We say we're surprised, in many ways, because of the importance of Sutter's Mill, not only to northern California, San Francisco , the Gold Rush, and more, but to the spur that discovery had on western migration.
It brought miners, yes, to California, and Alaska. It brought folks looking to gain their fortune in ancillary services for those miners, from the bawdy to the practical. But for us, perhaps the most important historic point of finding gold in them thar hills, was in the lure it provided for western migration to every part of the world between Missouri and California, in the days of the wagon train, the steamship, and later the locomotive.
And it provided one grand spur for that locomotive as well as farmers, bankers, shopkeepers, and yes, those miners. So let's start with what is there and get into a little history on how we got there.
The park is located in Coloma, California, about miles and three hours west from San Francisco. It celebrates the actually , not , discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill on the aptly named American River by James W. He was just there to build a sawmill, in partnership with John Sutter, but when he saw some tiny gold flecks in the river, it changed everything. By the next year the town of Coloma had ten thousand residents; it now has two hundred, and the river was filled with prospectors looking for their fortune.
Within two years, the river ran dry of gold, but by that time, almost , people had come to California looking for gold, or their fortune, in one way or another. Sutter's Ranch- John Sutter came to the area in with a land grant of 48, acres, where he built a ranch, a fort, and then commissioned a young New Jersey man who'd come west on the Oregon Trail, James W.
Marshall, to build a sawmill, and John Bidwell, who led the first wagon train west, to become his business manager. In the fall of , construction on the sawmill began. When they dug a ditch to the river on January 24, , gold came into the picture with the discovery by Marshall of flecks in the American River. Not only did it swell the city of Coloma to ten thousand people, it impacted the large gateway city of San Francisco one hundred and forty miles away.
The city grew to twenty-five thousand residents, twenty-five times its former size, in less than two years. An estimated eighty thousand would pass through the city going for gold in alone. The California Gold Ranch Expands - Although Sutter's Mill is the best known, and first, of the sites and area where prospectors looked for California gold, other locations swelled in size with prospectors, including the Northern California towns of Yreka and Shasta.
Shasta is now also a state historic park. Nesbitt and Company, Printer, circa Courtesy Wikipedia Commons. Below: Photo above: Gold miners in El Dorado mining camp, circa Courtesy Library of Congress. Inside the Park - Take your time to visit the park and discover the gold rush era. Begin your visit at the Gold Rush Museum and Visitor Center, take a guided walk, then walk around the site and town residents still live there. That is just fine as well.
It is a unique way to enjoy nature learn the history and pass a Saturday afternoon. Almost every hardware and general store in the foothills or any gold producing area carry the basic pans and tools you need to go out and find your first gold.
Marshall Gold Discovery State Park has beginner panning lessons. Sutter Center Market and a few local stores carry pans.
On-site panning with nice gold even nuggets and field guide services. Gold prospecting equipment for sale and sluice boxes for sale and rent. As well as info about places to go find gold for those wanting to get into a very interesting and rewarding activity.
There is also gold and pay dirt to take home or give as a gift. The gold panned and sold all come from local miners. Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park also features a museum, many original and restored buildings, and costumed volunteers. She grew up in an opulent world where pre-Civil War society tried to keep the nouveau riche at bay.
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