In the spring of '47, so the story it is told
old John Sutter went to the mill side,
found a piece of shining gold.
Well,he took it to the city, where the word
like wild and spread.
And old John Sutter soon came to wish
he'd left that stone in the river bed.
For they came like heards of locusts,
every woman, child and man.
In their lumbering...
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,
Some would curse John Sutter's mill.
Some men's thirsts are never filled.