Steamship California

In January 1848, two seemingly unrelated events took place on opposite coasts of the United States. The first event was the laying down at New York on January 4, 1848, of the keel of a wooden paddle wheeler to be named California at her launching four months later. The other event, on January 24, marked the discovery of gold at a remote California trading post named Sutter’s Mill. California was the first American steamer to reach the western seaboard after this momentous discovery, and her early history was to be forever linked to the great California Gold Rush.

The Steamship California