Russia's fort in California was bought by John Sutter — the man whose sawmill started the Gold Rush.
He acquired Fort Ross in 1841, and in 1848 gold was found at his mill.
The events
- Fort Ross, Russia's outpost in California1812–1841 · California. In 1812 Ivan Kuskov with 25 Russians and 80 Native Alaskans founded Fort Ross north of San Francisco, the southernmost settlement of Russian America. It had California's first windmills and shipyards. In 1841 it was sold to John Sutter, at whose mill gold was later found.
- California Gold Rush1848 · Sutter's Mill, California, USA. On 24 January 1848 carpenter James Marshall spotted flakes of gold in the channel of Sutter's sawmill. The news spread worldwide, and within a few years some 300,000 fortune-seekers, the 'forty-niners', arrived from every continent. San Francisco grew from a village into a city of tens of thousands, and by 1850 California had become a state.
More amazing facts
- 1839 · 1842 The word 'dinosaur' is younger than photography: the daguerreotype was unveiled in 1839, while Richard Owen coined the 'terrible lizard' only in 1842.
- 1839 · 1860 Tyre rubber was invented by dropping some on a stove.
- 1840 Before the railways, Bristol kept its own time, ten minutes behind London.
- 1840 Britain is the only country whose stamps carry no country name.
- 1840 Before stamps, the recipient paid for a letter, so people cheated.
- 1840 A bell in Oxford has been ringing since 1840, and nobody dares find out what powers it. Its dry piles have driven some 10 billion rings, and opening them would end one of the longest-running experiments ever.