A Gold en book report.

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A fictionalized version of how Swedish John Sutter settled the Sacramento Valley in the 1840s. The building of Sutter’s fur trading mercantile and supply fort and his saw mill on the American River. The saw mill where gold was first found. All part of the great central valley of California. But anyway, the event that truly defined the golden state of California. Inducing the early migration of peoples from the east and Midwest plus adventurers coming from all over the globe to find their fortune.
A narration of how Sutter endeared himself to the Mexico ruling General and was able to receive a large land grant to establish a trading center for fur trappers and a hide tanning operation in the Sacramento Valley on the American River. With Sutter’s smooth tongue he gained the cooperation of the indigenous peoples, local Mexicans, and even the coming intrudings of the American army led by Major John C Freemont. The author takes the dry two-dimensional early California history and colors in a believable three-dimensional story that led to the famed Forty-niner gold miners and settlers of the golden state. Then colors in a bit of romance as well.
The book: “The American River by Gary McCarthy, historical fiction California history.
Book annotation:
“John Augustus Sutter came to the wide and wild California country to build an empire. At his side was Morgan Beck, out to stake his own claim at the confluence of two powerful rivers, the Sacramento and the American. While the two adventurers follow new fortunes westward, the ill-fated Donner Party is mired in the grip of frozen death high in the Sierra Nevadas. Suddenly, Sutter and Beck are torn between the hot winds of revolution, and the desperate pleas of the trapped immigrant party. Little do they know of the icy horrors under the snows of the mountain pass. At stake is the greatest agricultural empire in California–Sutter’s Fort–on the banks of the wide American River.” Read this book. It is good.