Sutter's Mill

Song Sutter's Mill
Artist New Riders of the Purple Sage
Album Gypsy Cowboy

Lyrics

[00:02.41] Sutter's Mill
[00:16.39] Songer:Dan Fogelberg
[00:30.89] In the spring of forty-seven,
[00:37.64] So the story, it is told,
[00:44.89] Old john sutter went to the mill site
[00:52.19] Found a piece of shining gold.
[00:59.23] Well, he took it to the city
[01:06.44] Where the word, like wildfire, spread.
[01:13.36] And old john sutter soon came to wish he'd
[01:20.41] Left that stone in the river bed.
[01:27.79] For they came like herds of locusts
[01:35.11] Every woman, child and man
[01:42.27] In their lumbering conestogas
[01:49.20] They left their tracks upon the land.
[01:55.01] (chorus)
[01:55.60] Some would fail and some would prosper
[02:03.30] Some would die and some would kill
[02:10.76] Some would thank the lord for their deliverance
[02:17.79] And some would curse john sutter's mill.
[02:25.34] Well, they came from new york city,
[02:32.18] And they came from alabam'
[02:39.29] With their dreams of finding fortunes
[02:46.63] In this wild unsettled land.
[02:53.72] Well, some fell prey to hostile arrows
[03:01.14] As they tried to cross the plains.
[03:07.98] And some were lost in the rocky mountains
[03:15.14] With their hands froze to the reins.
[03:21.01] Oh...
[03:22.99] (chorus)
[03:23.00] Some would fail and some would prosper
[03:29.80] Some would die and some would kill
[03:37.26] Some would thank the lord for their deliverance
[03:44.39] And some would curse john sutter's mill.
[03:51.90]
[04:19.29] Well, some pushed on to california
[04:27.09] And others stopped to take their rest.
[04:34.05] And by the spring of eighteen-sixty
[04:41.12] They had opened up the west.
[04:48.13] And then the railroad came behind them
[04:55.30] And the land was plowed and tamed,
[05:02.22] When old john sutter went to meet his maker,
[05:09.68] He'd not one penny to his name.
[05:15.93] Oh...
[05:16.76] (chorus)
[05:17.25] Some would fail and some would prosper
[05:24.23] Some would die and some would kill
[05:31.35] Some would thank the lord for their deliverance
[05:38.44] And some would curse john sutter's mill.
[05:45.22] And some would curse john sutter's mill
[05:52.39] Some men's thirsts are never filled.
[06:01.17]