Home Care In Coloma, CA

COLOMA, Calif.— Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park (SHP) in Coloma is pleased to announce the return of Coloma Gold Rush Live! The public is invited to experience California’s rich Gold Rush history at this live event on Friday and Saturday, October 13-14, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday, October 15 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. During this 3-day event, park staff and volunteers transform the park into an 1850s tent town where visitors can get a taste of what life was like in Coloma in 1850.

Some of the event activities include:

Coloma Gold Rush Live! is made possible thanks to a partnership with the Gold Discovery Park Association. Admission to the event is $15 per vehicle, which includes parking. For more information call (530) 622-3470 or visit parks.ca.gov/MarshallGold. Please note: This is a dog-free event except for service dogs.

Marshall Gold Discovery SHP is located in Coloma, California, on Highway 49, eight miles north of Placerville and 18 miles south of Auburn, only one hour from Sacramento.

In 1848, Marshall found shining flecks of gold in the tailrace of the sawmill he was building in partnership with John Sutter. The discovery in present-day Coloma sparked California’s famous gold rush and led to the greatest voluntary mass migration of people in the Western Hemisphere.

The town of Coloma's name is derived from a Native American word, Cullumah, meaning “beautiful valley.” California Native Americans were the majority labor force initially involved in gold mining. Some of the first people traveling from abroad to reach the gold fields around Coloma were experienced miners from Sonora, Mexico, and South America. Those traveling from even further distances to reach the gold fields included people from Australia, Asia, and across Europe. Coloma developed into a supply hub for the region's gold mining operations for several decades and managed to survive the boom and bust of most other townsites. Generations of settlers, including German, Swiss, Italian, Chinese, and African American families, made long-lasting contributions to the town's continued prosperity with their businesses and agricultural enterprises. All these efforts helped keep Coloma alive long after miners had moved on to other opportunities.

State Parks continues to expand its interpretation of the consequential changes to California from the historic gold discovery here at Marshall Gold Discovery SHP. Today’s efforts involve engaging in formal government-to-government tribal consultations, conducting archival research, and meeting with families whose history is connected to the Coloma Valley. Learn more at parks.ca.gov/MarshallGold.

Subscribe to California State Parks News via e-mail at [email protected]

California State Parks provides for the health, inspiration and education of the people of California by helping to preserve the state’s extraordinary biological diversity, protecting its most valued natural and cultural resources, and creating opportunities for high quality outdoor recreation.

Following their formal discharge from the military, more than 100 members of the Mormon Battalion traveled north to California’s Sacramento Valley, where John Sutter and James Marshall needed skilled laborers to assist in building mills in the region.

In the fall of 1847, six Mormon Battalion members — Henry Bigler, William Johnston, Azariah Smith, James Brown, Alexander Stevens and William Barger — came with Marshall to help build a mill near the American River and present-day Coloma, California. The men finished building a cabin there on Jan. 23, 1848.

The very next day, Jan. 24, the journals of Bigler and Smith document how Marshall found gold in the water. The discovery initiated the famous California Gold Rush and changed American history.

On Nov. 4, 2023 — 175 years later — a newly built replica of the “Mormon Workers Cabin” was dedicated by Elder Mark A. Bragg, a General Authority Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, at Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park in Coloma, California, acknowledging the role of the Mormon Battalion in that historic event.

“I bless those who visit with special insights into the history and meaning of this great site,” Elder Bragg said in the dedicatory prayer. “I dedicate it as a place of faith, a place of prayer, a place of learning, and a place of peace and contemplation. ... May this sacred area be revered and respected.”

He continued: “We dedicate this beautiful Mormon Cabin to the state of California for visitors and friends from all over the world who will come and have renewed feeling in their hearts of the great blessing of pioneers, and for those who were willing to blaze the trail and give to us what we have today.”

Elder Bragg, a fifth-generation Californian, currently serves as the Church’s North America West Area president.

The dedication of the replica cabin also involved firing a black powder cannon to officially cut the red ribbon. A parade, a band, booths and family activities also highlighted the fifth annual California Pioneer History Day, according to a news release.

Planning and construction of the cabin took 12 years, $100,000 in private donations and labor by members of the California Pioneer Heritage Association. Cabin builders included descendants of the Ship Brooklyn and Mormon Battalion.

Following the dedication, the cabin was transferred by deed over to officials with California State Parks and Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park.

