On January 24, 1848, a mere nine days before the treaty ending the war with Mexico would be signed, Marshall discovered gold nuggets among the debris that had collected in the end of the newly modified millrace. His discovery was not only extremely ironic, but also fateful. The vast west from Texas to Oregon was about to be ceded to the United States with the stroke of a pen. In his bookThe World Rushed In, author J.S. Holliday ponders the consequences of Marshall's find:

His discovery on the morning of January 24, 1848, might have been made at some far earlier date by one of the Spanish explorerlooters who had found gold from Aztec to Inca cities and searched the continents for more. Or Mexican soldiers in pursuit of Indians might have uncovered the first nugget and thus have provided Mexico City the means and the will to...