“In the days of old, in the days of gold, in the days of ‘49”
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.
John and Daniel Murphy arrived in California in 1844 as members of the Stevens-Townsend party, the first immigrant party to bring wagons across the Sierra Nevada to Sutter’s Fort. The brothers made their living as traders for several years, but turned to prospecting after they heard of Marshall’s discovery on the American River.
Read MoreThis is a colorful card manufactured by the Pacific Novelty Co. of San Francisco & Los Angeles. It's entitled "Placer Mining Scars at Dutch Flat, California." Hydraulic Mining is what caused those "scars." The areas surrounding Dutch Flat were heavily mined during the Gold Rush with hydraulic methods.
Read MoreAfter splitting off from the Carson party at Angels Creek, John and Daniel Murphy headed east looking for likely prospects. The brothers reached Coyote Creek in October of 1848, and after a few pans showing good color, they set up camp and christened the site Murphys Diggings. The boys worked the stream for a few months and then decided to move on and search for better diggings. They eventually settled down about six miles away, where the y founded the camp now known as Murphys, afterwhich their original camp was referred to as Murphys Old Diggings.
Read MoreBefore the Gold Rush, Chief Walker and a tribe of Miwok Indians occupied this placid little valley, their camp located near a fine, clear spring. After the Gold Rush, things changed. With the discovery of gold in Coyote Creek, a mining camp appeared almost overnight, a camp that included a church, post office, flour mill, blacksmith, school, two distilleries, several merchandise stores, and seven saloons. Several thousand miners, a mixture of Chileans, Italians, French, English, Irish, Welsh, Danes, Mexicans, and Americans were working the placers, as well as four major mines. And as the Indians no longer had a place to live, they left.
Read MoreHenry and George Angel arrived in California as soldiers, serving under Colonel Frémont during the Mexican War. After the war’s end, the brothers found themselves in Monterey where they heard of the fabulous finds in the gold fields. The tales proved too strong a lure, so they joined the Carson-Robinson party of prospectors and set out for the mines. The company parted ways upon reaching what later became known as Angels Creek, with the Murphy group heading east and the Carson party continuing south. It was September of 1848.
Read MoreThis one is of Main Street, in downtown Jackson, California. I don't know much about old cars, but the ones in this image would lead me to guess the photo was taken in the 1930s. It's a great shot of one of my favorite Gold Rush towns.
Read MoreJohn Sutter was born on February 15th of 1803 in Kandern, Baden, a few miles from the Swiss border. Apprenticed to a firm of printers and booksellers, Sutter soon found the paper business was not for him. While clerking in a draper’s shop, he met his future wife, Annette Dubeld, and the two were married in Burgdorf on October 24th of 1826. A series of business failures resulted in Sutter’s decision to seek his fortune in America. At the age of thirty-one, he left his wife and four children, a step ahead of his creditors.
Read MoreWithin a week in 1848, Dayton and McCoon had extracted $10,000 in Gold from this area and started the feverish rush of miners into "Dry Diggins," the first name given to this community. The name "Hangtown," which still persists as a nickname, was no doubt aqcuired because of the many hangings which took place there in 1849.
Read MoreThis one looks like it might be a scene from Malakoff Diggins, or somewhere around Dutch Flat. I'm wondering if all those monitors were turned on at the same time for the photographer who took this picture. My guess would be yes.
Read MoreNamed for the fine springs which gush forth from between two limestone boulders as the source of Mormon Creek, Springfield was reportedly the only mining camp in the Mother Lode where a church was built before the gambling houses. Yet even with this auspicious beginning, the town was destined to disappear, leaving only the wild grass and the plentiful, oddly misshapen limestone boulders as its mining legacy.
Read MoreJoshua Tree National Park, the California Gold Country, forgotten places in the Mojave Desert. These are a few of my favorite things.
