1922, a "Gold Celebration" in Sacramento
Last night, Thursday, we went ot the 8th annual SAMCC (Sacramento Archives and Museum
Collection Center) open house. Fortunately, I had seen
the notice in the paper. In fact, we SHOULD have had at
least one and more likely two invitations through our memberships
in the Discovery Museum and the Sacramento History Society. The
display last night was "After the Gold Rush" and it was about
celebrations and societies set up to honor the Gold Rush. For
instance, in 1839 (100 years after Sutter set up New Helvetia)
they built a gold rush town in Southside Park. (Southside Park
was cut in two by the freeway.)
We looked at the new acquisitions. I was fascinated by a 1951 Baseball
training documentary, and also by one of the early ("antique") computers
used by the City: an Osbourne with a 5-inch screen and, get this, FOUR
disk drives for FOUR 5.25" floppies! Of course, only two had been installed,
because obviously they wouldn't really need the others. Another computer there
was a PET. Hey, I remember PETs.
We also entered a raffle for
something wonderful, but sniff didn't win.
A week ago Wednesday we went to the second of the lectures about the Gold Rush. This topic was "Gold Rush Saints" about the connections and influences the Mormons had on the gold rush and vice versa.
The lecturer was the man who set up the whole series. It was in the Union Ballroom at CSUS. I hadn't been in the Union since it was expanded during the last couple of years, so after the lecture Rich and I went around and had a look. Wow. It's a really nice building and the addition remained true to the original architect's concept. I think it was to remind students of the Sierra. It's set up near the ford over the American where Jedediah Smith crossed, and where later the first change of the Pony Express was. The building, anyway, has lots of conversation space and study space and meeting space, as well as restaurants and a coffee bar and a game room. I'd initially thought the lecture was going to be in the OLD ballroom, which is now just a smaller meeting room. However, we got set right in time. The audience wasn't anywhere near the size of the previous one, but then there wasn't a Regional Conference going on at the same time.
Ken started out by saying this was a tale of two statues. He
remarked on the statue of James Marshall at Coloma, California's
first historic monument. When Rich and I "discovered" the James
Marshall historic park on our honeymoon, we didn't see the
statue, up on a hill overlooking the town. We, not knowing the
name "James Marshall" or "Coloma", were astounded enough to realize
this was Sutter's Mill! Rich played around in the millrace and
picked up some fool's gold which was fun. Coloma has since
improved the park. Then it was just a wide space in the road and
a decaying old mill. Now the historic buildings are marked and
there's a visitor's center.
I would guess Marhall's statue, larger than life and holding a
rock the size of a boulder, was there in 1965, but we didn't see
it till the mid70s when we moved here.
The other statue is, of course, Brigham Young in Temple Square
in Salt Lake City. We did see that one on the honeymoon.
Without the Mormons, especially Sam Brannan, history would have been quite different. In 1845,Sam was a young Mormon in New York City. Brigham Young encouraged him to establish an LDS colony n Northern California, preparatory to conquering it. "We will meet you there." Brannan left on the steamer "Brooklyn" in February of 1846 with 240 men, women, and children. Coincidently, on the same day, Young left Nauvoo for parts west. The "Brooklyn" arrived at Yerba Buena at the end of July. By this time, Northern California was US territory, due to the Mexican wars.
In January of 1847, Yerba Buena became San Francisco, and the old city Plaza is now Portsmouth Square. (Fodder for our next sightseeing trip to S.F.!) Brannan established the colony of New Hope in the San Joaquin Delta. This town didn't last, so he headed to Sutter's Fort. In 1847, Brannan headed east to meet Young at the Green River in Wyoming. He told Young about the wonders of California, but as it was now US territory, Young preferred to establish the City of God somewhere else, and on June 28, stated "this is the place" and planted his staff. He appointed Brannan as the President of California. "Get rich for the Lord designs that his shall be the richest people on earth." (Sam Brannan apparently forgot the "give to the Church" part of this proclamation.)
Meanwhile, in June of 1846, President Polk enlisted the Mormon Battalian from Nauvoo refugees stuck at Council Bluffs on the Missouri. This seems to me to be similar to Israel arming and training a Palestinian Battalion, but it worked out for the US. The LDS church got $5,000 for this, and the emigrants were able to move along to Utah.
The Mormon Battalion went from Fort Leavenworth to Santa Fe to San Diego and then to Yerba Buena, constructing roads. From San Fransico 150 of these men headed toward Sutter's Fort, where they learned that Salt Lake was "the Place." Just beyond Donner Pass they met Branan's party from Salt Lake City and learned that Young wanted them to stay in California for the winter and not stress the limited resources of Salt Lake City. 50-60 of the men complied, and came back to Sutter's Fort.
Sutter was delighted to see all these fit young workers. He had overextended, as usual, and had many more projects in mind. He wanted a grist mill on the American (where CSUS is now) and another on the upper American, and a sawmill at Coloma.
In January of 1848, when Marshall discovered the gold flakes in the millrace, Henry W. Bigler, a 33-year old Mormon from West Virginia, wrote to friends at the grist mill. By mid-April 7 Mormon boys had a diggings at Mormon Island 20 miles downstream from Sutter's Mill (a location now under Folsom Lake). They were recovering $100 a day.
In April of 1848 Sam Brannan visited Sutter's Fort and went on up May 4th to Mormon Island. When he went back to San Francisco, he publicized the find: "Gold, gold, GOLD from the American River!" He was collecting tithes of 30% from Mormon Island. None of this went back to the Utah church, however. Brigham Young was less-than-thrilled by this turn of events and decided that Satan resided in California. Sam Brannan is the "most prominent of the fallen-away Mormons."
The Mormons wanted an easier route into California than the Donner Pass, which had proven so disastrous. So, west to east, they built the Mormon Immigrant trail which cuts between our current highways 50 and 88. It was built by 28 men and one woman (Melissa Corey). They took cannon from Ft. Ross that they'd bought from Sutter. At Tragedy Springs, 3 were killed by Indians. There were places too narrow and rocky to pass, and they set fires against the granite boulders, then dowsed them with cold water till they split, and did this over and over till the rocks were small enough to cart away. There were parts of the Mormon Immigrant Trail that were difficult, but eventually it was one cart-width across. 45,000 non-Mormons went over this trail in 1850. There's "Mormon Station" in the Carson Valley.
In Salt Lake, Young was thundering against the sinfields of California. He told people on their way through how awful it was. He was worried his own young men would be lured off by the gold. However, Mormon coinage included $75,000 in California gold. The gold rush brought the world to Salt Lake City.
The influence of gold on Salt Lake City is easy to trace. The Mormon influence on the gold rush is threefold:
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