Now for the rest of the story. Now John Sutter was a an entrepreneur of his time. He had his trading post and now went into business with James Marshall to start lumber mill on the America river 45 miles east of Sutter’s Fort because of the Ponderosa Pines in the area. In January of 1848 while working on the mill, James Marshall discovered shining objects in the water and was confirmed to be gold. Both John and James tried to keep their discovery quiet so they could complete their mill, but word got out. By the summer of 1848 gold fever started and the population in the area increased by 4000. By 1849 another 10,000 people came to find their piece of the pie. In the end John Sutter had to sell his fort, all his workers left to search for gold.
The town of Coloma is where gold was discovered. It is still a small town today and the Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park is pretty much takes up the entire town. Many of the buildings are over 100 years old and help tell the story. There still is a working blacksmith shop giving demonstrations and even gold panning for the kids. Back in the 1940’s the river level was so low, they were able to find the original footings of the mill and with other information were able to build a replica of the Sutter Mill. The museum does a really nice job explaining the discovery but the impact it had on the area. As I walked the site, I couldn’t help but imagine what it was like back then, this was the wilderness. I think the people that made their fortunes were not the gold miners, but the merchants selling mining tools at a 500% profit.
