A. E. "Fred" Coleman was a former slave credited with discovering gold in Julian, California and thus launching a gold rush in that area.
Coleman was employed as cattle herder and living in the Julian area with his Kumeyaay wife Marian and eleven children. [1] In the winter of 1869, Coleman, while watering his horse in a small creek, noticed flecks of gold in the stream. Coleman had previously worked in the gold fields of Northern California. Within weeks more than 800 prospectors flooded into what was named the Coleman Mining District. Coleman was elected its recorder. [2]
In present-day Julian, the creek where the gold was discovered has been named Coleman Creek although it is overrun by brambles and trees and essentially hidden from view. Coleman Circle, a nearby street, is also named after A.E. Coleman.
Coleman was one of several African Americans who made significant contributions to early "gold rush" Julian. Other pioneering African Americans from the area include Albert and Margaret Robinson, founders of the Robinson Hotel, and America Newton.
The California Gold Rush (1848–1855) was a gold rush that began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California from the rest of the United States and abroad. The sudden influx of gold into the money supply reinvigorated the American economy, and the sudden population increase allowed California to go rapidly to statehood, in the Compromise of 1850. The Gold Rush had severe effects on Native Californians and accelerated the Native American population's decline from disease, starvation and the California Genocide. By the time it ended, California had gone from a thinly populated ex-Mexican territory, to having one of its first two U.S. Senators, John C. Frémont, selected to be the first presidential nominee for the new Republican Party, in 1856.
Nevada City is the county seat of Nevada County, California, United States, located 60 miles (97 km) northeast of Sacramento, 84 miles (135 km) southwest of Reno and 147 miles (237 km) northeast of San Francisco. The population was 3,068 as of the 2010 Census.
Julian is a census-designated place (CDP) in San Diego County, California, in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 1,502, down from 1,621 at the 2000 census.
San Diego Country Estates, commonly referred to as the Estates, is a valley resort populace composed of several neighborhoods associated with the unincorporated community of Ramona, California. The Estates are a census-designated place in North County, a region of the San Diego metropolitan area. The Estates is just east of the North County city of Poway and southeast of Ramona; 38 miles (61 km) northeast of San Diego and 46 miles (74 km) from the regional center of Carlsbad. San Diego Country Estates had a population of 10,109 at the 2010 census, up from 9,262 at the 2000 census.
A gold rush or gold fever is a new discovery of gold—sometimes accompanied by other precious metals and rare-earth minerals—that brings an onrush of miners seeking their fortune. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Canada, South Africa and the United States, while smaller gold rushes took place elsewhere.
The Guadalupe River mainstem is an urban, northward flowing 14 miles (23 km) river in California whose much longer headwater creeks originate in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The river mainstem now begins on the Santa Clara Valley floor when Los Alamitos Creek exits Lake Almaden and joins Guadalupe Creek just downstream of Coleman Road in San Jose, California. From here it flows north through San Jose, where it receives Los Gatos Creek, a major tributary. The Guadalupe River serves as the eastern boundary of the City of Santa Clara and the western boundary of Alviso, and after coursing through San José, it empties into south San Francisco Bay at the Alviso Slough.
The San Bernardino Mountains are a high and rugged mountain range in Southern California in the United States. Situated north and northeast of San Bernardino and spanning two California counties, the range tops out at 11,503 feet (3,506 m) at San Gorgonio Mountain – the tallest peak in all of Southern California. The San Bernardinos form a significant region of wilderness and are popular for hiking and skiing.
State Route 49 is a north–south state highway in the U.S. state of California that passes through many historic mining communities of the 1849 California gold rush. Highway 49 is numbered after the "49ers", the waves of immigrants who swept into the area looking for gold, and it is known as the Golden Chain Highway. This roadway begins at Oakhurst, Madera County, in the Sierra Nevada, where it diverges from State Route 41. It continues in a generally northwest direction, weaving through the communities of Goldside and Ahwahnee, before crossing into Mariposa County. State Route 49 then continues northward through the counties of Tuolumne, Calaveras, Amador, El Dorado, Placer, Nevada, Yuba, Sierra, and Plumas, where it reaches its northern terminus at State Route 70, in Vinton.
Carmel Valley is a suburban planned community in the northwestern corner of San Diego, California, United States. The community is composed of commercial offices, residential units, hotels, retail stores and restaurants.
Rancho Bernardo is a master-planned community in the northern hills of the city of San Diego, California.
The Julian Gold Rush Hotel formerly known as Robinson Hotel is located in the former mining town of Julian, California, United States. It was one of the first businesses in San Diego County owned and operated by African-Americans.
America Newton was one of the original African-American pioneers who helped launch the former mining town of Julian, California, in the Cuyamaca Mountains east of San Diego. Newton was a former slave who provided laundry services in Julian during its gold rush days and beyond. She resided in Julian for more than 50 years.
Slavery in colonial California began with the systematic enslavement of indigenous Californians. The arrival of the Spanish colonists introduced chattel slavery and involuntary servitude to the area. White colonists from the Southern and Eastern United States brought their systems of organized slavery to California.
The Cuyamaca Mountains, locally the Cuyamacas, are a mountain range of the Peninsular Ranges System, in San Diego County, southern California. The mountain range runs roughly northwest to southeast. The Laguna Mountains are directly adjacent to the east, with Palomar Mountain and Hot Springs Mountain more distant to the north.
San Mateo Creek is a stream in Southern California in the United States, whose watershed mostly straddles the border of Orange and San Diego Counties. It is about 22 miles (35 km) long, flowing in a generally southwesterly direction. Draining a broad valley bounded by the Santa Ana Mountains and Santa Margarita Mountains, San Mateo Creek is notable for being one of the last unchannelized streams in Southern California.
Ballena is an unincorporated community in the Ballena Valley of San Diego County, California.
Branson City or Branson is a ghost town in San Diego County, California. It lies at an elevation of 3996 feet. It is located on State Highway 78 at its junction with Pine Hills Road, about one mile west of Julian.
Coleman Creek in San Diego County, California is a tributary of the San Diego River that arises at the top of the valley running southeasterly from Julian, at a saddle between two ridges of the Cuyamaca Mountains just south of Kentwood-In-The-Pines. From there, Coleman Creek descends northwesterly down the valley to Julian, where it turns west, descending its canyon northwesterly through the site of Branson City, past the mouth of its tributary Eastwood Creek on the north, passing through the south end of Spencer Valley, past the mouth of its tributary Baily Creek on the north, then descending northwest down Quanai Canyon to its confluence with the San Diego River.
Eastwood Creek in San Diego County, California, is a tributary of Coleman Creek that arises in the Cuyamaca Mountains, at the north face of the gold bearing mountain north of Julian. From the source Eastwood Creek descends northwesterly a short distance, then turns southwest down a canyon to its confluence with Coleman Creek, just below the site of Branson City.
Coleman City, also called Emily City, is a ghost town in San Diego County, California. It lies at an elevation of 3601 feet. It is located on State Highway 78 where it crosses Coleman Creek, about four miles west of Julian.
Frederick Coleman was born in Kentucky in 1829 and was probably a former slave. The 1880 U.S. Census stated that he was a "Mu[latto]." Farming in the country in 1863, he married an Indian woman, took up land west of Wynola, and in January 1870 discovered placer gold in a stream named for him, Coleman Creek ... beginning the Julian gold rush. A tent city on its banks was called Coleman City.