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Reports of great mineral wealth in California were repeated up
to the time of the American conquest, but they commanded little
confidence among mining experts.
Although gold was found in what is now San Diego County in 1828,
Alexander Forbes, the historian of California, wrote in 1835 that no
minerals of particular importance had been discovered in Upper
California, nor any ores of metals. About 1838 a gold placer was
discovered in the ca+-on of San Francisquito, forty-five miles northwest
of Los Angeles, and this was the first California mine that produced any
considerable amount of metal. It was worked for ten years and then
abandoned for richer diggings in the Sacramento Valley. The average
yield for the ten years was probably about six thousand dollars. After
the return of the Wilkes exploring expedition of 1842, James D. Dana,
its mineralogist, mentioned places in California at which he had
observed or inferred the existence of gold. But his report led to no
gold-hunting, and had only a scientific interest.


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