Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, May 17, 2017
- NINE
California Gold Rush was sparked by a failed Oregon farmer
Had James Marshall stayed in Oregon for one more month, he likely never would have left; instead, he headed
south and found gold. And the discovery led more or less straight to his ruin.
Most residents of West-
ern Oregon complain
about the rain — espe-
cially this time of year.
But arguably nobody
has ever had more cause
to complain about the
soggy Willamette Valley
climate than James W.
Marshall.
Marshall was a carpenter
by trade, originally from
New Jersey. Looking
for new opportunities in
the West, he settled on a
land claim in Missouri
in 1844, along the Platte
River — and promptly
contracted malaria.
Seeking a more healthy
climate, he joined a late-
departing wagon train
heading out the Oregon
Trail, and arrived in the
Willamette Valley late
that year.
Of course, when he ar-
rived he was greeted
by the most miserable
weather the Beaver State
can dish out. Taking a
claim, he tried to tough
it out; but by late Spring,
the rain had only gotten
slightly warmer, and he
was feeling sicker than
ever.
Finally, as the month of
June made an unseason-
ably soggy and miser-
able appearance, he de-
cided he’d had enough.
He packed his things and
headed south, along the
Siskiyou Trail, into what
was then the Mexican
territory of Alta Califor-
nia.
A month or so later, he
found himself in Sutter’s
Fort, the first non-Native
settlement in the Califor-
nia Central Valley, near
what today is Sacra-
mento. Sutter’s Fort was
owned by John Sutter, a
German fellow who was
the alcalde (mayor, basi-
cally) of the settlement
under a grant from the
government of Mexico.
An 1840s hand-tinted
engraving of Sutter’s
Fort as it appeared in its
heyday. (Image: F. Glea-
son/ Wikimedia)
Mayor Sutter dreamed
of building an empire
there in the balmy up-
lands of central Califor-
nia, and when Marshall
— who was, remember,
a skilled carpenter — ar-
rived, he was very happy
to see him. Soon the two
of them were in partner-
ship on various projects.
Sutter helped Marshall
buy some land and cat-
tle, and for a little while
it looked like he was
finally on his feet. But
then the Mexican-Amer-
ican war broke out and
Marshall, who seems to
have had some issues
with impulse control,
abandoned his new farm
and joined the Bear Flag
Rebellion under General
John Fremont.
Upon his return some
nine months later, Mar-
shall found all his cattle
gone — stolen, most
likey. Without any live-
stock, he couldn’t make
his farm payments, so he
lost the land.
Then Sutter hired him
to oversee construction
and subsequent opera-
tion of a water-powered
sawmill, to provide the
wood with which Sut-
ter’s dreamed-of inland
empire would be built.
Marshall scouted a like-
ly spot on the American
River, and construction
got under way. Things
went well, but when it
was done Marshall re-
alized the tailrace —
the canal that carried
the water away after it
turned the water wheel
— was too narrow to let
the water properly drive
the saws.
To fix this, he started
coming down to the
mill late at night, open-
ing the sluice gates, and
letting the full impound-
ment of water roar down
through the channel. Out
of fear that a worker
would be swept away
and drowned, he didn’t
do this during the day.
He would then come in
the morning, close the
sluice gates again, and
examine the progress in
the temporarily empty
tailrace bed.
One morning, when he
was doing this, he found
something in the bed that
sparkled. It was a cluster
of large yellow stones.
When he beat on one, it
smashed flat.
Marshall, in a state of
considerable excitement,
showed the discovery to
his construction crew.
He gave them permis-
sion to hunt around for
more gold during the
lunch break. And then he
saddled up and headed
for Sutter’s place, to tell
the boss about it.
ment.
