From “Hutchings’ California Magazine,” November 1857 AT THE MILL IN COLOMA The next morning we went to the tail-race of the mill, through which the water was running during the night, to clean out the gravel which had been made…
Month: July 2015
The Discovery of Gold, by John Sutter, Part I
There are a lot of different stories about the discovery of gold at Coloma by James Wilson Marshall. Some were written by people who were alive at the time, some were written by historians at a much later time. This…
Theodore D. Judah, Part II – The Transcontinental Railroad Begins
On June 28, 1861, the new Central Pacific Rail Road of California incorporated with Leland Stanford serving as president, Collis Huntington vice president, Mark Hopkins treasurer, and Theodore Judah as chief engineer. A transcontinental railroad was now more than just…
Theodore D. Judah, Part I – A Man With a Mission
Theodore D. Judah was born on March 4, 1826 in Bridgeport, Connecticut to an Episcopal minister and his wife. After his family moved to Troy, New York, Judah studied engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. His first experience with railroading occurred…