Sutter's Mill was a water-powered

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes (dimensi ...

on the bank of the

South Fork American River The South Fork American River is a major tributary of the American River in El Dorado County, California, draining a watershed on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada east of Sacramento. The river begins in pristine Desolation Wilderness and fl ...

in the foothills of the

Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada () is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primarily ...

in California. It was named after its owner

John Sutter John Augustus Sutter (February 23, 1803 – June 18, 1880), born Johann August Sutter and known in Spanish as Don Juan Sutter, was a Swiss immigrant of Mexican and American citizenship, known for establishing Sutter's Fort in the area th ...

. A worker constructing the mill,

James W. Marshall James Wilson Marshall (October 8, 1810 – August 10, 1885) was an American carpenter and sawmill operator, who on January 24, 1848 reported the finding of gold at Coloma, California, a small settlement on the American River about 36 miles no ...

, found gold there in 1848. This discovery set off the

California Gold Rush The California Gold Rush (1848–1855) was a gold rush that began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California fro ...

(1848–1855), a major event in the

history of the United States The history of the lands that became the United States began with the arrival of Settlement of the Americas, the first people in the Americas around 15,000 BC. Native American cultures in the United States, Numerous indigenous cultures formed ...

. The mill was later reconstructed in the original design and today forms part of

Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park is a state park of California, United States, marking the discovery of gold by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in 1848, sparking the California Gold Rush. The park grounds include much of the histo ...

Coloma, California Coloma (Nisenan: ''Cullumah'', meaning "beautiful") is a census-designated place in El Dorado County, California, US. It is approximately northeast of Sacramento, California. Coloma is most noted for being the site where James W. Marshall found g ...

. A

meteorite fall A meteorite fall, also called an observed fall, is a meteorite collected after its fall from outer space was observed by people or automated devices. Any other meteorite is called a "find". There are more than 1,100 documented falls listed in w ...

in 2012 landed close to the mill; the recovered fragments were named the

Sutter's Mill meteorite The Sutter's Mill meteorite is a carbonaceous chondrite which entered the Earth's atmosphere and broke up at about 07:51 Pacific Time on April 22, 2012, with fragments landing in the United States. The name comes from Sutter's Mill, a California ...

History

The territory of

Alta California Alta California ('Upper California'), also known as ('New California') among other names, was a province of New Spain, formally established in 1804. Along with the Baja California peninsula, it had previously comprised the province of , but ...

, which includes modern-day California, was settled by the

Viceroyalty of New Spain New Spain, officially the Viceroyalty of New Spain ( es, Virreinato de Nueva España, ), or Kingdom of New Spain, was an integral territorial entity of the Spanish Empire, established by Habsburg Spain during the Spanish colonization of the Amer ...

from 1683 onwards. It became part of an independent

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

in 1821. John Sutter, a German-Swiss settler, arrived in the region in 1839. He established a colony at

New Helvetia New Helvetia (Spanish: Nueva Helvetia), meaning "New Switzerland", was a 19th-century Alta California settlement and Ranchos of California, rancho, centered in present-day Sacramento, California, Sacramento, California. Colony of Nueva Helvetia Th ...

(now part of

Sacramento ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...

), in the Central Valley. The United States conquered the region during the

Mexican-American War Mexican Americans ( es, mexicano-estadounidenses, , or ) are Americans of full or partial Mexicans, Mexican heritage. In 2019, Mexican Americans comprised 11.3% of the US population and 61.5% of all Hispanic and Latino Americans. In 2019, 71% ...

(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 north-east of his existing colony. Sutter employed James Wilson Marshall, a carpenter originally from New Jersey, to supervise construction of the new building. Americanrivermap

On January 24, 1848, while working on construction of the mill, Marshall found flakes of gold in the

. On February 2, 1848, before news of the discovery had arrived, the

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ( es, Tratado de Guadalupe Hidalgo), officially the Treaty of Peace, Friendship, Limits, and Settlement between the United States of America and the United Mexican States, is the peace treaty that was signed on 2 ...

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 and Azariah Smith, were veterans of the

Mormon Battalion The Mormon Battalion was the only religious unit in United States military history in federal service, recruited solely from one religious body and having a religious title as the unit designation. The volunteers served from July 1846 to July ...

and recorded their experience in journals. Bigler recorded the date when gold was discovered, January 24, 1848, in his diary. Sutter's claim to the

US government The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a feder ...

for

mineral rights Mineral rights are property rights to exploit an area for the minerals it harbors. Mineral rights can be separate from property ownership (see Split estate). Mineral rights can refer to sedentary minerals that do not move below the Earth's surfac ...

was investigated by Joseph Libbey Folsom, who issued confirmation the gold discovery in June. The first flake found by Marshall was shipped to President

James K. Polk James Knox Polk (November 2, 1795 – June 15, 1849) was the 11th president of the United States, serving from 1845 to 1849. He previously was the 13th speaker of the House of Representatives (1835–1839) and ninth governor of Tennessee (183 ...

in Washington DC, arriving in August 1848. It is now on display in the

National Museum of American History The National Museum of American History: Kenneth E. Behring Center collects, preserves, and displays the heritage of the United States in the areas of social, political, cultural, scientific, and military history. Among the items on display is t ...

