Mormon Island
Mormon Island was a mining town in California that grew out of a Mormon settlement on a sandbar along the American River in California Gold Rush days. It was so named because of the numerous members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, then called Mormons, who were living there.
Nearly one hundred discharged members of the Mormon Battalion were working in the region. Six members of the Church were working with James Marshall (John Sutter’s carpenter who was building a sawmill) when he discovered gold in California in January 1848 at Sutter’s Mill. Sixty of their Mormon Battalion comrades were employed by Sutter nearby.
In March 1848, three members of the Mormon Battalion set out from Sutter’s Fort to hunt for deer. W. Sidney, S. Willis, and Wilford Hudson found gold on the south fork of the American River. Soon more than one hundred Latter-day Saints had flocked to the area and set up camp. It was “the first major gold strike in California” after Marshall’s discovery.[1]
Sam Brannan, who had announced the gold discovery in San Francisco, “advised his colony of Latter-day Saints who had come to California on the ship Brooklyn in 1846 to go to the gold areas. More than 300 Latter-day Saints were at work on Mormon Island by July 1848.”[2]
By 1853, Mormon Island had more than 2,500 residents, four hotels, three dry-goods stores, five general stores, an express office, a school, saloons, and many small shops. A fire destroyed the town in 1856, and it was never rebuilt. The California Gold Rush had begun to dwindle after 1855, and Mormon Island consequently also dwindled. Only a few families remained after the 1940s.
Brigham Young rejected the idea of Church members mining gold in California. He reminded them that God had appointed the Great Basin as the gathering place of His Saints. He felt the Saints would be better employed in raising grain, building houses, and building the kingdom of God.[3] However, he allowed some Church leaders to call young men on short missions to mine gold.[4]
As it turned out, 300,000 people came to California to find gold during the California Gold Rush. But, generally, those who made fortunes were the ones who sold goods or supplies to the miners. Sam Brannan was one of them.
In the 1940s, the town of Mormon Island was razed to make way for the Folsom Dam project. The dam was completed in 1955 and what was left of the town was submerged by water. The only thing that remains visible is the Mormon Island Cemetery that was relocated and contains remains exhumed from the original and other cemeteries that were removed for the creation of Folsom Lake.[5]
Mormon Island is registered as California Historical Landmark #569. The historic marker is placed at the Folsom Point picnic area of Folsom Lake State Recreation Area. It is considered an archaeological site and it is illegal to remove items.
In 2014, Folsom Lake levels had dropped significantly and the foundations of some of the buildings were now visible. However, most of the town remains underwater. When the lake is low, the foundations and an arched bridge can still be seen.
Mormon Island in California is not to be confused with Mormon Island in Nebraska, an area named for the winter stopover used by Mormon Pioneers on their trek West.
