Sutter's Mill

In the spring of 47

So the story it is told

Old John Sutter went to the mill site

Found a piece of shinin' 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 lumberin' Conestogas

They left their tracks upon the land

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 Alabama

With their dreams of findin' 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

Oh 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 some pushed on to California

And others stopped to take their rest

And by the Spring of 1860

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

Oh 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

And some would curse John Sutter's Mill

Some men's thirsts are never filled