Ancestral Narrative as a Contribution to Community Memory and Identity
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Forgotten Saints: Mormon Pioneers in Early California

7 December 2011

Kari Lynne Roueche

        Precisely two years prior to a rag tag group of Americans staging the Bear Flag Revolt in Mexican California, the leader of an American Christian sect was assassinated by a mob in Carthage, Illinois on June 26, 1844.¹ Joseph Smith was the president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Saints had established themselves along the banks of the Mississippi River in a town they called Nauvoo. For a time after his death, the church members were left alone, but soon violent threats resurfaced. Responding to complaints, the Illinois state legislature repealed Nauvoo’s town charter in January of 1845, leaving the Mormons unable to legally protect themselves.² Church leaders formed a plan to move the Illinois members of the church, as well as those still in New England, to the Mexican territories. Some would go by ship and the majority by foot. A portion of those destined to walk across the plains and over the Rocky Mountains would, instead, march to Upper California as a military unit. These sailing and marching pioneers would find themselves participants in the development of early California in critical, but often forgotten, ways.

        The presiding council of the church assigned Orson Pratt to hold a conference in New York to organize the converts along the Eastern seaboard. His conference address clearly showed that Pratt was ready to leave the United States. “It is with the greatest of joy that I forsake this republic;” he exclaimed, “and all the saints have abundant reasons to rejoice that they are counted worthy to be cast out as exiles from this wicked nation; for we have received nothing but one continual scene of the most horrid and unrelenting persecutions at their hands for the last sixteen years.”³ Pratt called upon Samuel Brannan to lease a ship and lead the Saints to San Francisco Bay via Cape Horn, the southernmost tip of South America. Along with food and clothing for the trip, travelers were instructed to bring “farming utensils, mechanical instruments, and all kinds of seeds, seeds of various kinds of fruits.”⁴ It took Brannan weeks to find a captain of a vessel that was willing to take on women and children and to forfeit a potentially lucrative military contract if war with Mexico broke out.⁵ Abel W. Richardson of the Ship Brooklyn, however, struck a hard bargain which enabled Brannan to finally set a departure date of February 4, 1846.⁶

        Meanwhile, in Illinois, the rate of evacuation planning increased to match the level of antagonism toward the church. In the fall of 1845, the President of the Council of the Twelve, Brigham Young, announced that the Latter-day Saints would be leaving in the spring of 1846. He hoped that this announcement would provide the Saints with some peace in order to prepare for the trip. Years later, Parley P. Pratt recalled that this announcement stemmed from a visit to Young and other church leaders by officers of the state militia and a local judge who “advised and urged us strongly to yield to the mob, and abandon our houses, farms, cities, villages and temple to this wholesale banditti, who were engaged against us, and sell them for what we could get, and remove out of the country. But very little of the real estate was ever sold.”⁷  Throughout the month of February, 1846, thousands of church members, soon to be refugees, began crossing the Mississippi River in flat boats and skiffs; but on the twenty-fifth, when the river froze at Montrose, Iowa, a mass exodus of those who had not yet been able to afford the crossing walked on foot and joined the large camp at Sugar Creek. By March 1, the push to Council Bluffs, Iowa on the banks of the Missouri began.⁸

        While the Saints were still scattered across the plains, not yet having the chance to establish a winter camp, Capt. James Allen, representing Col. Stephen W. Kearney, arrived to recruit a battalion of 500 Mormon men for the war with Mexico in California.⁹ While they would march under U.S. military command, the volunteers were allowed to elect their own officers. They selected Jefferson Hunt as their senior captain, and on July 20, the Mormon Battalion set off.¹⁰

        In New York, detailed preparations were underway for the voyage to California. Captain Richardson was willing to drop his fee from $1,500 a month to $1,200 if the passengers aboard the Ship Brooklyn would forego certain comforts to make room for cargo that could make the crew a profit in the Sandwich Islands. Sam Brannan brought his printing assistant, Edward Kemble, and a press, ink, type, and paper. Exceptionally prepared, the Saints also brought livestock, ploughs, seed, tools, milling equipment and a 100 volume library.¹¹ Also unique about Richardson’s 238 passengers was their self-sufficiency: among them there were millers, carpenters, teachers, farmers, tailors, weavers, printers, blacksmiths, coopers, wheelwrights, midwives, and even a physician.¹² This type of preparation would become a hallmark of the Mormons’ settlement of the West.

