Sutter's Mill

In the spring

Of forty seven

So the story it is told

Old John Sutter

Went to the mill site

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

Well they came

Like herds of locusts

Every woman child and man

In their lumbering conestogas

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

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

Oh some would fail

And some would prosper

Some would die

And some would kill

Some would thank

The lord for their deliverance

Some would curse

John Sutter's mill

Some pushed on to California

Others stopped to take their rest

By the spring of eighteen sixty

They had opened up the west

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

Some would curse

John Sutter's mill

Some would curse

John Sutter's mill

Some men's thirsts

Are never filled