Sutter's Fort

On January 24, 1848, Henry Bigler, a former member of the Mormon Battalion, recorded in his diary: "this day some kind of mettle was was found in the tail race that that looks like goald. first discovered by James Martial the Boss of the Mill." A week later, he continued his account of this momentous event: "our metal has been tride and prooves to be goald. it is thought to be rich where pict up - more than a hundred dollars worth last week."

Prospectors soon flooded to the South Fork of the American River where Marshall had made his discovery while working on the tailrace of John Sutter's mill. The discovery should have ensured a prosperous future for both Marshall and Sutter but it would not work out that way.

John Sutter, an emigrant from Switzerland, had arrived in California in 1839, intent on establishing his own colony in what is now Sacramento. He built a fort and called his would-be settlement, New Helvetia. Two years later, when the Russian settlement at Fort Ross was closed, Sutter bought most of its equipment and livestock. To support his elaborate plans, he expanded his holdings to Hock Farm on the banks of the Feather River near present-day Yuba City and Sutter's Mill at what is now Coloma.

The mill, which Sutter assigned James Marshall to build, was intended to provide lumber for Sutter's many interests. Instead, the mill would prove to be his downfall as it was during the construction of the mill's tailrace that Marshall discovered gold.

When the prospectors arrived, they swarmed over Sutter's lands. Sutter was unable to evict them and unable to pay the bills on his heavily mortgaged properties. Moreover, he refused to give up on his vision of the community at New Helvetia and take advantage of the opportunity to service the prospectors. Before long, Sutter fell into financial ruin. He left Sutter's Fort for Hock Farm before returning east, to settle in Lititz, Pennsylvania.