01Biography
Johann August Sutter was born in Baden to Swiss parents. Deep in debt, he left his wife and children in Switzerland in 1834 and went to America. In 1838 he crossed the Rockies with a fur company caravan, passed the mission at The Dalles and was welcomed at Fort Vancouver, then sailed by way of Hawaii and Alaska to California, where he landed in July 1839.
On a Mexican land grant he built New Helvetia, or Sutter's Fort, where the American River meets the Sacramento. Its fields and workshops ran on the labor of Native Californians, whom he exploited. Nearly every overland party made for his fort, and he fed and hired worn-out emigrants, John Bidwell among them. In January 1848 his carpenter, James Marshall, found gold at the sawmill they were building at Coloma.
02Why they matter
His fort was the goal of most overland emigrants to California, and he sent food and mules to stranded parties, among them the Donner Party.
03How they died
Gold seekers and squatters overran his land, and when U.S. courts rejected his Mexican land titles he was ruined. By 1871 he had settled in Lititz, Pennsylvania, and for years he asked Congress to repay his losses. He died in Washington, D.C., on June 18, 1880, aged 77, and was buried at Lititz.
04Legacy
His restored fort is now Sutter's Fort State Historic Park in Sacramento, and Sutter County and Sutter Street in San Francisco carry his name. The site of the gold discovery at Coloma is Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park.