Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park

The California gold rush (1848–1855) was a gold rush that began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California from the rest of the United States and abroad. The sudden influx of gold into the money supply reinvigorated the American economy; the sudden population increase allowed California to go rapidly to statehood in the Compromise of 1850. The Gold Rush had severe effects on Native Californians and accelerated the Native American population's decline from disease, starvation, and the California genocide. The effects of the Gold Rush were substantial. Whole indigenous societies were attacked and pushed off their lands by the gold-seekers, called "forty-niners" (referring to 1849, the peak year for Gold Rush immigration). Outside of California, the first to arrive were from Oregon, the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii) and Latin America in late 1848. Of the approximately 300,000 people who came to California during the Gold Rush, about half arrived by sea and half came overland on the California Trail and the Gila River trail; forty-niners often faced substantial hardships on the trip. While most of the newly arrived were Americans, the gold rush attracted thousands from Latin America, Europe, Australia and China. Agriculture and ranching expanded throughout the state to meet the needs of the settlers. San Francisco grew from a small settlement of about 200 residents in 1846 to a boomtown of about 36,000 by 1852. Roads, churches, schools and other towns were built throughout California. In 1849 a state constitution was written. The new constitution was adopted by referendum vote; the future state's interim first governor and legislature were chosen. In September 1850, California became a state. At the beginning of the Gold Rush, there was no law regarding property rights in the goldfields and a system of "staking claims" was developed. Prospectors retrieved the gold from streams and riverbeds using simple techniques, such as panning. Although mining caused environmental harm, more sophisticated methods of gold recovery were developed and later adopted around the world. New methods of transportation developed as steamships came into regular service. By 1869, railroads were built from California to the eastern United States. At its peak, technological advances reached a point where significant financing was required, increasing the proportion of gold companies to individual miners. Gold worth tens of billions of today's US dollars was recovered, which led to great wealth for a few, though many who participated in the California gold rush earned little more than they had started with.

Coloma (Nisenan: Cullumah, meaning "beautiful") is a census-designated place in El Dorado County, California, US. It is approximately 36 miles (58 km) northeast of Sacramento, California. Coloma is most noted for being the site where James W. Marshall found gold in the Sierra Nevada foothills, at Sutter's Mill on January 24, 1848, leading to the California Gold Rush. Coloma's population is 529. The settlement is a tourist attraction known for its ghost town and the centerpiece of the Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park. Coloma was designated a National Historic Landmark District on July 4, 1961.It lies at an elevation of 764 feet (233 m).

Sutter's Mill was a water-powered sawmill on the bank of the South Fork American River in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada in California. It was named after its owner John Sutter. A worker constructing the mill, James W. Marshall, found gold there in 1848. This discovery set off the California gold rush (1848–1855), a major event in the history of the United States. The mill was later reconstructed in the original design and today forms part of Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park in Coloma, California. A meteorite fall in 2012 landed close to the mill; the recovered fragments were named the Sutter's Mill meteorite.

Lotus (formerly, Marshall and Uniontown) is an unincorporated community in El Dorado County, California, United States. It is located 1 mile (1.6 km) west of Coloma, at an elevation of 722 feet (220 m). The settlement was established in 1849 and named for James W. Marshall, discoverer of gold. In 1850, the name was changed to Uniontown to commemorate California's admission to the Union. The name was changed to Lotus with the arrival of the post office in 1881. Lotus once had a store, dance hall, and a large Chinese population, including a Chinese cemetery. At its peak, the town was estimated to have 8,000 to 10,000 residents; now it is overshadowed by its neighbor Coloma.

El Dorado is an American Viticultural Area (AVA) located in El Dorado County, California , east of the state’s capital, Sacramento and centered around the county seat of Placerville. It was established on November 14, 1983 by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), Treasury after approving the submitted petition from the El Dorado Wine Grape Growers Association of Camino, California applying to establish a viticultural area named "El Dorado.” The area includes parts of El Dorado County on the north border by the Middle Fork American River and on the south by the South Fork of the Cosumnes River. El Dorado viticultural area lies within the vast 4,062 square miles (2,600,000 acres) Sierra Foothills viticultural area, one of the largest appellations in California, which extends about 170 miles (274 km) through portions of Yuba, Nevada, Placer, El Dorado, Amador, Calaveras, Tuolumne and Mariposa Counties. The El Dorado viticultural area encompasses 1,093,120 acres (1,708 sq mi) which entirely includes Fair Play and a small portion of northeastern California Shenandoah Valley AVAs.

