TWHP


Coloma, Sutter's Sawmill   

Coloma began as the site of a sawmill when John Sutter imagined the opportunities available supplying lumber to the gradually populating regions around the San Francisco Bay. He partnered with James Marshall, who would build the structure, and work started in September 1847 at a site along the American River, timber stands readily accessible in the surrounding Sierra foothills. In late January the next year, the mill neared completion, but a channel needed to be created for the mill's waterwheel. While inspecting the progress of the work, Marshall noted the shiny flecks that would prove to be gold.

Within a couple of months, word spread throughout California, men by the thousands ascending the river in search of more. Focus of the initial gold frenzy, the little valley had 40,000 miners pass through in two years, and at its height, the town claimed 10,000 residents. Coloma became a major supply center for the diggings up and down the American River for a brief period, but suffered eclipse by the end of the decade. The gold was gone, the miners and the businesses serving them moved on, and Coloma reverted to a small, forgotten village.


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