Auburn: Where a French Cooper Found Gold in May

James Marshall's discovery at Sutter's Mill on January twenty-fourth, eighteen forty-eight, is the famous moment that started the California Gold Rush. But the gold field that became Auburn was found four months later, and by a man who was actually on his way to Coloma to see Marshall's find for himself.

Claude Chana was a French immigrant working as a cooper at Sutter's Fort when the news from Coloma broke. On May sixteenth, eighteen forty-eight, he and two companions were traveling toward the strike site when Chana stopped in a ravine and noticed something in the gravel. He had found gold in what is now called Auburn Ravine, about a quarter mile south of what would become Old Town Auburn.

Chana and his friends decided to stay. Within months, thousands of prospectors flooded in. The camp was known first as North Fork Dry Diggings, then Woods Dry Diggings, before a group of miners who had come from Auburn, New York, gave it that name in August of eighteen forty-nine. By eighteen fifty-one it was the seat of the newly formed Placer County, a role it has held ever since.

Auburn's Old Town district has survived in remarkable condition. The original cluster of gold rush-era buildings, fire station, post office, storefronts, still lines the narrow streets that miners walked in the eighteen fifties. The courthouse built between eighteen ninety-four and eighteen ninety-eight has anchored the county seat for well over a century.

The Auburn Ravine where Chana found gold still flows below the town. It is a quiet creek in a suburban canyon now, crossed by bridges, lined by backyards. The gold that made Auburn possible was pulled from it in the eighteen fifties and the land moved on. The town it seeded remained.