Marshall was overseeing construction of a sawmill for influential landowner John Sutter, a Swiss immigrant, in what’s now California’s Coloma Valley when he noticed something shiny at the bottom of ...

The news brought thousands of prospectors to the area, but neither Marshall nor his employer John Sutter prospered from the find. Another employee of Sutter, John Bidwell, made his own strike ...

Take a step back in time to the days before gold was discovered in California with a visit to Sutter's Fort. In 1839, Swiss immigrant John Sutter built what became known as Sutter’s Fort ...

Neither side knew that gold had recently been discovered at the sawmill Swiss immigrant John Sutter was building near Coloma. When news of gold reached San Francisco first, it was met with disbelief.