        The merchant ship had to be remodeled for a passenger voyage. Vents and skylights were added to the tween-decks and a long table with benches the length of the ship was built for dining, studying, and meetings. The benches also served as the only form of passenger seating. Bunks were installed along the sides of thirty-two small staterooms and the galley on deck was improved for the passengers’ use since a grown adult could not stand upright, below. Less than a week into their voyage, women and children were lashed to those same bunks while the ship was tossed about by a storm lasting more than three days. The two milk cows did not survive.

        More than one hundred children were aboard and about sixty-five women. Although sadness accompanied the Saints on their journey, there was also joy. Two of the women gave birth during the voyage; John Atlantic Burr was born to Nathan and Chloe Clark Burr prior to rounding Cape Horn. Georgeanna Pacific Robbins was born to the physician’s wife Phoebe just a week before anchoring in Honolulu.¹³ Two of the Robbins’ older children died on the 24,000 mile trip, along with six other children and four adult passengers.

        Captain Richardson had planned to resupply during their first scheduled rest in Valparaiso, Chile, but the Ship Brooklyn was once again besieged by storm. Relinquishing his goal, the captain headed 360 miles west to Juan Fernandez Island. For five days the Brooklyn Saints enjoyed fresh water, fruit, fish, and vegetables. The abandoned island settlement had only eight remaining inhabitants, which meant there was plentiful food for the ship’s stores and no taxes or harbor fees to pay. On May 9, the Brooklyn set sail for the Sandwich Islands, which would be their second and last stop before San Francisco. In Oahu, Commodore Robert Stockton of the USS Congress boarded the Brooklyn and informed the Saints of the military exchanges that had already taken place in California.¹⁴ Finally, on July 31, 1946, the Brooklyn sailed into San Francisco harbor. The immigrants’ first view of freedom included the presence of Commander John Montgomery’s man-of-war, the Portsmouth. Montgomery had stood by during the Bear Flag Rebellion, but later acted upon orders to claim Yerba Buena for the United States.¹⁵

        Once on land, the Brooklyn Saints immediately set to work unloading, finding shelter, thrashing wheat, and harvesting timber to pay off a $1,000 balance owed to Richardson. Bored from three weeks with little to do, the Portsmouth crew was happy to assist in transporting the Brooklyn cargo to shore. One sailor commented, “‘the most heterogeneous mass of materials ever crowded together; . . . it contained a representative of every mortal thing the mind of man had ever conceived.’”¹⁶ Passenger William Glover recorded some of the industry that took place, noting, “‘They took contracts to make [a]dobies, dig wells, build houses and haul wood.’”¹⁷ The village established in Yerba Buena flourished. Brannan was regularly printing The California Star by January of 1947, which was used to alert the public to the dire situation of the Reed-Donner Party. The Saints erected a school house and hotel and formed a Labor and Trade Association.¹⁸ The communal farming town of New Hope, established near the confluence of the Stanislaus and San Joaquin rivers, failed due to repeated flooding and vicious mosquitoes. However, passengers like John Horner and his wife, who settled independently in the regions between Mission Delores and Mission San Jose, and between the Bay eastward to Sacramento, had tremendous agricultural success. Moreover, some became quite wealthy after the discovery of gold.

