Sutter's Mill
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| Sutter's Mill | |
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| Location | Coloma, California |
| Site notes | |
| Area | Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park |
| Governing body | California Department of Parks and Recreation |
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Official name | Gold discovery site |
| Designated | March 7, 1955[1] |
| Reference no. | 530 |
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Sutter's Mill was a water-powered sawmill on the bank of the South Fork American River in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada in California. It was named after its owner John Sutter. A worker constructing the mill, James W. Marshall, found gold there in 1848. This discovery set off the California gold rush (1848–1855), a major event in the history of the United States.
The mill was later reconstructed in the original design and today forms part of Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park in Coloma, California. A meteorite fell in 2012 and landed close to the mill; fragments were recovered and it was named the Sutter's Mill meteorite.
History
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The territory of Alta California, which includes modern-day California, was settled by the Viceroyalty of New Spain from 1683 onwards. It became part of an independent Mexico in 1821. John Sutter, a German-Swiss settler, arrived in the region in 1839. He established a colony at New Helvetia (now part of Sacramento), in the Central Valley. The United States conquered the region during the Mexican–American War (1846–1848): California was overrun by US forces in 1846 and a ceasefire in the region was agreed in January 1847. A peace treaty for the wider war had not yet been completed when Sutter decided to begin construction of a sawmill in the forest about 30 miles northeast of his existing colony. Sutter employed James Wilson Marshall, a carpenter originally from New Jersey, to supervise construction of the new building.[2]
On January 24, 1848, while working on construction of the mill, Marshall found flakes of gold in the South Fork American River.[2] On February 2, 1848, before news of the discovery had arrived, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed in Mexico City. This peace treaty formally transferred sovereignty over the region to the United States. Two workers at the mill, Henry Bigler[3] and Azariah Smith,[4] were veterans of the Mormon Battalion and recorded their experience in journals.[5] Bigler recorded the date when gold was discovered, January 24, 1848, in his diary.[6] Sutter's claim to the US government for mineral rights was investigated by Joseph Libbey Folsom, who issued confirmation of the gold discovery in June. The first flake found by Marshall was shipped to President James K. Polk in Washington D.C., arriving in August 1848.[2] It is now on display in the National Museum of American History, part of the Smithsonian Institution.[2][7]
As news of the gold spread, settlers flocked to the new US territory of California. The population expanded from 14,000 non-natives in 1848 to 224,000 in 1852.[8] There were over 80,000 newcomers in 1849 and another 91,000 in 1850.[8][9] Many settled at the new town of Coloma, California, which sprung up close to Sutter's Mill. Numerous further discoveries of gold in California were made. During the next seven years, approximately 300,000 people came to California (half by land and half by sea) to seek their fortunes from either mining for gold or selling supplies to the prospectors. This California gold rush permanently changed the territory, both through mass immigration and the economic effects of the gold. California became a US state in 1850.
Indians fled Sutter's Mill, leaving no one to harvest wheat. Miners plundered his livestock and stole his millstones, and Sutter went bankrupt.[10]
Current status
The site of the mill is part of the Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park, registered as California Historical Landmark number 530.[11]
On September 8, 1965, a groundbreaking was held to begin the construction of a replica of the original structure, based on Marshall's own drawings and a photograph of the mill taken circa 1850.[12] The replica was nearly completed by the following year, and while not built at the exact spot as the original, it was designed to be moved there if the river returned to its 1848 stream bed.[13] The newly completed replica was officially dedicated on January 21, 1968.[14][15] In 2014, the 1960s structure was replaced with a new replica, built closer to the original site.[16][17]
Meteorite
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On April 22, 2012 a meteor entered the Earth's atmosphere and exploded, showering meteorite fragments over parts of California and Nevada. The first samples of this meteorite fall were recovered close to Sutter's Mill, so it was named the Sutter's Mill meteorite. Several dozen fragments were eventually identified, with a total weight of about a kilogram(≈2.2 pounds). The meteorite is classified as a carbonaceous chondrite and contains some of the oldest known material in the Solar System.[18]
See also
References
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- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Gold discovery site". California State Parks Office of Historic Preservation. Retrieved May 4, 2025.
- ^ a b c d Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Gold Nugget". National Museum of American History. Retrieved January 22, 2021.
