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Free Traveling Guides » States » California » Gold Country
Sutter's Mill
Located on the historic grounds of the Marshall Gold Discovery State Park is the site where Sutter’s Mill was owned and operated in the early to mid 1800s. The mill was the property of one John Sutter, a pioneer and entrepreneur of early California. It was in the shadow of this mill that James Marshall discovered gold in 1848, leading to the California Gold Rush and the influx of immigrants from both around the country and around the world.
This gold rush was not what the owner of the property had in mind, however. John Sutter was a private man and had carved out a successful niche for himself in the sleepy outpost that was the state of California in those days. He tried to keep Marshall’s discovery a secret, for he feared what would happen to his land should word leak out. Unfortunately for Sutter, the wrong man happened to acquire gold from Sutter’s Mill. The man was named Samuel Brannan, and he was a merchant, newspaper publisher, and general loudmouth. He returned to San Francisco with his findings and soon Sutter’s greatest fears were realized. Masses of fortune seekers descended upon his land and destroyed nearly everything Sutter had worked to create. Soon gone were the days of California as a sleeping giant. The gold rush had begun and Sutter’s name would forever be associated with the birth of a new era.
The site of the mill is today registered as a major historical landmark and is host to the current Sutter’s Mill, a replica of the original building which has been designed to be as historically accurate and authentic as possible. James Marshall’s own drawings and an early photograph were used to replicate the mill as close to the original specifications as could be achieved.
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