On This Day (Dec. 5)

By: Joseph Candelaria

We have all been aquainted with the shimmering, yellow-tinted metal known as gold. From dentures to doorknobs, we encounter it everywhere. As of last year, there is an estimated amount of 50,000 tons of gold in the U.S today. But the question is, how did America's obsession with gold begin? That’s where President James Polk comes into play, as he declared the discovery of gold on this day in 1848. However, the discovery of gold actually happened earlier that year, on January 24, 1848, when James W. Marshall discovered gold at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. That’s when the California Gold Rush began. Then, nearly 300,000 people moved to California from inside and outside the US because of the news. In the early days of the Gold Rush, there were no laws governing the ownership of goldfields, and a system of betting rights was developed. Basically, a ‘If I saw it first, it’s mine.’ mentality prospered. Prospectors recovered gold from streams and riverbeds using simple techniques such as washing, where they would take a metal pan with ridges on the side of it, and scoop up some water and strain it to catch the gold. Eventually, they turned to mining, which caused environmental damage, but better methods of extracting gold were developed later. With the service of steamships, new means of transportation were developed. Tens of billions of dollars worth of gold today was mined during the California Gold rush, and we still see that gold being circulated around today. You might have a piece of gold jewlery that was harvested almost 174 years ago! If your ancestors are from another country, they might’ve moved to the U.S. because of the Gold Rush! However, the only reason that we know about gold in the U.S. is because of President Polk’s declaration on December 5th, 1848; on this day.