Georgetown fire of 1869

Georgetown, like so many Gold Rush towns, had its share of devastating fires. The first in 1852 burned the brand new city to the ground. The old town had in the area off Lower Main Street. As the new town was rebuilt at its present site, extra-wide streets which we see today were constructed to prevent the spreading of embers from building to building.

The town organized a fire department, The Mountaineer Hook and Ladder Company, in 1854. They paraded their new Engine #1 on the Fourth of July Parade of 1856, only to find themselves battling a fire three days later, which started in the business section of the new town and quickly spread to engulf most of the city, including the new fire engine.

Photo: Placer County Museums Written on photo: “Georgetown, El Dorado Co., 1869”

Church Street was saved when the women of town used the then open Georgetown Ditch to gather water and pass it along to the men that were arriving from the outlying mining claims to battle the fire. Only the Shannon Knox House and the town hall on upper Main Street were saved.

A fire on August 18th of 1858 was extinguished before it destroyed the whole town, but on May 28th, 1869, a fire originating in the Miners Hotel on Main Street would quickly spread to engulf much of Georgetown. This fire was suspicious as the owner of the Miners Hotel, a Mr. Stahlam, survived the fire, but his wife, three children, and the mother's helper were all killed, as the doors were locked, preventing their escape.

Photo: Placer County Museums Written oh Photo: “Georgetown burned, May 1869”

These rare photographs show the townspeople looking through the remains of their town, which they would rebuild with better construction and thicker block and brick walls.

The old swimming hole at Rattlesnake Bar

The Rattlesnake Bar area between El Dorado and Placer Counties was once a famous crossing utilizing the old Rattlesnake Bar Bridge, seen towards the top of the photograph. That bridge was doomed, as Folsom Dam would be constructed downstream starting in 1952, with the reservoir beginning to fill in February 1955. Before that, a truck carrying fertilizer exceeding the 8-ton limit collapsed the bridge, and with the dam in the works, the bridge was never repaired.

The photograph above shows some kids playing in the tranquil waters of the north fork of the American River at a well-known swimming hole below the bridge. We are looking from the Placer County side to the El Dorado County side in the historic photograph. Before the upstream dams, the river waters would drop quite low, and become quite warm during the summertime, making for some sweet swimming holes.

This location is now under the waters of Folsom Lake most of the year. During the late summer or droughts, the water drops low enough that the old concrete supports for the bridge reappear.

Kentucky House, on the old Coloma-Folsom Road

The Austin T. Leachman "Kentucky House," located on the old Coloma-Folsom Road, was one of the first roadhouses one would encounter when traveling east from Sacramento County into El Dorado County. The Coloma-Folsom road is now known as Green Valley Road, and this roadhouse stood on the south side of the road at the junction with a path that led south to Clarksville in the present-day El Dorado Hills.

Leachman came to California by wagon train from Quincy, Illinois, in 1850 and 1859 married an Irish lady named Mary Sullivan, purchased the hotel and roadhouse then known as the "Red House," as well as 220 surrounding acres near present day's "Browns Ravine."

The Leachman House or "Kentucky House" called that as it was Leachman's birthplace, operated successfully as long as traffic in the form of stages and freighters came along the old Coloma-Folsom Road. The Kentuck House continued until 1869 when traffic started to slow along the old road.

Pelton Water Wheel, Mammoth Bar Mine, 1895

This man is standing next to Pelton Water Wheel, located inside the wood cover. Lester Allan Pelton invented the Pelton Water Wheel in the 1870s. In 1860, while living in Comptinville, a gold mining community, he designed an efficient energy source that was able to turn water into power.

Figure from Lester Allan Pelton's original October 1880 patent

Mammoth Bar was a mining community located on the Middle Fork of The American River.

"Shafthouse of the Sherman Mine perched high up on the hillside overlooking the town".

It’s easy to forget just how many gold mines there were in El Dorado County at one time. Most have long ago closed, and the buildings torn down, burned down, or just fell. The above photo shows the Sherman Mine, c.1930s, which was located right in Placerville, behind the El Dorado Irrigation offices on Mosquito Road.

This description accompanied the photo. “The bottom of the triangular structure at center is skeletal while panels cover the top half. Another lightly-colored structure can be seen just behind the structure and extending to the left. While poles and other supplies sit in piles against the tall structure on the right, a man in a suit and hat lean on a post and look towards the trees on the right. More supplies and debris are scattered on the ground on the right and in the foreground while trees and bushes cover the small hill around the shafthouse”.

I found the location using Google Earth, where you can see the hill and where I think the mineshaft was. It was very active from 1905 to 1911, with a total production of $136,000. “The deposit, a five-foot-wide vein of gold-bearing quartz, was developed by a 750-foot inclined shaft with levels at 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, and 750 feet; winze sunk from 750 feet and 5500 feet of drifts. The ore as treated in a ten-stamp mill.”

You would have heard that ten stamp mill, as well as other stamp mills in the area. One aspect of life in the foothills during the gold mine days we forget was the constant sound of stamp mills pulverizing rock to recover the gold better. The sounds were so ubiquitous in our area, that if they stopped, it could indicate problems at the mine. “Why did the mill stop”?

Below is a Google Earth view of the site.

The Third Strawberry House

There have been several old buildings called Strawberry House since the construction of the first one in 1859. That was the original building that the Pony Express stopped at, as well as Hank Monk and his stage. That original building burned down in 1867 and was rebuilt, a bit smaller, at the location seen in the photo.

Finding photos of this third Strawberry House is not an easy task. The picture above is courtesy of Laura Bantz and shows the third Strawberry building and some cabins on the right. Today, no sign or monument shows the location of this third building.

This photo helped me to locate the site of this old station on Strawberry Lane, off Highway 50. I believe the small houses that are on that lane today are part of the old resort. You can hike the old Lincoln Highway, Pony Express Route, and Swan-Henry Toll Road from Strawberry at the Lover Leap Campground to the Twin Bridges area and the Slippery Ford Trailhead.

Slippery Ford was a dangerous crossing of the American River over slippery rocks. The trail is the actual road, and it's a fantastic hike if you have never taken it. How automobiles made it is worth ruminating as it's a very steep and rocky path. This path is how you crossed the Sierra and descended to Strawberry before the 1930s and the new expressway.