Sutter's Fort in Sacramento began as the center of John Sutter's New Helvetia colony, founded in 1839 in Mexican Alta California, and became the first non-Indigenous community in California's Central Valley. Built from 1841 into 1843 near the ends of major overland trails, it served as a waystation and helped anchor the city that grew around it. The adobe fort and settlement were established through the forced and harshly controlled labor of Native Californians and Native Hawaiian workers. Closely linked to the Donner Party and the Gold Rush, it was where Sutter first saw James Marshall's gold in 1848. Later preserved and restored, it remains a site of both early settlement and grave exploitation.