Sutter's Mill Lyrics

In the spring of Forty-seven so the story it is told
Old John Sutter went to the mill site and found a piece of shining gold
Well, he took it to the city where the word like wildfire spread
And old John Sutter soon came to wish he'd left that stone in the river bed
For they came like herds of locusts...every woman, child and man
In their lumbering Conestogas they left their tracks upon the land

[Chorus:]
Some would fail and some would prosper
Some would die and some would kill
Some would thank the Lord for their deliverance
And some would curse John Sutter's mill

Well, they came from New York City and they came from Alabam'
With their dreams of finding fortunes in this wild, unsettled land
Well, some fell prey to hostile arrows as they tried to cross the plains
And some were lost in the Rocky Mountains with their hands froze to the reins

[Chorus]

Well, some pushed on to California and others stopped to take their rest
And by the spring of Eighteen-sixty they had opened up the West
And then the railroad came behind them and the land was plowed and tamed
When Old John Sutter went to meet his maker, he'd not one penny to his name

[Chorus]

And some would curse John Sutter's Mill
Some men's thirsts are never filled