Bell's General Store

Visitors to Bell's General Store report hearing a bell ring inside, a bell that is not there and has not been for a very long time; the usual explanation offered locally is that one once hung over the door to announce customers. Coloma is where James Marshall found gold at Sutter's Mill on 24 January 1848, and in 1856 fire destroyed most of the town's wooden buildings. Among the first structures raised again was Robert Bell's store, built in brick precisely because brick would not burn and known ever since as Bell's Brick Store. It sold general merchandise along with feed and grain and housed the town's post office for many years, and it stands today inside Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park.