{"id":889,"date":"2012-04-10T22:00:10","date_gmt":"2012-04-11T02:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/?p=889"},"modified":"2024-12-03T16:49:34","modified_gmt":"2024-12-03T21:49:34","slug":"all-that-glitters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/?p=889","title":{"rendered":"All That Glitters"},"content":{"rendered":"

Linda Burton posting from Sacramento, California<\/em> \u2013 Sutter\u2019s Fort is a white-walled adobe compound that sits midtown, surrounded by lovely homes and sidewalked streets, looking rather unassuming now. How is it connected to the story of the Gold Rush Days? I see a little girl go running past, a long gray dress, a ruffled cap. \u201cIt\u2019s field trip day,\u201d the guide explained. \u201cin fact, the children are staying overnight. They\u2019re even cooking their own meals. See, they\u2019re dressed like children back in 1845.\u201d Sutter\u2019s Fort is part of the California State Parks system now, offering educational programs for school children, and other daytime and evening events. I began to look around.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Johann Augustus Sutter \u2013 what did this man do? I learned that he was born in Baden, Germany in 1803, apprenticed in a publishing house in Switzerland, operated a dry goods and bakery shop. Then he fled Europe, leaving behind his wife, his children, and a lot of debt. He traded and swindled his way across North America, landing on the American River in 1839. He had big dreams in this wild, wide-open land; he\u2019d build an empire, become a wealthy man.<\/p>\n

He built a fort; for his labor force using local Indians and Hawaiians he\u2019d brought with him from a visit there. Inside the fort were carpenter and blacksmith shops, a gunsmith, artillery, bakery, grist mill, blanket factory. His office and living quarters were inside too; outside were houses and corrals. Eventually he had 300 people working in the fort.<\/p>\n

Sutter became a Mexican citizen in 1840, and in receipt for keeping order among the Indian tribes, was given a land grant for more than 48,000 acres. In 1845 he was appointed \u201cCaptain of the Sacramento troops\u201d and given more land. At one point he owned 191,000 acres between present-day Sacramento and Redding.<\/p>\n

Sutter\u2019s Fort was popular with emigrants, and he provided shelter and supplies to many, including survivors of the Donner Party who were rescued and brought here. (The tragic story of those lost is made more touching by the display of the doll that once belonged to Patty Reed. Patty was told to leave the doll behind to reduce weight of items carried; she couldn\u2019t bear to let it go; hid it in her skirt. The doll is in Restoration today, but will be back.)<\/p>\n

Sutter\u2019s life of trading, farming and providing refuge and safety to many was soon to end. In 1847 Sutter hired James Marshall to build a sawmill on the American River, 50 miles away, and on January 24, Marshall discovered a shiny nugget in the tailrace of the mill.<\/p>\n

That discovery led to the 1849 Gold Rush, forever changing the world John Sutter knew. The flood of miners was overwhelming; they settled everywhere. California became a state in 1850 and the US government didn\u2019t honor claims for much of the land given to Sutter by Mexico. His workers fled the fields to search for gold, and by 1852 Sutter was bankrupt.<\/p>\n

Sutter\u2019s wife and children had come in 1849; as his debts mounted he transferred title to his remaining holdings to son John Jr. He and Anna and their other children moved away, the Fort was sold. He lobbied Congress for relief, but never regained his empire. He died in Pennsylvania in 1881, far from Sutter\u2019s Fort, far from gold.<\/p>\n

A kind of quirky karma there, I\u2019m thinking as I walk back to my car.<\/p>\n

Sutter\u2019s Fort State Historic Park, 2701 L Street. www.parks.ca.gov\/suttersfort<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Linda Burton posting from Sacramento, California \u2013 Sutter\u2019s Fort is a white-walled adobe compound that sits midtown, surrounded by lovely homes and sidewalked streets, looking rather unassuming now. How is it connected to the story of the Gold Rush Days? I see a little girl go running past, a long gray dress, a ruffled cap. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4586,194],"tags":[271,282,281],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/889"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=889"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/889\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27220,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/889\/revisions\/27220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}