        Marching for nearly two and a half months began to take its toll on some of the Mormon Battalion men. Near Santa Fe, in early October, army colonels who were leading the battalion under Kearney’s authority suggested that those who were sick, along with the women and children, should be sent by escort to winter over in Pueblo and to await the approaching body of the church. Eighty-six men left the Battalion.¹⁹ Several days past Santa Fe, another fifty-five men were sent back to Pueblo, as well. With these departures, the Battalion, now, was comprised of just over 350 volunteers. After crossing the desert on half-rations and disintegrating clothing and upon finally catching their first glimpse of California green, Henry Boyle declared, “‘What to us could be more lovely or more cheering at the present time.”’²⁰  After some confusion over the progress of the war and military strategy, which added miles to their journey, they stumbled to San Diego via the El Camino Real. Overlooking the Pacific Ocean from a bluff, Daniel Tyler recalled, “‘The joy, the cheer that filled our souls, none but worn-out pilgrims nearing a haven of rest can imagine.”’²¹ They had completed a march of more than 2,000 miles, blazed a trail that would be used by thousands in the ensuing years and, for their families on the Missouri, hopefully raised money and secured for them safe passage to the West.

        Prior to their release date on July 16, 1847, twelve men had been selected by General Kearney to serve as a military escort for his trip east and had left Los Angeles in mid-May.²² General Mason had such a high opinion of the outfit’s subordination, patience, conduct, example, and respect for the Californians that he made a concerted effort to recruit the men for re-enlistment.²³ Eighty-one did re-enlist, but the majority either desired to supply themselves and journey east to where the Latter-day Saints presumably would be gathering or to await their hoped for arrival in California. Most of those who did not re-enlist journeyed to the northern part of the state looking for work.

        After his initial foray into business near Sacramento was less than successful, entrepreneur John Sutter was looking to hire. He engaged in a partnership with foreman James Marshall, who described the humble beginnings of the venture that would make history, although the humility was more than likely all Sutter’s.

“You may be sure Mr. Sutter was pleased when I reported my success [in locating a mill site]. We entered into partnership; I was to build the mill, and he was to find provisions, teams, tools, and to pay a portion of men’s wages. I believe I was at that time the only millwright in the whole country.”²⁴

For his new lumber and flour mills, Sutter would need good, skilled labor willing to work for meager wages, as he did not have all the capital up front. “I sent up to this place . . . a number of laborers from the disbanded Mormon Battalion.”²⁵ In August of 1847, a small committee of veterans representing approximately 150 members of the discharged Battalion met with Sutter and negotiated the terms of their employment. They would accept, as partial payment, horses, cattle, and general outfitting supplies for their trip east the following summer.²⁶ The saw mill would be built in Coloma along the south fork of the American River and the grist mill down river, closer to Sacramento, in Brighton.

        On January 24, 1848, James Marshall found gold in the tail race of the saw mill. He traveled to the fort to show the nugget to Sutter, who tested the metal with aqua fortis. When Sutter returned to Coloma with Marshall, some of the laborers asked permission to do a little panning for themselves. Henry Bigler’s journal records finding gold throughout February and sending word to the flour mill workers about the discovery. After visiting in Coloma and seeing for themselves, Battalion veterans Willis, Hudson, and Fifield followed the river back to their worksite and found gold along the way.²⁷ James Brown recollected that this second gold discovery location was about halfway between the two mills, about twelve miles from each. It became known as Mormon Island.²⁸

        When the three Battalion workers stopped at Sutter’s Fort for supplies, the manager sent word to Samuel Brannan, who made a trip to the area and reported on his findings by sending copies of a special edition of the Star back East and by running through the streets of Yerba Buena supposedly shouting: “Gold! Gold! Gold from the American River!”²⁹ General William T. Sherman remembered the build-up of a 300-person community at Mormon Island when he saw it in July of 1848. “In the midst of a broken country, all parched and dried by the hot sun of July, sparsely wooded with live-oaks and straggling pines, lay the valley of the American River, with its bold mountain-stream coming out of the Snowy Mountains to the east. In this valley is a flat, or gravel-bed, which in high water is an island.”³⁰ Between 1849 and 1855, the gravel bar island welcomed an additional 2,200 miners and business people (nearly depleting Yerba Buena of its population), two stage coach lines, a tent school, post office, several hotels, too many saloons, and other businesses. Railroad service to neighboring Granite City and the eventual establishment of Folsom township in 1856 initiated a steady decline for Mormon Island.³¹

