Early in 1848, W. Sidney S. Willis and Wilford Hudson, members of the Mormon Battalion, set out from Sutter’s Fort to hunt deer and, after stopping on the South Fork of the American River, found gold. When they returned to the fort and told their story, about 150 Mormons and other miners soon flocked to the site, which was named Mormon Island. This became the first major gold strike in California after James W. Marshall’s discovery at Coloma. By 1853 the town’s population was more than 2500, and it had four hotels, three dry goods stores, five general merchandise stores, an express office, and many small shops. The first ball in Sacramento County was held there on December 25, 1849. A fire destroyed the town in 1856, it was never rebuilt, and its site, one-half mile east of here, was inundated by Folsom Lake in 1955.