The supporting cast includes Lee Tracy, Binnie Barnes, Katherine Alexander, Montagu Love, and Harry Carey as Kit Carson.

The film is based on the novel "L'Or; la merveilleuse histoire du général Johann August Suter" by Blaise Cendrars (Paris, 1925); ISBN 1417910755, and a play by Bruno Frank.

Carl Laemmle, president of Universal Pictures, loved action westerns and he wanted to make a big outdoor spectacle, along the lines of the well remembered silent epic The Covered Wagon (1923).

The studio assembled a "name" cast of popular character players including Edward Arnold, Lee Tracy, Harry Carey, and Binnie Barnes.

The only real benefit Universal derived from Sutter's Gold was its value as stock footage; Cruze's carefully staged outdoor scenes were often edited into the studio's low-budget adventures, westerns, and serials.