        Brigham Young had received word about the discovery of gold and had been visited in the Salt Lake Valley by some of the miners. In September of 1849, Young wrote in his journal that fourteen or fifteen “brethren arrived from the gold country, some of whom were very comfortably supplied with precious metal, and others, who had been sick, came back as destitute as they had been when they went on the ship Brooklyn in 1846.” While Young acknowledged that there was plenty of gold in California, he believed that the Sacramento valley was “an unhealthy place,” and that the brethren could be “better employed in raising grain and building houses,” near the Great Salt Lake “than in digging gold in Sacramento, unless they are counseled to do so.³²

        Eventually, Young did approve of the calling up of a modest number of men to be sent on gold mining missions, probably to bring gold back to the basin for the backing of a bank.³³ Young’s theory on who should go was interesting. “Prosperity and riches blunt the feelings of a man. If our people were united, I would send out some of our men to get gold who would care no more for it than the dust under their feet, and then we would gather millions into the church. Some men don’t want to go after gold, but they are the very ones to go.” ³⁴

        Many of those who went did so with trepidation. One group, comprised of twenty men and including the experienced Bigler, left for California in October of 1849. The second group of thirty-one started out in November of the same year. Bigler wrote, “It fills me with sorrow to think of leaving for I am attached to this place and this people . . . it was with considerable struggle with my feelings that I consented to go.”³⁵ The men mined in small groups and did their best, but by then inflation ate away at their profits. Some returned to Salt Lake with very little. The majority of the mining missionaries learned it was wiser to proselytize in Hawaii than winter over in the California gold fields.³⁶ Thus, the expeditions served two purposes.

        The Mormon Battalion members and the Ship Brooklyn passengers accomplished more than gold mining and remarkable journeys. When Sutter’s Battalion work crew completed their work, they began to settle accounts with the mill owner. It took a couple of months, beginning in May of 1848, to complete this process. Meanwhile, a party of nine or ten of the men traveled for several days into the mountains to find a route that would take them over the Sierra Nevada range. In preparation for the journey, the Battalion Saints used the remaining weeks to mine, complete construction of a ditch at the grist mill, make bows and yokes for the oxen, and negotiate further purchases of animals and supplies. Several dozen men and one woman left in teams between June 20 and July 2. This group would later identify themselves as the Thompson-Holmes expedition.³⁷ Following the drainage of the American River and its tributaries, the expedition took with them seventeen wagons; some cannon, guns, and ammunition; hand tools such as picks, hammers, saws, shovels, and axes; 150 mules and horses; and a similar number of cattle.³⁸

        Their general mode of travel was to send a large team of men ahead to blaze a path, while the remaining party would bring up the wagons and animals in the rear. Around the twenty-fifth of June, camp leader Daniel Browett went ahead with Ezra Allen and Henderson Cox on a scouting party; ignoring the caution from the larger group about traveling in the mountains with so few companions.³⁹ By July 17, the main party had given up waiting for the return of Browett’s group and moved on, cautiously. The next day they passed Indians that appeared to be dressed in familiar clothing. From that night forward, the trailblazers camped with a guard and, the next day, searched for their companions in earnest. On July 19, they uncovered a fresh grave with the bodies of the three missing men. Bigler recorded that the men were buried together, naked. Allen had been shot and struck with an ax, the area was strewn with bloody arrowheads, and a leather bag of gold flakes was lying nearby. The diary of Sam Rogers confirms the account and adds that the party named this place Tragedy Spring.⁴⁰

        By August 3, when the original expedition members were still finishing their road, other teams leaving the gold fields and heading for Salt Lake were already making use of the trail. A desert crossing to Salt Lake still awaited the expedition, but because these Mormon trail pioneers had the advantage of moving east along the ridges, they were able to avoid the precipitous dead ends that plagued previous west-bound explorers. With nothing but hand tools, the expedition cleared 170 miles of road in forty days.⁴¹

