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Placerita Gold Discovery (1948).
Medal; gilt (gold-washed) copper alloy.
By Leon Worden
Signal City Editor
Saturday, March 22, 2003
his isn't actually a "local" issue, but it commemorates a local event: the discovery of gold in Placerita Canyon. Minted in 1948, the medal was probably part of a multi-issue series marking the centennial of James Marshall's discovery at Sutter's Mill.
Californians celebrated the centennial in grand style, and Newhall residents didn't shrink from spreading their "Look at us, we were first" message. After all, Francisco Lopez's discovery of gold in Placerita Canyon predates Marshall's more famous discovery by six years — and the fact is acknowledged on the obverse (face) of this medal, which reads: "First Gold Discovery, Placerita Canyon," with the dual dates of 1842 and 1948 in the field amid a miner's pick, shovel, pan and scale.
The reverse reads, "Newhall, California / Oak of the Golden Dream," with an image of the tree where Lopez reputedly napped and dreamed of riches — then dug up some wild onions and found gold flakes clinging to the roots.
The identity of this tree has been a matter of conjecture and controversy for decades. Visit the Placerita Canyon Nature Center and you'll be directed to an old, gnarled oak about a quarter-mile from the park entrance. Diehard historians insist it is a bit east of there, on Disney's Golden Oak Ranch, while still others believe it perished in an early 1960s wildfire.
In any case, Lopez did discover gold here in 1842, and the assayer's report from the U.S. Mint at Philadelphia makes it the first "documented" discovery in California. Undocumented discoveries were reported between Hasley Canyon and Piru even earlier.
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