The Wakamatsu Tea and Silk Farm Colony is believed to be the first permanent Japanese settlement in North America and the only settlement by samurai outside of Japan. The group was made up of 22 people from samurai families during the Boshin Civil War (1868–69) in Japan preceding the Meiji Restoration. The group purchased land from Charles Graner family in the Gold Hill region after coming to San Francisco in 1869. Though the group was able to successfully show their produce during the 1869 California State Agricultural Fair in Sacramento and the 1870 Horticultural Fair in San Francisco, the farm as a Japanese colony only existed between 1869 and 1871. Okei Ito, the first known Japanese woman to be buried on American soil, has her grave on the land. The Veerkamp family purchased the farm following the withdrawal of financial support from financier Matsudaira Katamori (1835–93). In 1969, the same year as the Japanese American centennial, Ronald Reagan, then governor of California, proclaimed the colony to be California Historical Landmark No. 815. The family preserved the heritage of the farm and Okei's grave for 137 years until the American River Conservancy purchased the land in November 2010, with the National Park Service placing the site on the National Register of Historic Places at a level of "national significance". American River Conservancy offers private and public tours of the property, including Okei Ito's gravesite.

Gold Hill (formerly, Granite Hill) is an unincorporated community in El Dorado County, California. It is located 2.5 miles (4.0 km) south of Coloma, at an elevation of 1621 feet (494 m).

Cold Springs (formerly, Cold Spring) is a census-designated place in El Dorado County, California. It is located 4 miles (6.4 km) west of Placerville, at an elevation of 1207 feet (368 m). It has a population of 446. A post office operated at Cold Spring (as it was then called) from in or before 1852 to 1874.

Kelsey (formerly, Kelsey's Diggings) is an unincorporated community in El Dorado County, California. It is located 2 miles (3.2 km) north of Chili Bar, at an elevation of 1923 feet (586 m).A post office operated at Kelsey from 1856 to 1872, from 1875 to 1903, with several moves, and from 1920. The name honors Benjamin Kelsey, who came to California in 1841 and discovered gold at the site in 1848. The town was first known as Kelsey's Diggings because of the mining there.

The Community Observatory is a public outreach observatory located in Placerville, California, on the campus of the El Dorado Learning Center. The Community Observatory was established in 2006 through the work of the Rotarians of Cameron Park as free family-friendly park for the community. It is operated by a partnership of a team of volunteers, Folsom Lake College, the El Dorado County Office of Education and the Rotarians of Cameron Park. In 2011, the Rotarians of Cameron Park installed the Art Cort Sky Theater as a place for visitors to rest and gaze at the stars. There volunteers are often found providing tours of the constellations. As of 2017, two telescopes are permanently mounted in the observatory: one 17-inch Planewave CDK and one 14-inch Celestron SCT, modified to accommodate a Hyperstar optic system fitted with an Atik Infinity Camera. As of 2017, the Community Observatory had received over 80,000 visitors. Hours can be found through its website, its Facebook page,.Acting as docents are volunteers with an interest in astronomy who donate their time and knowledge to make a visit to the observatory educational. They can provide information about celestial objects, the observatory facility, and telescopes.

Marshall's Blacksmith Shop is a California Historical Landmark No. 319, now on the private property in Kelsey, California. The Blacksmith Shop was built in 1872 off of what is now California State Route 193 in El Dorado County, California at Gray Eagle Mine. James W. Marshall was a Blacksmith, a carpenter and sawmill operator. The Gray Eagle mine and ore mill is a lode gold mine on 13.2 acres of land in the Mother Lode Country, just south of Kelsey. Marshall was part owner of the Gray Eagle mine.James Wilson Marshall (1810–1885) on January 24, 1848, found gold at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California on the American River about 36 miles northeast of Sacramento. His find stated the California Gold Rush. Johann (John) Sutter had hired Marshall to build a sawmill at Sutter's Mill. Marshall and Sutter in the end did not profit from the gold find. This is a California Historical Landmark to Marshall at Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park.

Spanish Flat is an unincorporated community in El Dorado County, California. It is located 4 miles (6 km) north of Chili Bar, at an elevation of 2431 feet (741 m). A post office operated at Spanish Flat from 1853 to 1872 and for a while in 1888. The name commemorates Spanish-speaking miners at the site.