        Those Mormon Battalion members who had been stationed in San Diego had become familiar with the rancho owners in the San Bernardino Valley while guarding the Cajon Pass. Once discharged, some Battalion veterans took jobs building a grist mill for rancho owner Isaac Williams. In 1851, Captain Hunt negotiated the purchase of Williams’ Chino rancho and was joined there by twenty immigrant families from Utah and another fifteen former Battalion members. Later, Hunt traveled to San Francisco to raise cash for the purchase of the Lugo Family Rancho at a price that would keep the new colonists in debt for years. Despite threats of Indian attack, pressing demands of the Utah War, and debt, the San Bernardino colony thrived and began to attract settlers from all over the west. By 1853, only two years from the outset, San Bernardino County was created.⁴²

        Much of the evidence of the contribution of the sailing Brooklyn Saints and marching members of the Mormon Battalion to the development of early California has been replaced, washed away, or forgotten. The village of Yerba Buena is now San Francisco’s China Town. The town of Brooklyn, California, established in 1856, has been consolidated by the City of Oakland.⁴³ However, a series of historical markers commemorates the Saints’ landing spot, communities, river exploration, and trails. One commemoration, however, is more than merely a marker. Melissa Burton Coray was the laundress for the Mormon Battalion and the lone woman accompanying her husband and the Thompson-Holmes road building expedition. An oral history interview she gave in 1901 adds details to the terrible night at Tragedy Spring when the camp discovered the bodies of their murdered companions. “We were afraid of an attack that night, and so the cannon was fired off every little while to scare off the Indians.”⁴⁴ A 9,763-foot summit in the Sierra Nevada Range was named after Coray in October of 1993. Melissa Coray Peak honors her pioneer spirit and that of her many thousands of sisters who braved the unknown challenges of the West.

        One of the more amusing anecdotes described in Azariah Smith’s Battalion diary is the account of the men’s dislike of the cooking of Mrs. Wimmer, who, along with her husband Peter, was employed by Sutter to provide for the work crew. “We got liberty (of Marshall), and built a small house down by the mill, and last Sunday we moved into it in order to get rid of the brawling, partial, mistress and cook for ourselves.”⁴⁵ However, the diary’s more lasting contribution, along with that of Henry Bigler’s journal, is the detail it adds to the gold discovery story, which is such a pivotal part of the California historical narrative. Kenneth Owens devotes numerous notes and pages to the discussion of the exact discovery date in Gold Rush Saints.⁴⁶ Because of Marshall’s conflicting accounts and the limited number of actual witnesses, these two diaries are pivotal for historians. In an internet broadcast on The Mormon Channel, church archivist Michael Landon explains about historian Henry Hittel’s effort to set the story straight as he prepared his History of California in the late 1800s. Hittel began writing the surviving members of the Mormon Battalion and asking them for their stories. Henry Bigler, rather than write down his remembrances, ripped the corresponding pages from his journal and mailed them to Hittel, successfully putting an end to the debate.⁴⁷ Gold would have been discovered and California would have earned her statehood, whether the Battalion men had been there, or not; but the story is part of the permanent record because they were.

        Of the 238 Brooklyn passengers, 106 remained in California, becoming long-term residents of the state.⁴⁸ By 1880, mining efforts on Mormon Island had been abandoned. With the construction of Folsom Dam in 1955, it is now buried under thousands of gallons of water. A marker has been positioned nearby to identify the cemetery that was moved to safety. Every ten or twenty years, when a drought lowers water levels, the remnants of chimneys, foundations, and mining equipment surface as a reminder that, for a few years, sailing Saints and marching men stopped long enough in the search for religious freedom to make their mark upon the land of California.⁴⁹

End Notes
¹B.H Roberts, ed., History of the Church, vol. 6 (Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book Co., 1980), 618-21.

²Lorin K. Hansen and Lila J. Bringhurst, Let this be Zion: Mormon Pioneers and Modern Saints in Southern Alameda California (Salt Lake City, UT: Publishers Press, 1996), 9.

³B.H Roberts, ed., History of the Church, vol. 7 (Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 1980), 515.

