Johann sutter
Johann Augustus Sutter was born in Germany on February 15, 1803 and lived until he died on June 18, 1880. But when he was 34 he was very worried. He was very rich and for some very weird reason you could get arrested for having too much money in Switzerland. So he decided to sail to the United States of America and take his wealth with him. As he sailed he found Fort Vancouver today known as Portland. There he became friends with some very important people and with their help changed his name to Captain so it would make him a better businessman. From there he sailed too the Sandwhich Islands today known as Hawaii. Where he met King Kamehameha. He bargained with the king but he loaded some workers onto Sutters boat. Then he sailed to Alaska where he managed to get some cannons. Then he sailed to California with 13 workers. When he arrived in California he created his first settlement in the Sacramento Valley. But after a little while he decided to move to the American River. Then, he asked James Marshall to build a sawmill called Sutters Mill. Then one day on the job Marshall found gold. When he told Sutter, Sutter said "keep this a secret I don't want people bombarding my land."n This was one of the reasons but the main one was because he didn't own the land around the mill where the gold was.