Had Sutter and Mar-
shall cut their losses at
that moment and thrown
themselves into the race,
collecting all the gold
they could get their
hands on as fast as they
could, they would have
wound up rich men —
probably richer than
Sutter had dreamed his
agrarian empire would
make him. But they did
not. Both of them con-
tinued stubbornly trying
to make money the old-
fashioned way, strug-
gling to build Sutter’s
empire with hired labor
while billions of dollars
in gold crunched be-
neath their feet.
Eventually Sutter found
himself plagued with ag-
gressive squatters who
hired lawyers to try to
defeat his land claim,
which was originally
through the Mexican
government. The squat-
ters also filched food
from his fields and stole
his cattle.
“By this sudden discov-
ery of the gold, all my
great plans were de-
stroyed. Had I succeed-
ed for a few years before
the gold was discovered,
I would have been the
richest citizen on the
Pacific shore; but it had
to be different. Instead
of being rich, I am ru-
ined,” he wrote in 1857
in Hutchings’ California
Magazine.
Marshall fared even
worse. The squatters
forced him off his land
and he lacked the re-
sources to fight them.
Like Sutter, he became
a miner only reluctantly
and not very successful-
ly. He tried a vineyard,
which worked well for
a few years but eventu-
ally failed as well. In
the end, he wound up in
a tiny cabin eking out a
living with a subsistence
garden.
Ironically, if he’d stayed
in the Willamette Val-
ley just one more month
and experienced Oregon
in the dry part of spring,
he probably never would
have left – and his great-
grandchildren might still
be farming his land there
today.
(Sources:
Friedman,
Ralph. Tales Out of Or-
egon. Sausalito, CA:
Pars Publishing, 1967;
“James Marshall: Cali-
fornia’s Gold Discov-
erer,” Historynet.com
(Wild West magazine),
6-12-2006
Sutter, when he found
out, was horrified. He
understood what Mar-
shall did not: that with
easy money under foot,
nobody would ever do a
lick of actual work again
until it was all dug up.
And if no workers could
be hired, his dreamed-of
empire would never be
built.
Sutter raced to the mill to
beg everyone who knew
to keep the find a secret,
just for a few months,
until the mill could be
built.
Of course, word got
out. Of course, the labor
market dried up as ev-
ery able-bodied worker
grabbed a gold pan and
hit the hills. Of course,
the mills languished and
Sutter lost his invest-
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A Daguerrotype by R.H. Vance shows what remained, in around 1850, of the sawmill James
Marshall was working on when he found the gold in the tailrace. The man in the picture is
likely a photographer’s assistant. (Image: Library of Congress)
An 1840s hand-tinted engraving of Sutter’s Fort as it appeared in its hey-
day. (Image: F. Gleason/ Wikimedia)
PUBLIC NOTICE
TS No. OR07000276-16-
1 APN 9143/1003 TO No
8686710
TRUSTEE'S
NOTICE OF SALE Refer-
ence is made to that certain
Trust Deed made by, JOHN
M SWANSON AND JU-
DITH A SWANSON,
HUSBAND AND WIFE
as Grantor to FIDELITY
NATIONAL TITLE COM-
PANY as Trustee, in favor
of MORTGAGE ELEC-
TRONIC
REGISTRA-
TION SYSTEMS, INC.
(“MERS”), as designated
nominee for GENWORTH
FINANCIAL HOME EQ-
UITY ACCESS, INC.,
Beneficiary of the security
instrument, its successors
and assigns, dated as of
August 20, 2011 and re-
corded on November 18,
2011 as Instrument No.
2011-29156 and the bene-
ficial interest was assigned
to Reverse Mortgage So-
lutions, Inc. and recorded
December 8, 2016 as In-
strument Number 2016-
39375 of official records in
the Office of the Recorder
of Morrow County, Oregon
to-wit: APN: 9143/1003
LOT 14, HILLCREST ES-
TATES IN THE CITY OF
IRRIGON, COUNTY OF
MORROW AND STATE
OF OREGON. Commonly
known as: 995 SE THOM-
AS AVE, IRRIGON, OR
97844-7194 Both the Ben-
eficiary, Reverse Mortgage
Solutions, Inc., and the
Trustee, Nathan F. Smith,
Esq., OSB #120112, have
elected to sell the said real
property to satisfy the ob-
ligations secured by said
Trust Deed and notice has
been recorded pursuant
to Section 86.735(3) of
Oregon Revised Statutes.