⁴Roberts, History, vol. 7, 516.

⁵Annaleone D. Patton, California Mormons by Sail and Trail (Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 1961), 4.

⁶Hansen and Bringhurst, Let this be Zion, 15-16.

⁷Parley P. Pratt, Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt (Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 1980), 339-40.

⁸Roberts, History vol. 7, 598 and Hansen and Bringhurst, Let This be Zion, 31.

⁹Hansen and Bringhurst, Let This be Zion, 33-35; and Eugene E. Campbell, “Authority Conflicts in the Mormon Battalion,” BYU Studies 8, no. 2 (Winter 1968): 127.

¹⁰Campbell, “Authority Conflicts,” 128-30.

¹¹Scott Tiffany, Forgotten Voyage: The Mormon Sea Trek that Sparked the Gold Rush, Time Frame Films, DVD, 2003.

¹²Hansen and Bringhurst, Let This be Zion, 15.

¹³Ship Brooklyn Association. “Passenger List.” http://shipbrooklyn.com/ (accessed November 30, 2011).

¹⁴Hansen and Bringhurst, Let This be Zion, 21-3. William Brown Ide, an 1845 immigrant to California who had previously joined the Latter-day Saint Church in Ohio, was a leader in the rebellion against the Mexican territorial government in California. Kenneth N. Owens, Gold Rush Saints: California Mormons and the Great Rush for Riches, Vol. 7, Kingdom in the West series, edited by Will Bagley (Spokane, WA: Arthur H. Clark Co. 2004): note  2, pg. 45. Also, see “Bear Flag Revolt” at http://californiapioneer.org/.

¹⁵Theodore Henry Hittell, History of California, vol. 2. San Francisco, CA: Pacific Press Publishing House, 1885, 476.

¹⁶Hansen and Bringhurst, Let This be Zion, 27.

¹⁷Owens, Gold Rush Saints, 37.

¹⁸Owens, Gold Rush Saints, 41; Hansen and Bringhurst, Let This be Zion, 53; and Patton, California Mormons, 68.

¹⁹Campbell, “Authority Conflicts,” 134.

²⁰Hansen and Bringhurst, Let This be Zion, 45.

²¹Ibid., 46.

²²Campbell, “Authority Conflicts,” 141-2.

²³Hittel, History, 662.

²⁴Owens, Gold Rush Saints, 99.

²⁵John A. Sutter, “The Discovery of Gold in California,” Hutchings’ California Magazine (November 1857) http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist2/gold.html (accessed November 30, 2011).

²⁶Owens, Gold Rush Saints, 97-8.

^27/Ibid., 117-8.

²⁸Ibid., 119.

²⁹Owens, Gold Rush Saints, 120, and Hansen and Bringhurst, Let This be Zion, 53.

³⁰William T. Sherman, “William Tecumseh Sherman and the Discovery of Gold,” Originally published as Memoirs of W. T. Sherman, Ch.2. Heritage Preservation League of Folsom, http://www.folsompreservation.org/William_Tecumseh_Sherman.htm (accessed December 13, 2011).

³¹Folsom History Museum. “History-Mining Towns.” Folsom Historical Society. http://www.folsomhistorymuseum.org/1mining_towns.htm (accessed November 1, 2011).

³²Eugene Edward Campbell, “The Mormon Gold-Mining Mission of 1849,” BYU Studies 2, no.1 (Winter 1960): 21.

³³Ibid. See footnote no. 14 in Campbell’s article, pg. 24.

³⁴Campbell, “Gold-Mining Mission,” 22.

³⁵Ibid., 24-5.

³⁶Ibid., 29-30.

³⁷Owens, Gold Rush Saints, 162-65 and California Pioneer Heritage Foundation. http://californiapioneer.org/destinations/emigrant-trail (accessed January 29, 2012). Samuel Thompson was named the captain over the entire group, which was made up of smaller groups of ten. Jonathan Holmes was elected president.

³⁸Historical Marker Database, “Mormon-Carson Pass Emigrant Trail,” Andrew Ruppenstein, http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=10824 (accessed December 14, 2011).

