The popular history of the California gold rush usually begins with James Marshall's fateful discovery at Sutter's Mill on January 24, 1848. Although Marshall's find may have touched off the proverbial "gold rush," it was certainly not the first discovery of gold in California.

The first documented discovery of gold in California actually occurred six years earlier in the hills about thirty miles northwest of Los Angeles. On March 9, 1842, rancher Francisco Lopez, who had leased land in the area to graze his cattle, stopped for a noontime break in Live Oak Canyon. In his bookA History of California and an Extended History of Los Angeles, author J.M. Guinn relates the events that occurred there:

Lopez, with a companion, was out in search of some stray horses, and about midday they stopped under some trees and tied their horses out to feed, they were resting under...