Visit Marshall Gold Discovery Site near Placerville

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Of all the historical sites in the great state of California, Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park in Coloma is right up there as one of the most significant. The reason? It’s the site where gold was first discovered in 1848, two years prior to California becoming a state.

The man who made this remarkable discovery, James W. Marshall, found several shining flecks of gold along the South Fork of the American River in the tail-race of the sawmill he was building in partnership with a man named John Sutter.

This find was indeed significant, yet consequential, as it spawned the largest migration of people in the Western Hemisphere. Once word got out the (gold) rush was on, as thousands of miners made their way to the golden hills of California to earn their own fortune.

It’s important to remember that at the time Marshall made this discovery, Coloma (as well as most of Northern California) was largely inhabited by the Nisenan Indian Tribe. They called this place, Cullumah, which means “beautiful valley”.

Today, the California State Park agency runs this massive site. In it, there are multiple examples of replicated buildings, a visitor center, the burial site of James Marshall, a monument marking the spot of gold discovery, a replica of Sutter’s Mill, and more.

MARSHALL GOLD DISCOVERY SITE PARKING & FEES

There are actually two spots where you can start your day at Marshall Gold Discovery Site; the main area near the visitor center and up the hill at the James Marshall Monument. To avoid confusion, type “Marshall Gold Discovery Site Visitor Center” or “John Marshall Monument” into your GPS of choice.

I didn’t know that going in and just entered “Marshall Gold Discovery Site” into Apple directions and was taken to the hill near the monument and worked my way down from there. You can’t go wrong with either, it’s simply a matter of preference.

Up the hill at the monument is a medium-sized paved lot capable of holding a few dozen vehicles. There is no digital pay station here, just the old school iron ranger when you fill out the envelopes. Be sure to bring exact change.

Below at the visitor center, you can pay your entry fees to the staff inside (you can pay with debit cards here). Either way, be sure to place your receipt on your dashboard so you don’t end up with a ticket.

Fees at Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park are:

• $10 per vehicle

• $9 per vehicle (seniors 62 and over)

The day-use areas are open to the public at 8am, no matter the time of year. However, it closes at 6pm from Labor Day to Memorial Day and 8pm during the summer months. The visitor center opens at 9am and generally closes at 4 or 5pm.

Marshall Monument/Burial Site

As stated above, my wife and I started on the hill at the Marshall Monument. The monument is impressive, as it’s California’s first historic monument and is the final resting place of James W. Marshall himself.

At the top of the monument is a bronze statue of Marshall. In it, he’s pointing downward to the spot on the South Fork of the American River where his discovery changed the course of California history forever.

Marshall passed away on August 10, 1885, totally penniless. Since he couldn’t contain news of the gold discovery and bigger, stronger miners began to show up, Marshall was muscled out his spot before he could finish constructing Sutter’s Mill.

Ironically, neither Marshall nor Sutter profited from their discovery. In 1886, a year after his death, the monument was constructed. Four years later in 1890, the bronze statue was created and placed on top of the monument. In 2010, it was re-dedicated to honor Marshall on his 200th birthday.

From the monument, begin your slow descent down the hill in your vehicle. A mile or so past Marshall Monument is where you’ll find Marshall’s cabin that he built shortly after arriving in Coloma. He occupied the cabin from 1856 to 1870.

Adjacent to the cabin is an old pioneer’s cemetery and further down from there is the highly-historic (and beautiful) Emmanuel Church, which was built in 1855 and was the first Episcopal Church in California.

You can’t go inside either the church or the cabin, unfortunately. Though there are several windows you can look through. To my knowledge, the items displayed inside the cabin are not original.

You can park in the small pull-out adjacent to the cabin and walk to all three of these attractions. When you’re done exploring, get back in your car and continue down the road. You’ll see signs pointing the way to the visitor center.

At one point, you’ll be driving through a street lined with houses. Some of them are currently occupied, but others are not and have historical markers next to them that you can read.

Visitor Center and Sutter’s Mill Replica

When you reach the bottom of the hill you should arrive to the visitor center. I know visitor centers are sometimes skipped by visitors, but give this one a look. There are dozens of exhibits and artifacts inside detailing the history and development of the area.

The museum pays tribute to Native Americans, who previously inhabited this area. It also details the discovery of gold in the river and the gold rush that proceeded it. Additionally, there’s real-life examples of pioneer wagons, gold-panning tools, clothing and more.

All around the road cutting through Coloma and surrounding the visitor center are numerous replicated and real-life historic structure exhibits. This includes a schoolhouse, Chinese store, a blacksmith’s shop, and others.

Just down the way from the visitor center is the ruins of the Coloma Jail, which was the first known jail in the state. The cells aren’t accessible to visitors, but they’ve pulled one outside of the ruins that you can see.

Nearby, you’ll find exhibits detailing the presence of the Nisenan people who called this region home. The biggest and most significant of which are the bedrock mortars, or “grinding rock”. It’s a huge rock with dozens of near-perfectly round shaped holes seemingly drilled into it.

The Native people used these grinding rocks to ground acorns for food, which was their main diet. According to a park ranger, the depth of the holes indicate that the Nisenan people were likely in the area for 1,000 years or more.

Across the street from the Native American exhibit is where the (arguably) biggest attractions of the park are located; the replica of Sutter’s Mill (what James Marshall used to mine for gold) and a monument placed on the spot of the first discovery.

The spot where the replica sits is not the original location. It was actually closer to the river’s edge, about where the monument sits now. There’s much debate as to if that monument is even in the correct spot but according to a ranger I spoke with, it is correctly placed.

The monument sits behind the Sutter Mill replica, right on the edge of the river. It’s largely made of stacked stone and has a bronze plaque in its center which reads, “This monument marks the site of John A. Sutter’s sawmill. In its tail-race, on January 24, 1848, James W. Marshall discovered gold and started the great rush of Argonauts to California”.

On the other side of Sutter’s Mill is the newest structure in the park, a replica of the “Mormon Workers Cabin”. This cabin is where six Mormon Battalion members Sutter and Marshall hired to build the sawmill built and lived in. The cabin was completed on January 23, 1848, one day before Marshall’s discovery.

In fact, we know the exact date of the first discovery because of the journals of Henry Bigler and Azariah Smith, two of the Mormon workers. An example of these journal entries is framed and displayed inside the cabin.

During my wife and I’s visit, there were park employees dressed in pioneer garb, offering a presentation detailing the history and meaning of the cabin free of charge. It was a nice touch and added a lot to the cabin’s historical value.

There’s so much to see and do at Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park that you could literally spend the entire day here and probably not see it all. The park is huge and there are many exhibits to explore.

My wife and I had no idea just how much there was here. We thought it was just the monument, the sawmill, cabin, and visitor center. Since we were merely passing through, we didn’t have the time to see it all. So we’ll definitely be making a return visit.

If you want to come here (and I encourage you to do so) be sure to reserve at least half a day to explore the park (a full day would be preferable). You could always break for lunch at nearby Hog-Wild Barbecue in Placerville. If you’ll be in the area for more than a day, I highly suggest taking a self-guided tour of nearby Gold Bug Mine.

EXODUS 13:21