State
Mineral: GOLD!
As one might expect, gold is the official state mineral and was
so designated in 1965. In the four years following the discovery
of gold by James Marshall in January of 1848, California's population
swelled from 14,000 to 250,000 people. Miners came from all over
the world and extracted 28,280,711 fine ounces of gold from 1850-1859
which would be worth approximately $10,000,000,000 today. Although
production is much lower, present day prospectors can still pan for
gold in California's streams.