Cali49

Let's go see what we can find

Hwy49

The California Gold Country: Highway 49 Revisited. Gold Rush Mining Camps in photo and prose. The Golden Chain Hwy through California's La Veta Madre.

California State Highway 49: The Golden Chain

“In the days of old, in the days of gold, in the days of ‘49”

— Bob Dylan

California State Highway 49, the “Mother Lode Highway,” can truly take you back to the days of ’49. The road connects gold rush mining camps, ghost towns and historic sites from Oakhurst in the south, to Sierra City in the north. It’s three hundred miles of beautiful country along the foothills of the Sierra Mountains. Twisting mountain roads, sheer granite walls, precipitous drops to swiftly moving rivers. Old buildings, gold mines, forgotten cemeteries. Let’s go see what we can find.

March 22, 2014

Fourth Crossing

March 22, 2014/ Fourth Crossing, Cal/ Elliot Koeppel

The rich placers of San Antonio Creek were first located in 1848. Shortly afterwards, David Foreman settled in the area and established a combination trading post, saloon and hotel for which the site was early known as Foremans Ranch. The place soon came to be called Fourth Crossing; however, as it was located at the fourth river crossing on the road between Stockton and Angels Camp. The four crossings were at the Calaveras River, the north fork of the Calaveras, Calaveritas Creek, and San Antonio Creek.

Cali49

Joshua Tree National Park, the California Gold Country, forgotten places in the Mojave Desert. These are a few of my favorite things.