The First Golden Flakes
On January 24, 1848 (which was only a month before the Treaty of Guadeloupe Hidalga was signed) the first few flakes of gold were found by a carpenter from New Jersey. He found it in the American River by Coloma, California. This man's name was James Wilson Marshall and he began the California Gold Rush. When he found the gold he was working on a water powered saw-mill. He told his friends and soon word spread fast. Marshall recalls later to his discovery saying "It made my heart thump, For I was certain it was gold."
The government did not expect for California to grow so fast and it took a while to actually become a state of the US because of the rate it was growing at. There were many debates with south and the north about the Slavery laws in California too. This just slowed down the process even more but luckily the people living in California were keeping themselves in control and not going crazy. Finally in 1850 California becomes the 31st state of the US.