Adventure 052 - Sutter's Mill

 Capture California, the Game-2012

Adventure: 052 – Sutter's Mill

Team: Thing One, Thing Two

Date:  June 29, 2012

Location: James Marshall Gold Discovery State Historical Park

Destination:
The original mill is long gone. What stands now is a wall marking the spot of the original mill. It is next to the South Fork of the American River, where James William Marshall proclaimed those famous words, “Boy's, I think I have found it”. The IT being gold.



A replica of the original mill has been rebuilt in-land, where it will be away from flooding. Like the original mill, no nails were used. Wooden pegs holds the whole structure together. What surprised me was the structure is open air with very little machinery. Most of the structure is taken up by area to stack and handle the wood.



From our readings, James Marshall was more interested in getting the saw mill completed than his discovery of gold. The discovery was made while constructing the raceway which would power the mill. When the wheel which would turn got stuck, the raceway channel needed to be deepened. Each day Marshall would have his help, mostly Native American Indians and Mormon soldiers, clear away boulders. At night, he would have the water spill through, scourging the raceway. On his daily inspections, he saw a glittering and saw that it was gold. After that, he would let his men pan for gold on their free time, while working to get the mill operational. This worked out until the find was confirmed and then all the mill tools were dropped and gold fever struck. After that, well the rest is history.