It was in 1847 that John Augustus Sutter, a Swiss entrepreneur, became partners with James Marshall. In a pine forest along the American River in northern California, Marshall was busily constructing a sawmill to provide lumber for Sutter's many projects. Inspecting the millrace early Monday morning, January 24th, 1847, Marshall noticed a glint of yellow in the silt washed down from the mountains. A few nuggets. After pounding it, boiling it in lye and baking soda, bathing it in nitric acid, and comparing its weight to silver, they were convinced it was real gold. It took another year for the news to reach the eastern half of the country and, in December of 1848, President James K Polk confirmed it - gold had been discovered in California.