the
miner's supply center and again the river olayed an imoortant
part of California history.
California in 1854.
Sacramento became a capital of
Currently, the embarcadero or waterfront
is beinq reconstructed.
A party of men from a frontier nost in the Sacramento
River area started down the foothills for Sutter's Mill on
May 16, 1848.
The first night out they camoed by a stream
known as Auburn Ravine.
Claude Chana, organizer of the oarty,
tried the gravel for qold and his first nan found three sizeable
nuggets.
This was enough for the four Frenchmen and twenty-
five Indians.
They pitched their tents and started mining
ooerations.
The Auburn strike was one of the richest in the world.
One miner took sixteen thousand dollars from five carloads of
dirt.
Auburn's relic of the past includes the Old Chinese
House, dating back to 1855.
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It was in this area that the worst
fire broke out and most of Auburn was destroyed in one hour and
twenty-five minutes.
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Other sites include the Fire House, Wells
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Fargo and Hollenbeck Bank which were rebuilt.
Here stands
the first permanent post office in California in use since 1851.
By the summer of 1849, gold was discovered in the
area of 11 Deer Creek Dry Diqqins, 1! now known as Nevada City.
Deer Creek was one of the richest mining re9ions in the state.
Over three hundred and seventy-eight million dollars worth
of gold was recovered from this area.
Gold was not Nevada City 1 s only claim to fame.
James Ott, in 1859, in his Assay Office on Main Street (small
building on the right), tested the ore samples that determined
the fabulous Comstock Silver Lode and started the rush to
Virginia City, Nevada.
George Hearst sold interests in the LeCompton Mines
here and joined the stampede to Washoe Territory. where he
made his fortune.
Many fires plagued Nevada City, also.
For that
reason, fire stations became prominent (stations shown on
the left).
This is a typical house of those built in the early
eiqhteen fifties.
This home, with its Victorian architecture
and interior, shows the bedroom and the kitchen.
Columbia, Gem of the Southern Mines. had eighty-seven
million dollars of gold taken from its mines.
It was first
ca 11 ed 11 Hi 1dreth 1 s Diggins , !1 for two prospectors who found
gold in 1850.
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In 1852, there were over one hundred fifty
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Places of business, mostly built of wood, including thirty
saloons.
Then the plague of the mining town, fires that
destroyed everything.
After that, buildings were built
of locally produced red brick, as in this general store.
Again and again fire struck.
The iron doors and window
shutters would become characteristic of old mining towns,
designed to prevent spread of fires.
The Wells Fargo &Company Express office was built
after a fire in 1857.
The company was the center for shipping
freight, passengers and supplies.
The huge gold scales on
exhibit weighed out more than fifty-five million dollars in
miners' gold dust and nuggets in their time.
Before railroads the horse-drawn stage coaches were
loaded with the miners' gold in iron bound strong boxes, then
carried to San Francisco with armed guards.
Holdups were
not uncommon.
The doctor's office and drug stores were all busy
during the boom times.
"Hanqtown ~" now known as Pl acervi 11 e, was, in 1849,
amonq the largest mining camps.
Diggins·,~·
First called "Old Dry
Placerville was situated along the immigrant trail
that led from Carson Pass to Sacramento.
"Floqgins and hanqins"
were a common form of ,justice of the times.
Several hangings
were conducted at this site near the center of town, called
Elstner Hay Yard, from a large oak tree growing where this
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building now stands.
The town became known as
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Hangtown .~~
Telegraph lines tied Placerville with San Francisco
in 1853.
famous~
In 1860, came the famous Pony Express and its
mail couriers.
The Exoress riders braved hostile
weather, terrain and Indians riding in relays from St.
Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento.
The Pony Express lasted
only one and a half years, but it captured the imagination
of the country.
01 d
Pony riders became enduring heroes of the
~lest.
Local
diqgin~s
played out in Placerville, but in
1859, with the Comstock Silver strike, life boomed again.
This time the city became a major freight and stage stoo
for the thousands that migrated to and from Lake Tahoe and
Virginia City, Nevada.
