Volume Overview: I always lay out a proposed route for each journey before leaving my home base in Billings, Montana. Part of the fun is the months of research and planning prior to departure! This spring’s trip is a bit abbreviated, but the plan is to dash west from Billings to Portland, Oregon, for some business; head down the west side of the Cascades and Sierra Nevada to Yosemite National Park in California; cross the mountains heading east to Reno/Sparks, Nevada; trek through the northern deserts of Nevada up to Twin Falls, Idaho; explore the Jackson Hole area of Wyoming; and then head back to Billings through Yellowstone National Park and Cody, Wyoming. Let’s get rolling!
Grass Valley, CA to Auburn, CA; to Jackson, CA (Hwy 49)
Hwy 49 is the highway that on maps seems to be the easiest way down the west slope of the Sierra Nevada, and, in fact, it is. However, what the maps don’t show you is that by heading down Hwy 49 the road constantly climbs and falls as it crosses numerous waterways that run east/west as they drain the Sierra Nevada snowpack (in normal years) into the great central rivers of California. This really is not a highway, but a paved goat path that is narrow and frequently doesn’t have any shoulders at all. The road plunges in a series of corkscrew turns up and down narrow canyons – I’m sure I was lucky to average 30 miles an hour most of the time. Fortunately as we head down from Grass Valley to Auburn we are actually dropping closer to the central plain and so the road, temporarily, is a bit better.
Auburn, CA
Auburn started life in 1848 when gold was discovered in Auburn Gulch but the small gold deposits were quickly exhausted. However the town continued to grow because it sits astride the major route between Sacramento and the east. Situated only a wagon’s day from Sacramento and just below the snow line, Auburn became the “jumping off” place for miners headed into the hills and became a bustling commercial center for the area. The town’s future was assured when in 1865 the Central Pacific Railroad established a stop there. A side note: many of you know my obsession with Lewis and Clark and unexpectedly on off-shoot of that expedition is part of the Auburn story! Jean-Baptiste Charbonneau, son of the Lewis and Clark scout and Sacagawea (commonly known as Pompey), lived in the area during the late 1850’s and clerked at the Orleans Hotel here in 1861 before heading north to Oregon). Old Town Auburn hugs the south side of Auburn Ravine, which is now filled by Interstate 80. The old town area is dominated by the old Placer County Courthouse which stands majestically on the top of a hill just east of the old town area.
The oldest continuously operating post office in the United States anchors the center of the old town area with streets radiating from it in five directions.
Today Auburn straddles both sides of I-80 and is a bedroom community for nearby Sacramento. Continuing on Hwy 49, just a mile out of the town center the world opens up and we stop at a viewpoint along the highway just before the Lunch Box makes the torturous climb down to the bottom of the American River Canyon and up the other side.
The road continues to twist and turn through the rugged terrain, which becomes noticeably dryer and the hills not quite as heavily forested. We descend down into the valley of the South Fork of the American River and the view opens up a bit with grassy hillsides peeking out amongst the stands of trees. Our next stop is Coloma, birthplace of the California Gold Rush.
Coloma, CA
The Spanish had settled the coastal areas of California, reaching as far north as the northern San Francisco Bay area, but had never really gone much farther east or north, in part due to the semi-arid conditions of the great Central Valley and the impassable Sierra Nevada to the east. Then, as now, a reliable source of water was key to a successful settlement. In 1839 John Sutter had dreams of building his own empire in north-central California centered on Sacramento near the great delta area where the Sacramento River from the north and the San Joaquin River from the south meet before spilling westward into San Francisco Bay. He founded the colony called “New Helvatia”, named after his native Switzerland. Ranching and farming was the source of his wealth and power. The rapid expansion of his holdings lead to a need for lumber. He and his carpenter, John Marshall, searched the nearby foothills for a sawmill site next to water and close by dense forests. They settled on a meadow alongside the South Fork of the American River in the Coloma Valley, southeast of Sacramento.
As I turn around from looking at te peaceful view east across the river in the shot above, I see the actual site where gold was discovered by John Marshall on January 24, 1848. A reconstruction of the sawmill built by John Marshall now stands on the spot. The water entered on the right, turned the wheel inside the mill which powered the saw blade, and then the water exited in the tailrace to the left.
It was while deepening the tailrace that fed water back into the river from the mill that John noticed flecks of gleaming metal in the sand on the bottom. He doubted that the metal was gold but took a sample back to Sacramento where John Sutter confirmed that it was the real thing. They actually tried to keep the discovery secret, believing that the lumber from the mill would be more valuable than the traces of gold. Despite their best efforts, word reached San Francisco in May and the gold rush was on. By July the population of the valley had reached nearly 4,000 and the town of Coloma was founded.
As Sutter foretold, the placer gold quickly ran out and ten years later the town was virtually empty. John Marshall remained in the valley and established the first vineyard in the area on the slopes above the river. Today John Marshal State Park encompasses land on both sides of Hwy 49 as it passes through the remnants of the old town.
The quiet of the setting is interspersed with shrieks of excited kids as the participants of several field trips (yes, Oregonians, there are still field trips in education elsewhere!) eplore the area. Here’s a group learning how to pan for gold.
About 50 Chinese immigrants participated in the working of the mine and, as is commonly seen in gold rush towns, one of them established a store and apothecary. The stone structure still stands with the interior furnished with actual artifacts from the 1850’s. The Wah Hop store served as a community center for the Chinese; a source of food, supplies and news.
This was one of those occasions where once again the weight of history is present in the air. Prior to the discovery of gold here in 1848 California was primarily a pastoral environment, sparsely settled away from the coast and an economy based upon agriculture. Gazing across the gurgling river at the quiet slopes beyond, it’s difficult to imagine that once 4,000 people called the small valley home. It’s also not much of an understatement to note that what happened here on the banks of the South Fork of the American River in 1848 changed the history of the world. Gold drew a massive migration west from throughout the eastern the United States as well as from around the world. Eventually the explosive growth lead to the entrance of California into the union in 1850 as a free state and the incredible injection of wealth into the economy of the United States greatly benefited the North and arguably allowed it to win the Civil War due to its’ access to the riches of the western gold fields. Today the state of California alone is the 10th largest economy in the world.
All from a few flakes glittering in the mud at the bottom of a sawmill tail race. On such things hang the balance of man…
Next up: Was there life in California before the Europeans came?
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