First California Gold Rush - Placerita Canyon

Placerita Canyon, at the trailhead for the Los Pinetos Trail, was the site of the first California Gold Rush. On March 9, 1842, Francisco Lopez took a nap under an oak tree in Placerita Canyon. When he awoke he pulled some wild onions from the ground and discovered gold flakes clinging to their roots. The site of his discovery is the Oak of the Golden Dream in Placerita Canyon State Park. Lopez had studied mineralogy at the University of Mexico and knew the significance of his discovery. Although it is thought that gold had been discovered in this area thirty years earlier, Lopez’s discovery was the first documented find. Approximately 2000 people came to Rancho San Francisco to mine the gold. One of those individuals was John Sutter who subsequently discovered gold at Sutter’s Mill in 1848. While the discovery of gold in Placerita Canyon primarily attracted prospectors from the Mexican state of Sonora, Sutter’s discovery attracted prospectors from the United States and helped pave the way for the establishment for admission of California as the 31^st state in 1850.