The Discovery Channel did a show called “Gold Fever” where they told the story of the California Gold Rush basically through the story of Sam Brannan. It was one of these dramatic documentaries that are getting popular. What was interesting was that in Sacramento there is a middle school named after Sam Brannan.

In the show Brannan is portrayed as a ruthless opportunist who by cornering the market in mining equipment parlayed his fortune through land acquisition, prostitution and alcohol. The climax of the documentary is the Squatter’s Riots in Sacramento. I imagine the documentary is told in such a way to accentuate the role of Robinson and Brannan.

Brannan was very much the villain of the show and I wonder if it won’t lead to another middle school getting renamed. Not long ago Goethe Middle School in my neighborhood was renamed to Rosa Parks after enough attention was paid to Charles Goethe’s enthusiasm for the eugenics movement. 

In looking up Sam Brannan’s wikipedia page it was interesting that the Discovery piece said nothing about his LDS background which was an interesting part of the story.