³⁹Owens, Gold Rush Saints, 166-7.

⁴⁰Ibid., 171-2.

⁴¹Owens,Gold Rush Saints, 158, 183; and Historical Marker Database, http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=10824

⁴²Patton, California Mormons, 136-142; and California Pioneer Heritage Foundation, “Southern California Settlers,” http://californiapioneer.org/ (accessed November 29, 2011).

⁴³Patton, California Mormons, 30-2.

⁴⁴Owens, Gold Rush Saints, 196-99.

⁴⁵David L Bigler, ed. The Gold Discovery Journal of Azariah Smith, Logan, UT: Utah State University Press, 1996, 108.

⁴⁶Owens, Gold Rush Saints, chapter 3.

⁴⁷Legacy, “Mormon Myths,” episode 39, http://mormonchannel.org/legacy/39 (accessed December 7, 2011).  See also Owens’ note no. 3 on pg. 94 of Gold Rush Saints, which explains how Bigler’s daughter used the rest of his diary as a scrapbook. See “A Place in History: The Impact of the Sutter’s Mill Gold Discovery on Henry Bigler,” by M. Guy Bishop, http://www.mormonhistoricsitesfoundation.org/publications/nj_spring1999/NJ11.1_Bishop.pdf and the Archives of the Society of California Pioneers for more discussion and documentation.

⁴⁸Ship Brooklyn Association, “Passenger List,” http://shipbrooklyn.com/ (accessed November 30, 2011).

⁴⁹Don Chaddock, “From the Depths: History Resurfaces as Lake Level Falls,” Folsom Telegraph 2008 http://folsomtelegraph.com/detail/98324.html (accessed November 20, 2011). This article was part of a series that contained an introductory piece and three follow-up parts.

Bibliography

Bigler, David L., ed. The Gold Discovery Journal of Azariah Smith. Logan, UT: Utah State University Press. 1996.

California Pioneer Heritage Foundation. http://californiapioneer.org/ (accessed November 29, 2011).

Campbell, Eugene Edward. “The Mormon Gold Mining Mission of 1849.” BYU Studies 2, no.1 (Winter 1960): 19-31.

_____________________. “Authority Conflicts in the Mormon Battalion.” BYU Studies 8, no. 2 (Winter 1968): 127-142.

Folsom History Museum. “History-Mining Towns.” Folsom Historical Society. http://www.folsomhistorymuseum.org/1mining_towns.htm (accessed November 1, 2011).

Hansen, Lorin K. and Lila J. Bringhurst. Let this be Zion: Mormon Pioneers and Modern Saints in Southern Alameda California. Salt Lake City, UT: Publishers Press. 1996.

Hittell, Theodore Henry. History of California, vol. 2. San Francisco, CA: Pacific Press Publishing House. 1885.

Owens, Kenneth N. Gold Rush Saints: California Mormons and the Great Rush for Riches, Vol. 7. Kingdom in the West series, edited by Will Bagley. Spokane, WA: Arthur H. Clark Co. 2004.

Patton, Annaleone D. California Mormons by Sail and Trail. Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book Co. 1961.

Pratt, Parley P. Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt. Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book Co. 1980.

Roberts, B.H. History of the Church, ed. History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Volumes 6 and 7. Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book Co. 1980.

Ship Brooklyn Association. “Passenger List.” http://shipbrooklyn.com/ (accessed November 30, 2011).

Sherman, William T. “William Tecumseh Sherman and the Discovery of Gold.” Originally published as Memoirs of W. T. Sherman, Ch.2. Heritage Preservation League of Folsom. http://www.folsompreservation.org/William_Tecumseh_Sherman.htm (accessed December 13, 2011).

Sutter, John A. “The Discovery of Gold in California.” Hutchings’ California Magazine (November 1857) http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist2/gold.html (accessed November 30, 2011).

Tiffany, Scott. Forgotten Voyage: The Mormon Sea Trek that Sparked the Gold Rush. Time Frame Films. DVD. 2003.