It's a fairly big leap for California not to be colonized _at_all_. For that matter, _why_didn't_ the Gold Rush happen? There would have to have been no Alaskan Gold Rush, either, because that would've caused tremendous growth in California, Oregon and Washington, and it wouldn't have been "forgotten." I think if you laid out the steps that lead up to there being no gold rush would help make this a more believable ATL. Louisiannan 13:56, 25 August 2006 (UTC)
No Gold Rush? Bah![]
If it wasn't Marshall, it would have been someone else. Men were scouring the West for mineral wealth. There is simply no way the Mother Lode wouldn't be found. However, changing the timing could be interesting. In OTL, the gold was found just in time for people to assert it was a Providencial means of paying for the Mexican War. Delay the gold strike until, say, just before the Civil War and things get interesting ...
I agree, the gold was there to be found, and probably would have been by found by someone else soon after Marshall did so in OTL. The obvious solution to that is simply put the POD in the Mesozoic and say the gold was never deposited.66.27.138.210 01:33, May 29, 2013 (UTC)Pat