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Amador County Branch 96 - Jackson, California |
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OXEN’S TALE #8 JOHN SUTTER AND HIS FORT part #1 By Frank Tortorich
John Sutter is one of my favorite early California characters. Like so much of history there is much written about Sutter and some is just myth. The next few Oxen’s Tales will be devoted to this very colorful, egocentric, generous, self-promoting, charismatic, alcoholic, well liked but often-hated individual. Suter (as it most likely was spelled in Switzerland) was all of the above and probably more. Sutter came to California in 1839 looking for land to establish an agriculture empire. He first landed at Monterey and met the then-Governor Juan Alvarado. In Sutter’s travels to California by way of St. Louis, Fort Vancouver (a Hudson Bay outpost near, Portland, OR.), Hawaiian Islands, and Sitka, AK., Sutter learned about the central valley of California. The Hudson Bay trappers told him that there was great potential for farming at the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers. Alvarado agreed to let Sutter settle at the requested location. After one year, if things were going as planned, Sutter would be given a Mexican Land Grant of 11 square leagues, over 48,000 acres. However, to gain this grant Sutter had to become a citizen of Mexico and a Catholic. Next time we will talk about how he financed all this. |
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