17216

26

74

Book

English

Owens, Kenneth N.

Gold Rush Saints : California Mormons and the Great Rush for Riches

Kingdom in the West : The Mormons and the American Frontier

7

Norman, Okla.

University of Oklahoma

2005

This book "attempts to break new ground in two ways. It brings to light previously unknown or neglected documentary sources about the Mormons who first came to northern California, and it follows these sources toward revisionist conclusions. That the California Saints had major importance as history makers and shapers in western America during the late 1840s and early 1850s is one of those conclusions. The closeness of the interface between Mormon Utah and the California gold country--and its substantial significance to both regions--is a second. Despite the growing differences between church authorities and the gold rush Saints, California's Babylon and Utah's Zion developed side by side. These two regions were not united, but they were inescapably interrelated. In large ways and small, they each came to depend on the other. A third conclusion deals with issues of faith and institutional allegiance. Especially for those Saints who were critical of church authorities in Utah, California came to be a refuge--a hospitable Mormon middle ground where toleration rather than conformity was the rule. Life there could be comfortable for converts who found themselves somewhere between zealous belief and confirmed disbelief, or between unquestioning devotion to the church hierarchy and outright rebellion." (taken from author's introduction)
Edited: RK

Gold
California
Dissent and dissenters, 19th century
Gold rush, California

A House Full of Females : Plural Marriage and Women's Rights in Early Mormonism, 1835-1870
Amasa Mason Lyman, Mormon Apostle and Apostate : A Study in Dedication
At Sword's Point, Part 1 : A Documentary History of the Utah War to 1858
Buchanan's Thrust from the Pacific : The Utah War's Ill-Fated Second Front
Faithful and Fearless : Major Howard Egan : Early Mormonism and the Pioneering of the American West
Far from Zion : The Frayed Ties between California's Gold Rush Saints and LDS President Brigham Young
From the Outside Looking In : Essays on Mormon History, Theology, and Culture
History May Be Searched in Vain : A Military History of the Mormon Battalion
History of the Saints : the Great Mormon Exodus and the Establishment of Zion
Island Adventures : The Hawaiian Mission of Francis A. Hammond
Jefferson Hunt : California's First Mormon Politician
No Place to Call Home : The 1807-1857 Life Writings of Caroline Barnes Crosby, Chronicler of Outlying Mormon Communities
Playing with Shadows : Voices of Dissent in the Mormon West
Remembering Iosepa : History, Place, and Religion in the American West
Rhode Island 49er Albert King Thurber's Gold Rush Journey That Ended in Utah
Settling the Valley, Proclaiming the Gospel : The General Epistles of the Mormon First Presidency
"Surely There is a Vein for Silver and a Place for Gold" : Mining and Religion in the Nineteenth Century Intermountain West
The Aiken Party Executions and the Utah War 1857-1858
The Aiken Party Executions and the Utah War, 1857-1858
The Civil War Years in Utah : The Kingdom of God and the Territory that did not Fight
The Journals of George Q. Cannon : Hawaiian Mission, 1850-1854
The Mormon Passage of George D. Watt : First British Convert, Scribe for Zion
The Mormon Rebellion : America's First Civil War, 1857-1858
The San Diego Coal Company : An Early Mormon Enterprise on Point Loma
Thoughts from the Farther West : Mormons, California, and the Civil War
“What Really Happened?”: The Life and Death of Olivia Coombs

