A look back at local, national and world events through Deseret News archives.
On Jan. 24, 1848, James W. Marshall found a gold nugget at Sutter’s Mill in Northern California, a discovery that sparked the California gold rush.
As many as 25,000 miners headed to California over the next couple of years, becoming known as “Forty-Niners.”
The gold rush turned out to be a boon to early Utahns, not so much for the gold pioneers who ventured West were able to mine, but in the income gained supplying other “forty-niners” rushing to California.
Sutter’s Mill was a water-powered sawmill on the bank of the South Fork American River in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. Marshall’s discovery set off the decade-long California gold rush.
Members of the Mormon Battalion had finished their service with the U.S. government in Southern California and were working their way back to the Great Basin in 1848. According to news reports, members of the Mormon Battalion were in the area, helping to build Sutter’s Fort when gold was discovered.
In July 1846, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on the ship Brooklyn, led by Samuel Brannan, arrived at Yerba Buena, now San Francisco. The ship began its voyage leaving New York harbor Feb. 4, 1846, the same day that the first wagons left Nauvoo heading west.
Though some of those pioneers were in the area in 1848, and some had come to the Salt Lake Valley, group leader Sam Brannan and others are labeled as forty-niners as well.
Chasing gold in the West was a popular topic, as evidenced by a half page of mining news in the Deseret News on April 27, 1859:

Nine years earlier, noted pioneer poet/composter William Clayton penned the words to a song titled “The Gold Diggers,” to the tune of the song “A Man That is Married.” Per the article, it was performed on the 24th of July by John Kay. The final verse:
“Now ye Saints, my advice I will give without price,
Don’t be tempted to worship the dust;
But stick close to your farms, and build up your good barns,
For the grain is much better I trust.
And in ages to come, when the fold fever’s gone,
You will all the wealth you desire;
For your wisdom will then be esteemed amongst men,
And your prudence mankind will admire
Gold! Gold!! that give from above—
‘Tis a blessing I own, sirs, whenever used well;
But my song is quite done, and I bid you farewell.”
The poem appeared in the Sept. 7, 1859, edition of the Deseret News:

Here are some stories from Deseret News archives about the California gold rush, and how numerous pioneers and members of the Mormon Battalion were among the early prospectors in Northern California:
“Mormons among first gold rush prospectors”
“Mormon Battalion made big contributions”
“Impoverished pioneers mined gold from 49ers; historians say rush to California was boon to Utah”
“History preserved in gold rush newspapers”
“1800s California gold rush revisited”
“Spotlight on historical sites: Battalion display at Sutter’s Fort”
“Picturing history: Sutter’s Mill, Coloma, California”
“At Sutter’s Fort: Keeping alive a golden memory”