California Living History missionaries, who are also Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park docents, will maintain the cabin and provide tours.

The original cabin is long gone, but this new cabin that stands near the location of the original will tell the story to future generations, said Dennis Holland, president of the California Pioneer Heritage Foundation and former director of California Historic Sites and California Living History Mission.

“Many groups and individuals were instrumental in the settling and building up of California, but their stories are rarely told,” Holland said. “We did as much research as we could on this cabin. We think it is built as accurate as possible. We are enthusiastic about having completed it. We think it will be one of the major attractions of the park.”

Elder Bragg thanked all those who made the new cabin possible. He said the cabin and historic events reminded him of a fond memory from his youth. While visiting the historic park on a fourth-grade field trip, he felt something “special.”

“It was here that I felt a connection to my roots in California,” the Church leader said. “It gave me a greater sense of belonging. So for me, this is a sacred place.”

U.S. Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA), who attended the event, said, “Because of what they did here, this Mormon Battalion contributed greatly to the future of California, The Church [of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints] and to the prosperity of those who followed.”

Tom Lackey, a Latter-day Saint who serves in the 34th Assembly District of the California State Legislature, said the cabin will help preserve pioneer spirit and character.

“This is a great example of shaping the future in a way that will address values, hard work and principles that actually feed success,” he said.

From those early members who arrived with the Ship Brooklyn and the Mormon Battalion, California is now home to nearly 735,000 Latter-day Saints comprising almost 1,190 congregations and 12 houses of the Lord, second most in the U.S. behind Utah.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. —

The recent heavy rains in the Sacramento Valley created flooding in many of the streams and rivers. It also pushed gold from the mountains down into the valley, leading to a bit of a gold rush.

Nestled along the south fork of the American River is a place where the name speaks for itself. Marshall Gold Discovery State Park in Coloma is a spot rich in history. The first nugget was discovered there in 1848. More than 150 years later, that fever is still being felt.

Ed Allen is the park's historian. He said he's "always looking" for gold.

At 75 years old, he’s still giving tours to those who want to learn more about the gold rush. He’s amassed a wealth of knowledge when it comes to that precious metal so many continue to try and unearth.

“We just had a flood here last month and that brought down gold," Allen said, sitting next to the American River. “People are still looking for gold. We've only found 10-15% of the gold in California."

At Wood's Creek in Jamestown, the hunt is on for that other 85%.

"This is the good stuff, and the best stuff will be in this box at the end of the day," Nick “Nugget” Prebalick said.

Recommended

His family is leasing a 500-yard claim along the creek where they can search for gold.

"I've found quite a few nuggets,” Prebalick said.

| More Like This | Where you can go gold panning in NorCal

"It's pretty easy to get hooked,” Prebalick said. “This is like the best office ever."

The family is using the same equipment used centuries ago. The only difference now is that metal pans have been replaced by plastic.

The Prebalicks aren't just looking for pay dirt. They spend days running their business, California Gold Panning, which teaches people like 24-year-old Ashley Hardy how to pan.

"It's kind of a cool experience to do that they were doing back then," Hardy said. "I see a good 10 pieces in there right now."

There is a huge nugget of a difference between when the 49ers first got on the scene and now. The price of gold in 1850 was $20 an ounce. Nowadays one ounce is worth a little more than $1,900.

"After you've been digging all day, you fill up 10-20 buckets and then it all comes down to that pan to see what's in there," Prebalick said.

State law doesn't allow miners to use big machinery, so fate is left up to good old-fashioned elbow grease.

"The more earth you move the more gold you'll probably get,” employee James Holman said. “If you don't move any earth, you don't get any gold."

A successful day for Holman and the Prebalicks is a pennyweight of gold or 1.5 grams worth about $80.

"They didn't get all the gold and we are still on it,” Holman added.

Most of that 85% left is deep under the earth's surface. Allen said it is too expensive to be dug up, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t gold out there. Several years ago, a miner found a six-pound nugget in Butte County.

| More Like This | Explore Outdoors: Gold rush fever linked to whitewater thrills

A river whose twists and turns have earned names like “Troublemaker,” “Satan’s Cesspool” and “Dead Man’s Drop” warrants respect — even when years of drought have tamed its rushing waters. This, of course, is not such a year.

A winter that drenched the Golden State with torrential rains and blanketed its mountains with massive, now-melting snow has swelled California’s rivers like the American to levels not seen for years, even generations.

