On July 21, 1847, John Sutter wrote in the daily logbook kept at Sutter’s Fort, “Marshall with Nerio left to the Mountains on the [American] fork, to select the site for the Saw Mill.” The site James Marshall, the head carpenter at Sutter’s Fort, and Nerio, a Miwok Native American guide, found on this week in 1847 was in the valley of Cullumah, the name given by the Yalesumney Nisenan village that inhabited the region. The location is known today as Coloma on the south fork of the American River about 40 miles east of Sutter’s Fort (located today in Midtown Sacramento). The reason a sawmill was initiated was to help meet the demand for lumber at Sutter’s Fort and to provide lumber to build the planned town called Sutterville, where William Land Park is located in Sacramento today. The Sacramento Valley was expected to have an increase in immigration as California became a United States territory after the U.S. military seized control of California from Mexico during the Mexican-Americ...