Me: “Hey Siri! When was gold first discovered in California?”

Siri: “Gold was discovered in California on January 24, 1848.”

Yup. Having been born in the Golden State and raised on its history, that’s the answer I expected. And normally, as with other Siri-ish replies for weather or the nearest gas station, I’d have accepted it and gone on with my day. But recently, I followed some signage on a local road that made me ponder the question more deeply –

Because I’ve now spent some time ‘neath the Oak of the Golden Dream!

It’s not that Siri’s answer is wrong (heaven forbid!). I mean I did learn as a kid about how John Sutter built a fort in the Sacramento Valley and teamed up with James Marshall to kick off a lumber business with the construction of a mill nearby. And it was Marshall who altered California’s destiny on that 1848 day when he discovered gold in the mill’s tailrace (that’s its water channel). I’ve stopped by to see the very spot in Coloma for myself at Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park!

Sadly, I didn’t have time on the day to do justice to the park with its inviting museum, its nods to the Native Americans who called the area home, or to the terrific spread of Gold Rush era buildings calling out to be explored. I was really just gonna zip in, get a picture or two (cuz that’s good investigative journalism!), and zip back out.

But at a cabin right by the replica mill, I noticed a couple wearing 19th Century clothes, escaping the afternoon heat by rocking in chairs in the shade of the porch – and I couldn’t resist moseying over to say “how do”!

The woman kindly rose to greet me and she showed me around the cabin, bringing the place to life with tidbits of info about the region and the times. In the end, I was a bit late for my next gig – but what a pleasure it was to get a sense of Coloma’s past by having a chat with a friendly gal in a bonnet and not just with a bot! 

The outing reminded me of another callback to Gold Rush times that I visited a few years before (and covered in Ghost Towns: The Dreams of the Mother Lode Bit) – Columbia State Historic Park!

While plenty of California mining towns came and went, Columbia remains as a showcase of older days. Having more leisure time on this occasion, it was a treat to stroll its streets with dear friend Suz, duck into old buildings and shops – and even belly up to the town bar for a glass of sarsaparilla and a talk about what we’d seen!

So yeah, when I’ve thought of California’s gold, it’s been that northern part of my state that first comes to mind. (Well, that pair of words makes me think of the great Huell Howser first – then the rest of it.) But my perspective got broadened while I was working in Newhall (a bit north of LA) and passed a Historical Landmark sign for something called “The Oak of the Golden Dream”. It sounded so romantic that as soon as I got the chance, I went to check it out!

I started my little expedition at the Placerita Canyon Natural Area where I very much enjoyed its interpretive center, a network of largely tree-shrouded trails and, on this late-spring day, a soundtrack of beautiful birdsong!

To be honest, I got more exercise than I meant to because – being me – I began my Oaken search by heading off in precisely the opposite direction… 

It turned out to be a happy accident though. Because I got to touch base with nature by hiking the Canyon Trail along the banks of a dry creek bed that burbled to life a bit farther up the way!

Eventually, I located the proper route (that would be the Heritage Trail) and followed it to a quiet spot near a road overpass where the Oak of the Golden Dream claims pride of place!

There are different accounts as to how – or even whether – this particular tree merits its grand title. But a persistent tale is that a man named Francisco Lopez was looking for stray cattle, paused under the Oak for a rest and there had a dream in which he found gold. On waking, he went to dig up some wild onions – and the dream came true when he found bits of gold mingled in their roots! 

It may have been fate. It may be too that, after studying mineralogy in college, Lopez had been systematically scouring the property for gold. Among differing versions of events, there does seem to be consensus that Lopez indeed discovered gold there on March 9, 1842, then petitioned California’s governor for the right to mine it –

Six years before the Marshall discovery.

So why does Siri – not to mention the textbooks of my childhood – seem to dismiss this? And even though it was heralded in an eastern newspaper, why didn’t Lopez’s discovery trigger the mass western migration that the Marshall find did? And come to think of it, am I supposed to believe that among those who’d long lived in California and those who arrived to explore it over the centuries, none of these folks ever found gold? 

To sort through these pressing questions, I’m gonna recommend the delightfully deep dive (in an article and video lecture) undertaken by Alan Pollack: Dissecting the Dream: Fact, Fiction and Placerita’s Golden Oak.

I’ll just share here that a historical distinction which narrows the gold field to Lopez and Marshall is that theirs are both “documented” discoveries where each party formally applied for the right to capitalize on his find. And maybe the Lopez find wasn’t as impactful because, at the time, California was still part of Mexico and not the United States.

And what of Lopez’s tree? Did an oak and a snooze even enter into his discovery? I don’t think we can say.

Whatever the truth may be, I sure can’t say for certain that I’d have followed a sign to “The Oak of the Brief Siesta” or “The Oak of the Dude with a Thing for Onions”. Nope. Being a dreamer, myself – and maybe with the tree’s being so close to Hollywood – I feel like of all the accounts on offer, “The Oak of the Golden Dream” just plays the best!

I suppose this story resonates for me too since a branch of my family wagon-trained it to California from Wisconsin during Gold Rush times, perhaps spurred on by similar golden dreams. It’s neither Shakespeare nor even decent English, but among all the chances and choices that led to my existence, this is true in a way – I am the stuff that was made on such dreams! 

These kin didn’t strike it rich. But I like to think my inheritance was their spirit for not being content just to read or hear about a thing, but to want to get out and see it for themselves. And on one pleasant afternoon, with a gentle breeze stirring up leaves and wafting to me the mingled songs of birds, it was a real gift to pause by the Oak and dream a little dream of my own…

Me: “Hey Siri! When was gold first discovered in California?”

Siri: “Well now – come set a spell and I’ll tell ya ‘bout it!”

That answer wouldn’t bother me at all.

Cheers!