That’s making for an epic, adrenalin-fueled season for whitewater thrill-seekers. Andres Moreno, whose 8th-grade class at Golden Valley Charter School near Folsom took a trip last week down the South Fork of the American River with American Whitewater Expeditions, had been rafting before, but that was nothing like it is now.

“I thought I would get wet — but, like, not that wet!” Moreno, 14, said afterward. “I didn’t expect it to be so many, like, big waves.”

But the powerful rushing waters are raising anxiety among sheriffs departments and public safety officials around the state, who fear for the safety of those tempted by the warming weather to venture into the deceptively dangerous river waters on their own. In several California counties — though generally not where most whitewater trips run — authorities have closed rivers to recreation within their boundaries until further notice.

The Placer County Sheriff issued a warning April 28 for people to avoid rivers in the county, which stretches from the Gold Country to Lake Tahoe. The next day, the sheriff’s office said a group visiting the American River in Auburn reported one of their friends on the outing had been swept away. The man remains missing.

“Please let this incident serve as an example of why we are warning the public to stay out of the river,” the Placer County Sheriff’s Office said last week.

The Merced County Sheriff on April 13 closed the Merced River and the San Joaquin River for recreational use until further notice.

“I know that the weather’s warming up, we all want to get wet because that’s our favorite thing to do, but do it in a swimming pool,” Merced Sheriff Vern Warnke said in a public safety Facebook video. “Stay out of the rivers, please. It’s fast, dangerous, and ice cold.”

Merced Sheriff’s Deputy Alexandra Britton said so far, they haven’t had to cite any violators or rescue anyone.

“It’s mostly a concern with people going in on their own and not having the experience and us having to go in and rescue them, to prevent anyone drowning or getting hurt, or our swift-water team getting hurt rescuing someone,” Britton said.

The warnings are chiefly aimed at those who might take a dip, swim or float downstream on an inner tube on their own — not at organized whitewater trips with professional guides. But the notices have caused some tension. Zephyr Whitewater Expeditions, which offers guided rafting tours down the Merced River as it flows out of Yosemite National Park in Mariposa County, took issue with the closure in neighboring Merced County.

“The rivers are going to be extraordinarily high, the water’s fast and cold, and recreational swimming is going to be dangerous,” said Adam Ferguson, Zephyr’s operations manager. “That being said, the area we’re rafting on is not closed, and going rafting with professional whitewater outfitters and equipment is very fun. It’s not only legal, but this is a great year for it.”

Ferguson said Zephyr is taking more precautions than usual, screening rafters, raising its minimum age, requiring participants to take a swimming test and advising the inexperienced to consider trips later in the summer when water flows calm down.

The Tulare County sheriff closed the Kings and St. John’s rivers to recreation indefinitely in late March, and the Fresno County sheriff closed the San Joaquin River below the Millerton Dam and the Kings River below the Pine Flat dam.

“Right now, the San Joaquin has 9,200 cubic feet per second flowing into it, the Kings is at 13,000,” said Fresno County Sheriff Information Officer Tony Botti. “Anything over 5,000 makes the situation more dangerous than usual. As you can see, we are more than double, and it is expected to increase even more as we approach summer. The water is also about 52 degrees.”

Delton Johnson, executive director of Healing Waters, which provides whitewater rafting on the American River, and sea kayaking and camping trips for people with chronic illnesses, said he fears there will be more drownings this year as the weather heats up and untrained people head into the water on their own.

“Everyone who’s not a skilled boater wants to get on the water, and it’s dangerous,” Johnson said. “I’m expecting, unfortunately, a lot of deaths.”

American Whitewater Expeditions in Coloma runs rafting trips along the American River’s South and Middle forks, where flows are regulated by upstream dams, and the free-flowing North Fork, which is considered more challenging.

Even on the popular, dam-controlled South Fork, water flows are much higher this year, American Whitewater Expeditions owner Arnie Chandola said. During recent drought years, the stretch they raft would see water flows of about 1,500 cubic feet per second for a few hours a day. Now, it’s running 4,000 cubic feet per second all day and night.

“People who’ve rafted the South Fork for the last couple of years will see a definite difference,” Chandola said. “The waves are bigger, there’s more splashing, more fun.”

