Sutter's Fort SHP - A Virtual Reward Cache Virtual Cache

Rushing through it for the made-up glory of a FTF would be counter-productive to its intent. Therefore, anyone who completes the logging requirements by 11:59PM on September 3, 2018 may share FTF honors.

SUTTER'S FORT STATE HISTORIC PARK - SACRAMENTO, CA

In 1839 a Swiss immigrant named John Sutter (born Johann August Suter) 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). Sutter’s Fort was the first non-Indian settlement in California's interior. Sutter was known for his hospitality and for providing temporary refuge to travelers, which made New Helvetia the destination for early immigrants to California. His legacy is mixed; while his settlement played a crucial role in California becoming part of the United States, he failed in his goal of creating an empire. While he was never financially secure, the discovery of gold on his property ruined Sutter — hundreds of thousands of prospectors descended on this part of California, and many of them overran his land holdings, butchered his animals and ruined his crops. His employees deserted him in their quest for gold. Sutter himself abandoned his fort in 1849.

Sutter’s relationships with Native American communities remains controversial. The very presence of a European-type settlement here and the immigration of people from the United States changed the lives of Native Americans forever. Many of them worked voluntarily for Sutter, but when necessary he compelled their labors, and his legacy with Native Americans today is mixed.

Sutter's Fort is central to the story of the Americanization of California, and figures prominently in many of the events that made California what it is today. However, less than a decade after it was established, Sutter's Fort was overrun by gold seekers and it fell into ruin. In 1891 the Native Sons of the Golden West, who sought to safeguard many of the landmarks of California's pioneer days, purchased and reconstructed Sutter's Fort. Based on an 1847 German map, the reconstruction was completed in 1893, although due to a mistranslation it is smaller than the original footprint. The fort was transferred to the State of California, where it was originally managed by a board of trustees as a memorial to California’s Pioneers. In 1947 the fort was transferred to the authority of California State Parks. Today it stands as perhaps the first historic preservation project in the United States, and is managed with a goal of taking visitors back in time to the early days of modern California.

PATTY REED'S DOLL – James Reed, his wife, and children were part of the Donner-Reed emigrant party coming to California in 1846. The Donner-Reed party had numerous mishaps along the trail, coming to the Sierra Nevada very late in November 1845. En route, eight-year-old Patty Reed had been asked by her family to discard all of her beloved toys to help lighten the load. “Dolly” was precious to Patty, so she defied her parents and hid the doll in her dress as they continued their journey.
Unseasonably early and heavy winter snows trapped the Donner Party in the Sierra for months, resulting in starvation and death for nearly half of the emigrants. One of the leading members of the party, James Reed, had an altercation with a teamster working for another family and killed him in western Nevada. Following a quick trial, he was banished from the party and forced to leave his family behind. On foot, Reed went ahead to California before it snowed. Reed’s family remained with the main group and were trapped at Donner Lake. At Sutter’s Fort, James Reed worked tirelessly to organize rescue parties. As a result, his entire family survived the ordeal. Patty Reed’s doll was carried by young Patty as she and her family were rescued from the camp at Donner Lake, and is a tangible reminder of that tragic event.

THE CENTRAL BUILDING – The Central Building of the fort is a two-story adobe structure built between 1841 and 1843. This building is the only original surviving structure at Sutter's Fort State Historic Park and is the oldest structure in the Sacramento Valley. It was in the Central Building on January 28, 1848 that James Marshall met privately with Sutter in order to show him the gold that Marshall had found during the construction of Sutter's sawmill along the South Fork American River only four days earlier.

When word got out about the gold discovery, the fort was mostly abandoned as Sutter’s employees largely deserted him. The Fort was used for storage, and served as a location for stores selling supplies to miners and other uses. The Central Building was used as hotel at the height of the Gold Rush, but by the mid-1850s it had fallen into disrepair.

When originally constructed there was no outside access to the ground-floor level of the Main Building -- one had to descend through a trap door located in the clerk's office. Sutter kept liquor and valuables in this secure space. After Sutter’s departure, the ground floor of the building had many different uses, including a boarding house, a store, a warehouse, a bowling alley, and a bar. The ground floor windows and door access were added during this time, at least one of which has been refilled. If you look at the East wall of the Central Building you will find to the left of the stairs is a wooden lintel (horizontal support) across what used to be a door opening that has been bricked up.

FORT DEFENSES – There was very little likelihood of Sutter's Fort being attacked. However, with cannon mounted atop 15’ to 18’ high, 2.5’ thick walls, the fort provided a sense of security to those Americans who had just immigrated to California.

Bastions are found at northwest and southeast corners; these are structures projecting outward from the curtain wall of a fortification so that defensive fire can protect the walls of the fort. Notice that the southeast bastion protects the south and east walls, while the northwest bastion protects the north and west walls. There is a section of the north wall that is recessed into the fort area that can't be protected by either bastion. If you look carefully along the short wall of the recessed area (above the woodpile to the west of the Bakery Stores), you can see a platform on which a cannon was mounted to protect that area.

CURRENT FOOTPRINT vs HISTORICAL FOOTPRINT –
The original northern wall was about 20' further north than where it currently is located.
The eastern wall used to extend approximately 110' further east just past what is now 28th Street.

Notice that L Street curves around the southwest corner of the fort. When rebuilding the outer walls the southwest corner of the fort would have been in the middle of original alignment of L Street. The City of Sacramento granted title to the original L Street alignment and rerouted L Street to accommodate the reconstruction.

BEAR FLAG REVOLT? HERE? – Sutter’s Fort played a role in the Bear Flag Revolt in 1846. US Army Lieutenant John C. Fremont passed through Sutter’s Fort during his 1846 expedition to Mexican California, camping nearby in the spring of 1846. In June, Americans encouraged by Lt. Fremont seized the Mexican Army barracks at Sonoma and took General Mariano Vallejo and others prisoner. They were briefly imprisoned at Sutter’s Fort. Sutter, though officially a Mexican government official, generally supported the American cause.

THE RUSSIAN CONNECTION – In 1841 Sutter purchased Fort Ross from the Russian government, offering $30,000 on credit, which was payable over four years. This brought him necessary supplies, such as lumber, cannons, and hardware. The weapons at Sutter’s Fort today are all replicas of Russian weapons purchased by Sutter when he acquired the assets of Fort Ross in 1841. Some of the weapons purchased dated from the Napoleonic wars. One of the more important pieces was a field artillery cannon, a replica of which stands in the West Yard.

CULTURAL DIVERSITY – Today, Sacramento is known to be a very diverse city with residents from many cultures, but this is not new. In Sutter’s time, most of the people working inside the Fort were Native Americans and Mexicans. Sutter himself was Swiss, and when his fort was founded his group also included “Kanakas” (Hawaiians.) William Leidesdorff, a mixed-race man from the West Indies, owned a nearby Rancho and was well acquainted with Sutter.