Coloma and Placerville

Monday, June 5, 2017

  

Ron and I drive back today to Coloma and Placerville to explore the cities and take some pictures.

Coloma is where John Marshall found the first gold in the American River on January 24, 1848.  He was in the process of building a sawmill for Capt. John Sutter when he noticed some flecks of gold in the water.  By the summer 2,000 miners were sifting gold and the town of Coloma was born.  In a few years gold became scarce in the area and the town dwindled.  Today Coloma is a cute little town of old buildings and a State Park and Museum still along the rushing American River. 

Here we found the Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park where we viewed the exhibits and listened to a video about the discovery of gold before heading outside to see what there was to see.  This town like all the others we have traveled through today is mountainous and full of forest and shrubbery some still in bloom. 

Below you can see where the original sawmill was located (right on the river) and the current replica of it as well as a Mormon cabin (a Mormon Battalion was located here and they helped to build the sawmill). 

Mormon Battalion Cabin

Walking along the highway, we saw many of the old buildings with information about when the building was built, what it was used for and who may have lived in it or run the business. 

Weller House originally a hotel and restaurant

1849 Post Office

1928 Blacksmith Shop

Up a narrow road was St. John’s Catholic Church (1856) and Emmanuel Church (1855) and a cemetery.

St John's Catholic Church - 1856

On a one way road above the town is the grave of John Marshall with his statue on top pointing to the place where he found the gold.  Near by is his home.

John Marshall Grave

John Marshall's Cabin

Traveling on from Coloma, we head to Placerville which was originally known as Dry Diggin’s.  It became so very prosperous and lawless that lawbreakers were first hanged singly then in pairs.  As a result the town became known as “Hangtown.”  (Note the building below with a body hanging from it.) 

John Studebaker worked here as a wheelwright making so much money that he was able to move east and establish a factory where the first Studebaker automobiles were produced.  Today the city is the county seat. 

As usual, it is late afternoon when we arrive and we find a cute restaurant for our lunch/dinner.  It is called Buttercup Pantry and features this old truck in the front.  Inside we found an extensive menu and enjoyed a delicious dinner.  No cute waitress outfits this time, but the inside of the restaurant was filled with some interesting items on the floor and on the walls. 

After lunch we took a drive around town and did a bit of snooping in several stores.  There are quite a few antique stores here and a very large and narrowed aisled Ace Hardware store that carries everything you could ever want and need and more.  While Ron waited in the car, I explored the store enjoying all the goodies for sale. 

Bell Tower that alerted volunteer fire fighters

We took a different road back to Auburn which took us along a very narrow and windy ever climbing mountain road through several little towns (Kelsey, Georgetown and Cool to name a few) and finally back into Auburn. 

We will do a bit of catch up on things tomorrow before we leave here on Thursday.  Wednesday we hope to head to Grass Valley and Nevada City for a last look at this area.