History of Gold Mining in the United States - Exodus for the Gold Fields

Gold was known by the Indians to exist in the United States long before the white people discovered it, but unlike the Indians of Mexico, the more northern natives did not make elaborate use of it, and it did not seriously attract the attention of the settlers until shortly before the beginning of the nineteenth century. No very important mining, however, was done until after 1800, when a little gold began to be obtained in North Carolina.
Long before that time the gold of California had also been known to the natives and to the Franciscan monks, but that country then belonged to Mexico and was not taken by the United States until 1846...