The default for which the
foreclosure is made is the
Grantor’s failure to pay:
Failed to pay the princi-
pal balance which became
all due and payable based
upon the move-out by all
mortgagors from the prop-
erty, ceasing to use the
property as the principal
residence By this reason of
said default the Beneficia-
ry has declared all obliga-
tions secured by said Trust
Deed immediately due and
payable, said sums being
the following, to-wit: The
sum of $147,765.51 to-
gether with interest there-
on from August 1, 2016
until paid; and all Trustee’s
fees, foreclosure costs and
any sums advanced by
the Beneficiary pursuant
to the terms of said Trust
Deed. Wherefore, notice is
hereby given that, the un-
dersigned Trustee will on
July 21, 2017 at the hour
of 12:00 PM, Standard of
Time, as established by
Section 187.110, Oregon
Revised Statues, Court
Street entrance steps to the
Morrow County Court-
house, 100 Court St, Hep-
pner, OR 97836 County of
Morrow, sell at public auc-
tion to the highest bidder
for cash the interest in the
said described real prop-
erty which the Grantor had
or had power to convey at
the time of the execution
by him of the said Trust
Deed, together with any
interest which the Grantor
or his successors in inter-
est acquired after the ex-
ecution of said Trust Deed,
to satisfy the foregoing ob-
ligations thereby secured
and the costs and expenses
of sale, including a reason-
able charge by the Trustee.
Notice is further given that
any person named in Sec-
tion 86.753 of Oregon Re-
vised Statutes has the right
to have the foreclosure
proceeding dismissed and
the Trust Deed reinstated
by payment to the Benefi-
ciary of the entire amount
then due (other than such
portion of said principal
as would not then be due
had no default occurred),
together with the costs,
Trustee’s or attorney’s fees
and curing any other de-
fault complained of in the
Notice of Default by ten-
dering the performance re-
quired under the obligation
or Trust Deed, at any time
prior to five days before
the date last set for sale.
Without limiting the Trust-
ee’s disclaimer of repre-
sentations or warranties,
Oregon law requires the
Trustee to state in this no-
tice that some residential
property sold at a Trustee’s
sale may have been used
in manufacturing meth-
amphetamines, the chemi-
cal components of which
are known to be toxic.
Prospective purchasers of
residential property should
be aware of this potential
danger before deciding to
place a bid for this proper-
ty at the Trustee’s sale. In
construing this notice, the
masculine gender includes
the feminine and the neu-
ter, the singular includes
plural, the word “Grantor”
includes any successor
in interest to the Grantor
as well as any other per-
sons owing an obligation,
the performance of which
is secured by said Trust
Deed, the words “Trustee”
and “Beneficiary” includes
their respective successors
in interest, if any. Dated:
March 8, 2017 By: Na-
than F. Smith, Esq., OSB
#120112 Successor Trust-
ee Malcolm & Cisneros,
A Law Corporation Atten-
tion: Nathan F. Smith, Esq.,
OSB #120112 c/o TRUST-
EE CORPS 17100 Gillette
Ave, Irvine, CA 92614
949-252-8300 FOR SALE
INFORMATION PLEASE
CALL: In Source Logic at
702-659-7766 Website for
Trustee's Sale Informa-
tion: www.insourcelogic.
comISL Number 29083,
Pub Dates: 04/26/2017,
05/03/2017, 05/10/2017,
05/17/2017,
HEPPNER
GAZETTE TIMES
Published: April 26, May
3, 10 and 17, 2017
Affidavit