New Jersey-born James Wilson Marshall arrived at John Sutter’s fort at Sacramento in July 1845, found work there as a carpenter and wheelwright, and after the U.S. takeover became Sutter’s partner in building the sawmill at Coloma. On January 24, 1848, after finding gold in the mill’s tailrace, he briefly kept the discovery secret before telling the Mormon workers building the mill, and the news spread across the Pacific to Hawaii and China, to Mexico and South America, and throughout the United States, launching the gold rush and transforming California. In the summer of 1849, gold seekers flooded the Nisenan river valley of “Cullumah,” tents filled the plain near Sutter’s sawmill, and the mining population rose to more than 400. Although richer diggings were soon found elsewhere, Coloma became a major trading and recreation center for nearby camps, was named the seat of El Dorado County in 1850, and lost that position to Placerville seven years later. As placer mining declined, Coloma found new prosperity in fruit farming and winemaking, and in the 1860s Marshall helped advance its agricultural reputation by growing more than 100 varieties of grapes on his 15-acre farm. Marshall never prospered from the opportunities of the gold rush and ended his life as a carpenter and blacksmith in Kelsey, without official recognition for his role. After his death in 1885, local and state leaders moved to honor him, and on May 3, 1890, a crowd of 3,500 gathered at his hilltop gravesite for an unveiling ceremony. Coloma, the site of the gold discovery, became the first permanent town of the Mother Lode, with the first mountain sawmill, first gold rocker, first mining ditch, and first county seat of El Dorado County, and it grew into a supply center from which other gold camps were founded.