, part of the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

. As news of the gold spread, settlers flocked to the new

US territory In the United States, a territory is any extent of region under the sovereign jurisdiction of the federal government of the United States, including all waters (around islands or continental tracts). The United States asserts sovereign rights for ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. The population expanded from 14,000 non-natives to an estimated 85,000 newcomers in just a year. There were roughly 81,000 newcomers in 1849 and another 91,000 in 1850. Many settled at the new town of

, which sprung up close to Sutter's Mill. Numerous further discoveries of

gold in California Gold became highly concentrated in California, United States as the result of global forces operating over hundreds of millions of years. Volcanoes, tectonic plates and erosion all combined to concentrate billions of dollars' worth of gold in the ...

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

permanently changed the territory, both through mass immigration and the economic effects of the gold. California became a US State in 1850.

Current status

The site of the mill is part of the

, registered as

California Historical Landmark A California Historical Landmark (CHL) is a building, structure, site, or place in California that has been determined to have statewide historical landmark significance. Criteria Historical significance is determined by meeting at least one of ...

number 530. The current Sutter's Mill is a replica of the original building. It was buil
in 1967
based on Marshall's own drawings and a photograph of the mill taken in 1850.

Meteorite

On April 22, 2012 a

meteor A meteoroid () is a small rocky or metallic body in outer space. Meteoroids are defined as objects significantly smaller than asteroids, ranging in size from grains to objects up to a meter wide. Objects smaller than this are classified as micr ...

entered the Earth's atmosphere and exploded, showering

meteorite A meteorite is a solid piece of debris from an object, such as a comet, asteroid, or meteoroid, that originates in outer space and survives its passage through the atmosphere to reach the surface of a planet or Natural satellite, moon. When the ...

fragments over parts of California and Nevada. The first samples of this

were recovered close to Sutter's Mill, so it was named the

. Several dozen fragments were eventually identified, with a total weight of about a kilogram. The meteorite is classified as a

carbonaceous chondrite Carbonaceous chondrites or C chondrites are a class of chondritic meteorites comprising at least 8 known groups and many ungrouped meteorites. They include some of the most primitive known meteorites. The C chondrites represent only a small prop ...

and contains some of the oldest known material in the Solar System.

In popular culture

The mill was the namesake and inspiration for a song by singer-songwriter

Dan Fogelberg Daniel Grayling Fogelberg (August 13, 1951 – December 16, 2007) was an American musician, songwriter, composer, and multi-instrumentalist. He is known for his 1970s and 1980s songs, including "Longer" (1979), "Same Old Lang Syne" (1980), and " ...

. The mill was also the namesake for a song by the

New Riders of the Purple Sage New Riders of the Purple Sage is an American country rock band. The group emerged from the psychedelic rock scene in San Francisco in 1969 and its original lineup included several members of the Grateful Dead. The band is sometimes referred ...

, and for

Herb Sutter Herb Sutter is a prominent C++ expert. He is also a book author and was a columnist for Dr. Dobb's Journal. He joined Microsoft in 2002 as a platform evangelist for Visual C++ .NET, rising to lead software architect for C++/CLI. Sutter has ser ...

's blog. In Beverly Cleary's novel '' Mitch and Amy'', the protagonists build a model of Sutter's Mill out of toothpicks. Sutter's Mill is referenced heavily in an episode of

Little House on the Prairie The ''Little House on the Prairie'' books is a series of American children's novels written by Laura Ingalls Wilder (b. Laura Elizabeth Ingalls). The stories are based on her childhood and adolescence in the Midwestern United States, American M ...

titled At the End of the Rainbow, in which

Laura Ingalls Wilder Laura Elizabeth Ingalls Wilder (February 7, 1867 – February 10, 1957) was an American writer, mostly known for the ''Little House on the Prairie'' series of children's books, published between 1932 and 1943, which were based on her childhood ...

and a friend believe they have found gold in a stream near Walnut Grove. It is mentioned a few other times as well.

References

External links

Discovery of Gold
by John A. Sutter, '' Hutchings’ California Magazine'', November 1857. Sutter describes how he wanted a sawmill near the

Sacramento ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...

and how Marshall told him of the gold.
Early photographs, illustrations, and textual references to Sutter's Mill
via Calisphere, California Digital Library.
Official site (California State Parks)
{{coord, 38, 48, 12.5, N, 120, 53, 32.5, W, region:US-CA_type:landmark, display=title California Gold Rush

Mill Mill may refer to: Science and technology * * Mill (grinding) * Milling (machining) * Millwork * Textile mill * Steel mill, a factory for the manufacture of steel * List of types of mill * Mill, the arithmetic unit of the Analytical Engine early ...