Guide to the Bancroft's California Gold Rush Digital Collections

This letter sheet provides John Sutter's account of the discovery, along with a portrait of James Marshall and a view of Sutter's Mill at Coloma.

This letter from John Sutter to his friend Mariano Vallejo provides one of the earliest written confirmations of the discovery of gold at Sutter's saw mill on the American River.

A bound volume, in the form of a scrapbook, created to contain the first nugget of gold found in California in 1848 and documents pertaining to it. Documents include: affidavits of Elizabeth J. Wimmer (1885) and of Peter L. Wimmer (1848); bill of sale for the nugget by Elizabeth Wimmer to W.W. Allen (1848); letters and affidavit of W.W. Allen (1893-1894); correspondence of C.F. Gunther and family, which includes letter from Alphonse Sutter (1915) and from Native Sons of the Golden West (1914); correspondence of Walter C. Wyman, which includes letters from Mrs. H.F. Spencer and Nellie W. McKenzie (1924), grandnieces of Wimmer; copy of an excerpt from Everett D. Graff's letter to Dale Morgan (1956); newspaper clippings concerning Peter L. Wimmer and the nugget. Also includes reviews and exhibit notes. In the middle of the volume a sink-mat was created to house the nugget by cutting the centers out of several pages and gluing them together; transparent plastic sheets were adhered on both sides to form viewing windows for the nugget. The nugget has been removed and is shelved separately; a facsimile of the nugget is on permanent display in The Bancroft Library.

Two months after the finding on the "Wimmer nugget," the first notice of the discovery appeared in The Californian of San Francisco on March 15th.