For decades, Sutter’s Mill was lost to time and the river until lower water levels in 1924 revealed the mill’s foundation, saw blades, and other relics. The discovery held special meaning for Phil Bekeart, whose father, Frank, had come to Coloma in 1849 to establish a gun shop, one of the town’s oldest buildings. In 1947, during another period of low water, archaeologists worked quickly before a storm to uncover more of the mill’s foundations, some timbers, and the tailrace location where James Marshall accidentally discovered gold.