It was in 1848, that James W. Marshall first found traces of gold in the water of the American River while building a sawmill for Captain John Sutter. He bit the metal and tested it in many ways and confirmed that it was indeed gold. He tried to keep it a secret, but word spread quickly, triggering the California Gold Rush of 1849.

It is hard to believe, but gold is a very rare substance consisting of only five ten-millionths of the Earth