Altaville

/ Altaville, Cal/
Altaville

Also known as Cherokee Flat, Forks in the Road, and Winterton, Altaville was established on Cherokee Creek, northwest of Angels Camp in 1852. According to legend, the area was a favorite haunt of Joaquin Murieta, the bandit, who supposedly spent so much time here that a mountain northwest of the creek was named Joaquin Mountain. While rich pockets of gold, the "richest of the state," were discovered here in 1854, the gold only lasted a short time. The town was also an important point for supplies and machinery; however, which enabled it to survive even after the gold was gone. The camp eventually became a part of Angels Camp as that town continued to grow and expand into the outlying areas.

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Murphys

/ Murphys, Cal/
Murphys

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.

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Mountain Quarries Railroad Bridge

/ Mountain Quarries Railroad Bridge/
Mountain Quarries Railroad Bridge

Just downstream from the confluence of the North and Middle Forks of the American River stands the Mountain Quarries Railroad Bridge. Constructed in 1912, it was at that time the longest concrete arch railroad bridge in the world. The bridge was designed by John Buck Leonard and built by the Donaldson & Harrelson Company for the Mountain Quarries Company and the Pacific Portland Cement Company, at a cost of $300,000. It was built to haul limestone from a nearby quarry to Auburn, located 7 miles away. The bridge was in use daily until the Mountain Quarries shut down in 1941. The following year, the railroad track along the entire line was removed for the war effort.

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PC - Placer Mining Scars at Dutch Flat, Cal

/ Placer Mining Scars, Dutch Flat/
PC - Placer Mining Scars at Dutch Flat, Cal

This 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.

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Vallecito

/ Vallecito, Cal/
Vallecito

After 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.

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Douglas Flat

/ Douglas Flat, Cal/
Douglas Flat

Before 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.

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Copperopolis

/ Copperopolis, Cal/
Copperopolis

Hiram Hughes was fed up with the Silver Rush. Leaving the mines of Nevada’s Comstock Lode, he returned to Calaveras County in 1860 and began prospecting for gold along Gopher Ridge. Noticing a resemblance in the rock formations here to those of the Washoe region in Nevada, he staked a claim on Quail Hill that May. Hiram worked the claim, turning up small amounts of gold and silver, and a lot of reddish colored ore referred to by the local miners as “iron rust.”

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Black Bart

/ Black Bart/
Black Bart

On August 3rd of 1877, a stage was making its way over the low hills between Point Arenas and Duncan’s Mills on the Russian River when a lone figure suddenly appeared in the middle of the road. Wearing a long linen duster and masked with a flour scan, the bandit pointed a double-barreled shotgun at the driver and said, in a deep and resonant voice, “Throw down the box!”

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Angels Camp

/ Angels Camp/
Angels Camp

Henry 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.

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PC - Jackson, Cal. - Main Street

/ Jackson, Cal/
PC - Jackson, Cal. - Main Street

This 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.

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John Sutter

/ John Sutter/
John Sutter

John 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.

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PC - Hangtown (Placerville), Cal

/ Hangtown/
PC - Hangtown (Placerville), Cal

Within 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.

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Carson Hill

/ Carson Hill, Cal/
Carson Hill

The creek, the hill, and the camp were all named for the same man, Sgt. James H. Carson, a member of Colonel Stevenson’s Regiment of First New York Volunteers. Organized to fight in the Mexican War, the regiment arrived in California in 1847, but saw little action and were mustered out of service at the end of the war. As no provisions had been made for their return to the States, the soldiers found themselves stranded in California. Carson happened to be in Monterey when news of Marshall’s discovery reached that town in the spring of 1848. After packing his belongings and buying a few supplies, he set out for the gold fields.

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PC - Real California Gold Nuggets

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PC - Real California Gold Nuggets

Of such as these are Empires built. This is a great postcard, it actually has three small gold nugget flakes in the gold pan. The back of the card reads: The Gold Nuggets attached to this card are Genuine, they were "panned" from streams in ... California's Historic Mother Lode.

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Melones

/ Melones, Cal/
Melones

Gold nuggets the shape and size of melon seeds reportedly account for the naming of Melones, a rich placer mining camp established by Mexican miners in early 1848. The camp was originally founded and located in Indian Gulch, roughly one-half mile below the town of Carson Hill, above Carson Creek.

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James Wilson Marshall

/ James Wilson Marshall/
James Wilson Marshall

Marshall and his men set out for the millsite that September. Their first task was to build a double cabin to house the millworkers and the Wimmers; Peter, Jennie (the camp cook), and their children. Another cabin was then built for Marshall. Some forty local Indians were hired to excavate the millrace and to build the diversion dam. The more skilled men set to felling trees and whipsawing them into timbers for the mill.

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Jackass Hill

/ Jackass Hill, Cal/
Jackass Hill

Jackass Hill received its name from the numerous jackasses whose pack trains stopped here overnight on their way to and from various points in the mines. As many as two hundred of the beasts are said to have been picketed here at the same time, making their presence known by their incessant braying, which could be heard for miles in all directions.

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Columbia

/ Columbia, Cal/
Columbia

Tired and discouraged, the Hildreth party decided to call it quits after a dismal month of prospecting in Calaveras County. The trail back to Woods Crossing led to Pine Log, where they crossed the Stanislaus River over a fallen tree, the only “bridge” for miles in either direction. Passing near a large Indian rancheria, the trail then snaked down a gulch to the foot of a small hill where they camped for the night, spreading their blankets beneath a large oak tree. It rained during the night, obliging the men to remain the next morning in order to dry out their clothes and blankets.

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Springfield

/ Springfield, Cal/
Springfield

Named 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.

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