Oak of the Golden Dream

The word doing the work on this plaque is authenticated. Francisco López, a foreman on Rancho San Francisco, pulled wild onions from under an oak in Placerita Canyon on March 9, 1842 and found gold on the roots. Others had found gold in California before him; López filed a petition, and the paper is what makes his the first documented strike. Some two thousand miners came up from Sonora to work the placers. Marshall reached Sutter's Mill six years later.

What the plaque says

Francisco Lopez made California's first authenticated gold discovery on March 9, 1842. While gathering wild onions near an oak tree in Placerita Canyon he found gold particles clinging to the roots of the bulbs. The San Fernando placers and nearby San Feliciano Canyon were worked by Sonoran miners using panning, sluicing and dry washing methods. Lopez's find predated James Marshall's strike at Sutter's Mill by six years. California Registered Historical Landmark No. 168. First registered March 6, 1935. Plaque placed by the State Department of Parks and Recreation in cooperation with The Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society and Platrix Chapter No. 2 E Clampus Vitus, November 15, 1992.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Colorado Street Bridge — 24 mi
  Beaux-Arts concrete arches curving 150 feet above the Arroyo Seco, opened in 1913 and later a link in Route 66.
• Mission San Gabriel Arcangel — 28 mi
  The fourth Alta California mission, built on Tongva land with Tongva labor, rebuilt after arson and now telling that story straight.

More markers nearby

• Lyons Station Stagecoach Stop — 2.3 mi
• Pioneer Oil Refinery — 2.8 mi
• Beale's Cut Stagecoach Pass — 3.2 mi
• The Cascades — 4.0 mi