A Bright, Rising Star : A Brief Life and Letter of James Ferguson, Sergeant Major, Mormon Battalion; Adjudant General, Nauvoo Legion
A Comprehensive History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
A Concise History of the Mormon Battalion in the Mexican War, 1846-1847
A Data Base of the Mormon Battalion : An Identification of the Original Members of the Mormon Battalion
Army of Israel : Mormon Battalion Narratives
A Road from El Dorado : The 1848 Trail Journal of Ephraim Green
A Winter with the Mormons : The 1852 Letters of Jotham Goodell
Blood of the Prophets : Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows
Brigham Young : The American Moses
California Saints : A 150-Year Legacy in the Golden State
Charles C. Rich : Mormon General and Western Frontiersman
Defending Zion : George Q. Cannon and the California Mormon Newspaper Wars of 1856-1857
Establishing Zion : The Mormon Church in the American West, 1847-69
'Everything is Favorable! And God Is On Our Side' : Samuel Brannan and the Conquest of California
Fool's Gold : The Hermetic Explanation of Celestial Marriage
Forgotten Kingdom : The Mormon Theocracy in the American West, 1847-1896
Frontiersman : Abner Blackburn's Narrative
George Q. Cannon : A Biography
George Q. Cannon's Mission to California, 1855-1857
Gold Rush Sojourners in Great Salt Lake City, 1849 and 1850
Great Basin Kingdom : An Economic History of the Latter-day Saints, 1830-1900
Heart Throbs of the West
Henry William Bigler : Soldier, Gold Miner, Missionary, Chronicler, 1815-1900
Historic Spots in California
History of California 1552-[1890]
In Early Days : Home Life in the Pioneer Fort
John Bidwell and the California Trail, Part 1
Lansford Warren Hastings : Scoundrel or Visionary?
Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia
Let This Be Zion : Mormon Pioneers and Modern Saints in Southern Alameda County
Life of a Pioneer : Being the Autobiography of James S. Brown
Lion of the Lord : Essays on the Life and Service of Brigham Young
Mormon Gold : The Story of California's Mormon Argonauts
Mormons at the Missouri, 1846-52 : 'And Should We Die'
Mormon Thunder : A Documentary History of Jedediah Morgan Grant
News of the Plains and Rockies, 1803-1865. Volume 3 : Missionaries, Mormons, 1821-1864. Indian Agents, Captives, 1832-1865
Orrin Porter Rockwell : Man of God, Son of Thunder
Our Pioneer Heritage
Overland to California in 1850 : The Journal of Calvin Taylor
Pioneering the West, 1846 to 1878 : Major Howard Egan's Diary : Also, Thrilling Experiences of Pre-frontier Life Among Indians, Their Traits, Civil and Savage, and Part of Autobiography, Inter-related to his Father's
Political Deliverance : The Mormon Quest for Utah Statehood
Regional Studies in Latter-day Saint Church History : California
Sam Brannan and the California Mormons
Samuel Brannan and the Golden Fleece
San Bernardino : The Rise and Fall of a California Community
Scenery of the Plains, Mountains and Mines, or a Diary Kept Upon the Overland Route to California, by Way of the Great Salt Lake
Scoundrel's Tale : The Samuel Brannan Papers
Sierra Saints : A Brief History of the Mormons in Western El Dorado County 1847-1997
Sutter's Mormon Workmen at Natoma and Coloma in 1848
The Discourses of Wilford Woodruff
The Discovery of Gold in California
The Fruits of Mormonism
The Gold Discovery Journal of Azariah Smith
The Great Salt Lake
The Ira J. Willis Guide to the Gold Mines
The Journals of Addison Pratt
The Journals of George Q. Cannon : Hawaiian Mission, 1850-1854
The Mormon Battalion : U.S. Army of the West 1846-1848
The Mormon-Carson Emigrant Trail in Western History
The Mormon Conflict, 1850-1859
The Mormon Experience : A History of the Latter-day Saints
The Mormon Question : Polygamy and Constitutional Conflict in Nineteenth-Century America
The Mormon Reformation of 1856-1857 : The Rhetoric and the Reality
The Mormons in California
The Pioneer Camp of the Saints : The 1846 and 1847 Mormon Trail Journals of Thomas Bullock
The Plains Across : The Overland Emigrants and the Trans-Mississippi West, 1840-60
The Road to 'Fortune' : The Salt Lake Cutoff
The Saints and the Union : Utah Territory during the Civil War
The Salt Lake Cutoff
The Southwest Expedition of Jedediah Smith : His Personal Account of the Journey to California, 1826-1827
Things in Heaven and Earth : The Life and Times of Wilford Woodruff, a Mormon Prophet
Trail of Hope : The Story of the Mormon Trail
Trail to the Comstock : An Accidental Bonanza
Voyage of the Brooklyn