Thomas Larkin

In the spring of 1848, journalist Thomas Larkin was serving in California as a correspondent for theNew York Herald. When Larkin arrived in San Jose on May 26, he found the townspeople rapt with stories of gold. After penning a letter describing the wild state of affairs to the governor of California, Richard B. Mason, Larkin set off for Sacramento to see for himself if the stories were true.

Larkin found the situation in Sacramento to be almost inconceivable. In two letters to U.S. secretary of state James Buchanan, Larkin strained to contain his exuberance as he described the amazing discoveries of the first miners and the resulting social upheaval in surrounding towns as people abandoned their lives in search of gold. These two letters would be among the first reports of the gold discovery to reach the East Coast...