This small piece of yellow metal is believed to be the first piece of gold discovered in 1848 at Sutter's Mill in California, launching the gold rush. James Marshall was superintending the construction of a sawmill for Col. John Sutter on the morning of January 24, 1848, on the South Fork of the American River at Coloma, California, when he saw something glittering in the water of the mill's tailrace. According to Sutter's diary, Marshall stooped down to pick it up and 'found that it was a thin scale of what appeared to be pure gold.' Marshall bit the metal as a test for gold.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."California Gold An Authentic History of the First Find With the Names of Those Interested in the Discovery". www.sfmuseum.org. Retrieved April 17, 2010.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."The Gold Discovery Journal of Azariah Smith". Brigham Young University. Archived from the original on June 9, 2011. Retrieved April 17, 2010.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.William G. Hartley (September 1997). "On the Trail in September". Ensign. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: 40–41. Retrieved May 13, 2010.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Sutter, John (November 1857). "The Discovery of Gold in California". Hutchings' California Magazine.
The Mormons did not like to leave my mill unfinished, but they got the gold fever like everybody else. After they had made their piles they left for the Great Salt Lake. So long as these people have been employed by me they hav [sic] behaved very well, and were industrious and faithful laborers, and when settling their accounts there was not one of them who was not contented and satisfied.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."First gold found at Sutter's Mill, California, 1848". smithsonianlegacies.si.edu. Retrieved October 23, 2018.
- ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.García, Justine (2014). California Gold Rush. Multicultural America: A Multimedia Encyclopedia. pp. 415–418.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Clay, Karen (2008). History of World Trade since 1450. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA. pp. 328–339.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link) - ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Loewen, James (1999). Lies Across America. The New Press. p. 65.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Sutter's Mill Site". www.hmdb.org. Retrieved April 17, 2010.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Sutter Mill Rebuilding Is Started". The Sacramento Bee. Sacramento, California. September 9, 1965. p. D3.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Coloma Replica Of Sutter's Mill Nears Finish". The Sacramento Bee. Sacramento, California. May 22, 1966. p. B4.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Coloma Dedication of Sutter's Mill Will Highlight Gold Discovery Days Fete". The Sacramento Bee/Superior California News. Sacramento, California. January 19, 1968. p. B1.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Gold Discovery Event Attracts 20,000 Persons". The Sacramento Bee/Superior California News. Sacramento, California. January 22, 1968. p. B1.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Lakey, Pat (December 15, 2014). "New mill ready to inspire new memories". Village Life. El Dorado Hills, California. Archived from the original on September 9, 2015. Retrieved November 5, 2023.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Sutter's Mill Reconstruction Project Moves Forward" (PDF) (Press release). California Department of Parks and Recreation. September 5, 2014. Retrieved November 5, 2023.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Jenniskens, P.; Fries, M. D.; Yin, Q.-Z.; Zolensky, M.; Krot, A. N.; Sandford, S. A.; Sears, D.; Beauford, R.; Ebel, D. S.; Friedrich, J. M.; Nagashima, K.; Wimpenny, J.; Yamakawa, A.; Nishiizumi, K.; Hamajima, Y.; Caffee, M. W.; Welten, K. C.; Laubenstein, M.; Davis, A. M.; Simon, S. B.; Heck, P. R.; Young, E. D.; Kohl, I. E.; Thiemens, M. H.; Nunn, M. H.; Mikouchi, T.; Hagiya, K.; Ohsumi, K.; Cahill, T. A.; et al. (2012). "Radar-Enabled Recovery of the Sutter's Mill Meteorite, a Carbonaceous Chondrite Regolith Breccia". Science. 338 (6114): 1583–1587. Bibcode:2012Sci...338.1583J. doi:10.1126/science.1227163. hdl:2060/20140017286. PMID 23258889. S2CID 206543838.
External links
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- Discovery of Gold, by John A. Sutter, Hutchings' California Magazine, November 1857. Sutter describes how he wanted a sawmill near the Sacramento and how Marshall told him of the gold.
- Early photographs, illustrations, and textual references to Sutter's Mill; Script error: No such module "webarchive"., via Calisphere, California Digital Library.
- Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park (California State Parks, official site)
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