Sacramento, CA Photo - Sutter's Fort is a State Historical Park in CA's Capital City of Sacramento

Sutter's Fort is a State Historical Park in California's capital city of Sacramento. It was constructed about 1840 at the behest of John Sutter, a Swiss immigrant who had received a land grant in the Sacramento Valley from the Mexican government. He used the land to create a flourishing agricultural empire and named it New Helvetia (New Switzerland.) This empire established Sacramento's earliest settlement and the first non-Indian settlement in California's Central Valley. In 1847 Sutter sent aid to the Donner Party, a group of immigrants trapped in a winter storm in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Word spread and Sutter became known for his hospitality and for providing temporary refuge to travelers. This reputation made New Helvetia the destination for early immigrants to California. Sutter is best known for the discovery of gold in a stream beside his mill, high in the Sierras. He and his agent who discovered the nuggets tried to keep the find a secret, but word quickly spread, and less than a decade after they were established, Sutter's properties were overrun by gold seekers, and the fort is all that remains of New Helvetia. It has been restored to its former state based on an 1847 map published in Darmstadt, Germany and is open for tours. John Sutter then sought to earn a fortune outfitting the "49er" prospectors who flocked to California, but his business failed. He made his way to Washington, D.C., where he died, penniless, in a hotel room in 1880

Credit line: The Jon B. Lovelace Collection of California Photographs in Carol M. Highsmith's America Project, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.