Adventure California – Gold Rush of 49ers or 42ers?

Here is a little finger wag at the eurocentric California History books.

We, in the United States, are taught that the first California Gold rush was at Sutters Mill in 1849.  Well, that is simply not true at all.  The first California Gold Rush was in 1842 at Placerita Canyon, less than seven years earlier, when California was not yet United States territory.  In fact it was part of an entirely different country, Mexico.  The Sutter’s Mill and Placerita Canyon gold rushes were active less than two years apart, yet Sutters Mill is known recorded “American history” and no North American person outside of Southern California has ever heard of Placerita Canyon because it “Mexican history”, not American.

Timeline:

• California is territory of Spain, then Mexico
• 1842 Gold Rush at Placerita Canyon, California – Mexican Territory
• 1846-1848 Mexican-American War
• 1848 United States paid Mexico $18,250,000 for California
• 1849 Gold Rush at Sutter’s Mill, California – United States Territory

Gold was mined in the Southern California portion of Mexico for eons before it became United States Territory. Mines and legends about of El Dorado