Editing Sutter's Fort (section)

==History==
[[File:Sutter's Fort ruins painting by Calthea Vivian.jpg|thumb|alt=Painting of crumbling adobe structure with an overcast sky|Painting of Sutter's Fort ruins, {{circa}} 1900]]

To build his colony, John Sutter secured a 50,000-acre land grant in the Central Valley from the [[Alta California|Mexican governor]].<ref name="Palo Alto">{{cite book |last=Harris |first=Malcolm |author-link=Malcolm Harris |title=Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World |date=February 14, 2023 |publisher=Little, Brown and Company |pages=14–15 |isbn=978-0-316-59203-1}}</ref> The main building of the fort, a two-story [[adobe]] structure built between 1841 and 1843, was constructed using [[European enslavement of Indigenous Americans|Indigenous forced labor]]. It is the only original surviving structure at the reconstructed Sutter's Fort State Historic Park. On January 28, 1848, [[James W. Marshall|James Marshall]] met privately with John Sutter inside this building to show him the [[gold]] found during the construction of [[Sutters Mill|Sutter's sawmill]] along the [[American River]] four days earlier. Sutter built the original fort with walls {{convert|2.5|ft|m}} thick and between 15 and {{convert|18|ft|m}} high.<ref name="parks.history" /> Pioneers began settling at Sutter's Fort around 1841. Following the start of the [[California Gold Rush]], the fort was largely deserted by the 1850s and fell into disrepair. 

===Construction===
The party led by John Sutter landed on the bank of the American River in August 1839. The group included three Europeans and a Native American boy, probably to serve as interpreter. Some of the first people brought to the colony were [[Native Hawaiians|Native Hawaiian]] workers, called [[Kanaka (Pacific Island worker)|Kanakas]]. Sutter had entered a contract with the [[Governors of Hawaii (island)|governor of Hawaii]] to import and use the labor of these eight men and two women for three years. Once the first camp was set up, Sutter used local [[Miwok]], [[Nisenan]], and [[Mission Indians|"missionized" Native Californians]] to build the first building, a three-room adobe.<ref name="Palo Alto" />

===Agricultural colony===
Once the fort was built, Sutter established an agricultural colony with labor structures similar to [[Plantation complexes in the Southern United States|Southern plantations]] and [[Feudalism|European feudalism]].<ref name="Palo Alto" /> The colony relied on [[ranch|ranching]] and growing [[wheat]] crops. European colonists oversaw Native Californian and Native Hawaiian workers, who were often gravely mistreated. Sutter employed a [[caste system]] to ensure that the minority European settlers maintained control over the colony. Although some of the laborers worked voluntarily, many were subjected to brutal conditions that resembled [[European enslavement of Indigenous Americans|enslavement]] or [[serfdom]].<ref name="jstor.org">{{cite journal|last=Hurtado|first=Albert|title=California Indians and the Workaday West: Labor, Assimilation, and Survival|journal=California History|date=Spring 1990|volume=69|issue=1|page=5|doi=10.2307/25177303|jstor=25177303}}</ref> 

===Decline===
After gold was discovered at [[Sutter's Mill]] (also owned by John Sutter) in [[Coloma, California|Coloma]] on January 24, 1848, the fort was abandoned.<ref name="nhlsum" /><ref name="parks.history" />

===Preservation===
[[File:SuttersDesk.jpg|thumb|[[John Sutter]]'s desk, photographed at Sutter's Fort State Historic Park]]

In 1891, the [[Native Sons of the Golden West]], who sought to safeguard many of the landmarks of California's pioneer days, purchased and rehabilitated Sutter's Fort when the City of Sacramento sought to demolish it. Repair efforts were completed in 1893 and the fort was given by the Native Sons of the Golden West to the State of California. In 1947, the fort was transferred to the authority of [[California State Parks]] as '''Sutter's Fort State Historic Park'''.

[[File:Making nails at Sutter's Fort, Sacramento.jpg|thumb|Making nails at Sutter's Fort, Sacramento]]

Most of the original neighborhood structures were initially built in the late 1930s as residences, many of which have been converted to commercial uses such as private medical practices. The history of the neighborhood is largely residential.