A pea-sized gold nugget was unearthed at Sutter’s Mill in Coloma, California on January 24, 1848. Although the news did spread, Sam Brannan, a San Francisco newspaperman, is credited with starting the actual rush on May 12 when he walked the streets of San Francisco holding up a quinine bottle filled with gold nuggets and shouting, “Gold, gold, gold, from the American River.” Within three days, a third of the city’s 600 men were on their way to Sutter’s Mill. By mid-June, Brannan’s newspaper had to suspend publication because his entire staff had run off to gold country.