Also, the Overland Stage, which
climbed to 6225 feet to Lake Tahoe, droooed down to Virginia
City.
When the Comstock Silver Lode was discovered in
1859, Virginia City, Nevada, was to become the most incredible
boom town in the far west.
This town was to become a major
supplier of money needed for the construction of San Francisco
and is closelyi.tied to the growth of California.
City boasted of its fine schools and churches.
Virqinia
Its elaborate
homes included that of silver tycoon, John MacKay.
Mark Twain
worked as a reporter for the newsoaper, The Territorial Enterorise.
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The town grew to a population approaching twentyfive thousand, with store buildings lining the Main Street.
Along a side street is the Miner•s Union Hall, the first in
Nevada.
A view of Virginia City from its vast cemetery tells
of Virginia City•s fabulous past.
With the meeting of construction crews of the
Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railways at Promontory Point
in Utah, California•s isolation ended forever.
The driving
of the golden spike marked the beginning of modern times.
Another exciting era in California•s history was
when she became the thirty-first state when the thirty-first
Congress voted her in.
Her state capital was completed in
1874.
California•s state seal and
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Coat of arms .. were
adopted in 1849, comprising of the Goddess of Wisdom, Minerva,
the grizzly bear, the gold miner and ships of exploration and
commerce.
The state flag was adopted in 1911.
It was first
raised at Sonoma on June 14, 1846, by a group of Americans
in revolt aaainst Mexican authority.
California•s state flower was adopted in 1903.
The golden poppy once grew in great profusion throughout
California and the flaming glow it lent to the hills could be
seen from far out at sea.
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Some Indians believed that the gold
the white men dug from the earth was really layer upon layer
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bauer, Helen. California Gold Days. Garden City: Doubleday
& Co., 1954.
Bauer, Helen. California
& Co., 1955.
Garden City: Doubleday
Missio~~.
Bell, Horace. OR The Old West Coast.
&Co.:-Jnc., 1954.
New York:
William Morrow
California Department of Parks &Recreation. Sutter's Fort.
California Office of State Printina, 1969.
California Office of the Governor. 1967 California Inauguration
Official Program Ceremony. California Office of State
Printina, 19S7.
Clark, William B. Gold Districts of California. Bulletin 193,
California Division of Mines &Geology. California
Office of State Printing, 1969.
Driscoll, James D. California Leqislature. Chief Clerk of the
Assembly. California Office of State Printing, 1974.
Fink, Augusta. Time and the Terraced Land.
North Books, 1966.
Jones, Paul and Flora, Dan. Gold Country.
Escaoes Publication, 1973.
Berkeley: HowellSan Francisco:
Great
Leadabrand, Russ; Lowenkopf, Shelly; and Patterson, Bryce. Vester- .
tla'J's California. Miami: E. A. Seen Ann Publishing, Inc. ,
19'75.
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1
Lewis, Oscar. Californi~ Heritaae.
Co. , 1949.
·
New York:
Thomas Y. Crowell
Lewis, Oscar. Sketches of Early California. San Francisco:
Chronicle Books, 1971.
McClure, James D. California Landmarks.
versity Press, 1950.
Stanford: Stanford Uni-
16
Newman, Joseph, ed. 200 Years. ~Jashin9ton, D.C.:
World Report Book Division, 1973.
Pourade, Richard E. Explorers. San Dieqo:
Publishing Comoany, 1960.
U.S. News &
The Union-Tribune
Raphael, Ray. An Everyday Histort of Somewhere.
Alfred A. Knoof, Inc., 974.
New York:
Rieqel, Robert E., and Atherarn, Robert D. America Moves West.
New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1971.
Robinson, W. W. Panorama.
Co., 1953.
Los An9eles:
Title Insurance &Trust
Rolle, Andrew F., and Gaines, John. The Golden State.
Thomas Y. Crowell Co., 1965.
New York:
Rowland, Ann F. ed. 1975 Los Angeles County Almanac: A Guide to
Government. Los Angeles Republican Central Committee,
1975.
Salitore, Evelyn D., ed. California Information Almanac: Past/
Present/Future. Lakewood: California A~manac Co., 1975.