Historical Marker · No. 85
Office of the California Star Newspaper
San Francisco, San Francisco County · California
Erected by E Clampus Vitus, 1937
The newspaper that should have broken the gold story talked its readers out of it. The Star's editor, Edward Kemble, not yet twenty, went up to Sutter's mill in April 1848, came back without gold and dismissed the discovery in print as a sham. Within weeks the paper's own publisher, Sam Brannan, was in the street waving a bottle of gold dust. By 14 June the staff had gone to the diggings, and Kemble closed the Star with hasta luego. No state plaque stands here; the bronze is the Clampers' of 1937.
What the plaque says
On this site January 9, 1847 the California Star, the first newspaper in San Francisco, was published by Samuel Brannan This marker placed by E Clampus Vitus February 6, 1937
Where it stands
37.79509, -122.40628 · Directions
More markers nearby
- Portsmouth Plaza — steps away
- First Public School — steps away
- Eastern Terminus of Clay Street Hill Railroad — steps away
- Site of the Jenny Lind Theatre and San Francisco City Hall — steps away