Gold Country, CA

Placerville, CA and a visit with Aunt Louise and Uncle Merlin became the next stop on our summer adventure. This area is noted for the start of the California gold rush back in 1849....remember the "49ers" from your U.S. history class? Placerville was one of the towns that sprang up and was, at that time, one of the largest in California.

A view of the downtown area of Placerville, complete with belltower

The store had something for everyone!

The Placerville Hardware Store is the oldest store of its kind still in continuous operation west of the Mississippi. We even found a drip coffee maker that we've been looking for. They even had reading glasses!

 

Since we are "old folks" we had to try on several strengths

I was the only one to get a good pair, and so was able to see well enough to take a group photo of the rest of the party.

We all went for a ride around the local area, having a nice lunch and then stopped at a produce stand on Apple Hill. We picked up a lot of treats, including some of the best apple cider I've had in a long time.

We had such a nice visit and the help that Merlin provided...running me back and forth into town to get numerous RV parts for the trailer, was sure great!

Later in the week, Karen and I traveled to Coloma. This is the location of the initial gold discovery that set the whole nation ablaze with excitement. There are still some of the actual buildings dating to that time, as well as replicas and a museum.

Karen is showing how the old miners got their hernias

Here's a "California Stamp Mill" for use in the post office making really big stamps...OK, I lied...it was actually used to crush the gold-bearing rock into manageable sizes for further processing.

This is a section of tree that was salvaged, bearing the names of early miners that were buried

This display has some original artifacts, as well as a narrative of the period that I thought you might find interesting. Just "click" on the photo to enlarge it enough to read it.

The original Sutter's lumber mill was lost in a flood, and this exact replica was built and relocated about 100 yards downstream and on higher ground. The original mill was built to make lumber for the fort being built in present-day Sacramento. Water from the river was diverted under the mill to turn the large waterwheel, which turned the gearing to run the saw to cut lumber out of the logs. A gold nugget was discovered by accident when the mill foreman was inspecting the tailrace area depicted in the photo's foreground.

I'm standing on a log suspended over the original mill's tailrace area....the area has been picked clean, as I didn't see any gold. Karen is sitting on the same log next to the monument.

This pic is looking into one of the actual cabins used by the original mill builders that were present when the gold was discovered. Obviously, it's been cleaned up a bit, since I doubt they were this tidy...being menfolk and such.