Chandola’s company uses larger rafts with stern frames that allow the guide to control the vessel with a pair of oars while the guests hang on, and this year they are using additional guides paddling alongside in kayaks to pull to safety any rider who tumbles out of the raft.

Amanda Parker, the Golden Valley Charter School teacher who brought her 8th-grade class on last week’s trip, said “there was a little bit of pushback from parents.” But she assured them that expert guide would make safety a priority for the kids, who took turns in the splashiest seats up front and laughed their way downstream as they tumbled to the boat floor.

“They love the challenge,” Parker said, “and it shows in their smiles leaving the freezing cold water.”

It was 14-year-old Liam Holman’s first whitewater trip. He said he was “pretty nervous” getting on the raft, and spent much of the trip thinking to himself “don’t fall off.” But afterward, he was all for it.

“I’d do it again,” he declared. “It was really fun.”

Years of drought have taken such a toll on California’s fall run of Chinook salmon that, for the first time in 14 years, fishery managers are canceling next year’s fishing season off the state’s coast to help the population recover.

Sign up for the Climate Coach newsletter and get advice for life on our changing planet, in your inbox every Tuesday and Thursday.

The Pacific Fishery Management Council, a quasi-federal body that oversees West Coast fisheries, finalized a decision Thursday to recommend closing the salmon season until next spring. NOAA Fisheries, a federal agency, is expected to implement the closure. Salmon fishing off the coast of much of Oregon also will be limited.

The canceled salmon season comes as recreational anglers, professional fishers and biologists have watched populations of the largest species of Pacific salmon plummet off the coast of California. Before the recent winter storms, drought and heat waves drained and warmed the state’s rivers and reservoirs, hampering the ability of salmon to spawn and reach the ocean safely. Competition among farmers, urban residents and wildlife managers over dwindling water resources have only made matters worse.

Fewer than 170,000 adult fall Chinook salmon are expected to try to return to the Sacramento River this year, one of the lowest estimates ever from state and federal scientists. And there are only about 104,000 destined to try to go back to the Klamath River, the second lowest forecast since such assessments began in 1997.

The two stocks are “the backbone of those ocean fisheries,” said Robin Ehlke, a salmon staff officer for the council. The last time managers were compelled to cancel the region’s salmon season was in 2008 and 2009.

Like other salmon, the Chinook, or king salmon, hatches in streams, heads to the ocean to feed and returns inland to its birthplace to spawn. After breeding, the adults die, new salmon hatch and the cycle starts anew. The fish relies on cool, high-flow rivers to make that mighty migration. Drought makes rivers run warmer and slower, rendering them less hospitable for Chinook.

Salmon travel deep into the Pacific. As it warms, many ‘don’t come back.’

“Salmon flourish when we have very wet conditions,” said Steve Lindley, fisheries ecology division director at the NOAA Fisheries’ Southwest Fisheries Science Center. “Cool temperatures are good for the eggs. They survive better. And when the juveniles then migrate to the ocean, if there are high flows, they survive much, much better.”

“None of those things were happening very often in the last decade,” he added.

The closure hits a $1.4 billion fishing industry that supports 23,000 jobs in California, according to the Golden State Salmon Association. The decision curtails both commercial and recreational salmon fishing off California. Despite the economic hit, many who rely on fishing salmon for a living acknowledge the need to cancel the fishing season.

“It’s a really painful conclusion to reach, but for a number of reasons, it’s probably the right decision,” said Sarah Bates, a salmon captain out of San Francisco.

After heavy rain pummeled California this year, the state has more water than it knows what to do with. While the flooding is hard on the state’s human residents, salmon soon stand to gain from the fuller rivers.

“This should be good for the salmon,” Lindley said. “We should see benefits from this in a few years.”

Understanding our climate: Global warming is a real phenomenon, and weather disasters are undeniably linked to it. As temperatures rise, heat waves are more often sweeping the globe — and parts of the world are becoming too hot to survive.

What can be done? The Post is tracking a variety of climate solutions, as well as the Biden administration’s actions on environmental issues. It can feel overwhelming facing the impacts of climate change, but there are ways to cope with climate anxiety.

Inventive solutions: Some people have built off-the-grid homes from trash to stand up to a changing climate. As seas rise, others are exploring how to harness marine energy.

What about your role in climate change? Our climate coach Michael J. Coren is answering questions about environmental choices in our everyday lives. Submit yours here. You can also sign up for our Climate Coach newsletter.