The Falls of Salmon Falls.

There were once falls at Salmon Falls, now inundated by Folsom Reservoir. The rocks were blasted away in the 1920s, helping with logging operations, which floated timber down the river. Below is a screengrab of our 1873 map of the Georgetown Divide showing the old townsite.

Salmon Falls got its start in 1849 with miners working the creeks, including Sweetwater Creek, which the town grew up next to. Once Folsom Dam was constructed, this entire area flooded. The town’s cemetery was exhumed and the bodies re-buried at the “Re-location Cemetary” at El Dorado Hills.

In low rainfall years, the town re-emerges from its watery fate, and you can visit some of the old town sites. Here is a link to more info on this area.

1873 map showing Salmon Falls. See the entire map here.

Green Valley Road Historical Tour, Part 3

We continue our historical tour of the old Coloma Road, today known as Green Valley Road. Our last historical place of interest was the old Dormody Place, also known as Green Springs House, located to the south, on the old alignment of the road. Now we head east on Green Valley Road towards the Pleasant Grove House, which still stands, barely.

The Pleasant Grove House today.

The Pleasant Grove House through the years has had many names, including the Missouri-Kentucky Hotel, Mt. Pleasant House, Rust Place, Six-Mile House, and the Dixon Ranch. Rufus Hitchcock built the house sometime around 1850 or 1851, with wood that was transported by ship around Cape Horn, South America, to San Francisco.

1858 photo of William Rust Family. Courtesy Rescue Historical Society

Between July 1st, 1860 and October 1861, this place was a Pony Express remount and relay station. Riders heading east from Folsom would stop, as well as riders headed west from Placerville. There are a state monument and Pony Express monument in front of the old place.

Now we head further east to check out the Rust Family Cemetary, which has sat on a lonely hilltop since 1887. You can spot the cemetery by the metal chain than surrounds the plot. Right now, there is intense building all around the cemetery. It's being preserved, but will soon occupy that lonely hilltop with new homes.

Just up the road from the Rust Cemetery, the old alignment leaves the present route for a short distance, and we come to the site of the Lorain Ranch and Store, where John Lorain and his family lived. John was a school teacher in Clarksville and would walk the 3.5 miles down Bass Lake Road each school day. In 1900, John's son Charles, along with his wife, Julia Rust, opened the Charles A. Lorain Cash Grocery Store. About twice a week, John took their vegetables down to the Folsom goldfields to sell.

The Lorain Cash Grocery Store. Photo courtesy, Rescue Historical Society.

Let's continue our trip up Green Valley Road to the site of the 1900's Zentgraf Store site, located near the present-day Green Valley School on Bass Lake Road. George Zentgraf built a bar and store here. The building eventually burned down, with rumors suggesting it was because the last owner tried to lure customers in with ladies working the saloon.

The Green Valley Road History Tour

Interactive map of the the area discussed in Part 3 of our Green Valley Road Tour.

Our last stop of this part of our tour is the location of the Rohlfing Store, also known as the Sam Ripley Store, and J. Evans’ store. It was located across the road from the Zentgraf Store, at the intersection of Bass Lake Road and Green Valley, where the apartments are now. Not much is else is known about this old stop along the road.

This post concludes part 3 of our Green Valley Road Historical Tour. We will continue our Green Valley Road Historical Tour with part 4, soon.

The Green Valley Road History Tour!

Join us as we begin a new project, The Green Valley Road History Tour. This tour will take place at our new digital Google-powered map, located here. This tour will be the first of several trips that you will be able to make following our chart. You can use your cellular device so you can take it with you in the automobile or while walking. It's the same map you use when following directions you have entered, except our route will have historical points of interest along the way. The map can be found on our webpage, here.

We thought the first tour would be our Green Valley Road tour, which will start on Green Valley Road at the border with Sacramento County. Green Valley Road was a famous road starting back in the 1850s, bringing people up to El Dorado County from Folsom. Green Valley Road was the most popular path to take as it passed through many towns and past many roadhouses on its way to Placerville, the final destination.

The tour uses a red line to indicate the route you can drive. A green line indicates the old roadbed, often not passable in an automobile. The old road route gives us an idea of how much the path has changed. Being able to see the old rout path also helps in finding some of the historical features we will be discussing as we travel along.

We will post on each feature moving up from the county line. When you see the orange Adventures in California History icons, click one to have more info on that site come up. Sometimes nothing is remaining; other times, foundations or ruins are visible. As we travel the road path will be continued so that eventually a complete history tour map will be available for you to use. Place the map link on your computer or cell device with a shortcut, and you'll always be able to access it when you want to know more about something you see.

We had talked in the past weeks about two roadhouses along Green Valley Road, the Kentucky House, and the Rolling Hills Hotel. You will see both marked with the orange icon, which, when clicked, brings up more info, along with a link to even more info. Eventually, we will add videos to the mix.

There are two additional icons we added, showing the site of the old Mormon Island school, and the El Dorado County re-location cemetery, which houses the graves relocated due to construction of the Folsom Dam and reservoir. All the little towns that once occupied the river banks before the dam had cemeteries. Remains from Mormon Island, Salmon Falls, Condemned Bar, Carrollton Bar, McDowell's Hill, Natural Dam, and Doton's Bar cemeteries were relocated to the new Mormon Island Cemetery. The re-location also included five individual graves.

Using the map, after visiting the cemetery, we head back out on Green Valley Road and past the sites of the two roadhouses we discussed earlier, the Kentuck House and Rollin Hills Hotel. The locations shown are estimates based on historical maps and written information. If anyone had a more exact location for any item of historical interest, let us know so we can more the icon to better shows that new information.

This part of our tour will follow the old route, which means we will be turning left on Salmon Falls Road, and right on Malcolm-Dixon Road, which was the former Green Valley Road. Bet you didn't know that! We will continue to our next destination along that road next week.

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 Hogsback Mine near Foresthill

The Hogsback Mine on the Foresthill Divide was owned by the French “Compagnie des Mines d'Or du Forest Hill Divide," with headquarters, Paris, France. The following is from the Placer County Historical Society, “the regular force of men employed consists of 15 miners working 8 hours per day; 2 engineers, working 12 hours per day; 2 drivers, working 12 hours per day; two blacksmiths, working 10 hours per day; one timberman, working 10 hours per day, divided into three shifts, and working two 3 ½ -inch Ingersoll Eclipse drills on columns”.

This mine commenced work on April, 28th, 1888. here we read more from the Placer County Historical Society paper, “PROGRESS FOR A WFEK 48.7 FEET. 12 men, 7 days (84 days), at $3 $252.00 3 men, 7 days (21 days). at $3.25 68.25 1 man, 7 days (7 days), at $3.50 24.50 114 lbs. safety niter powder No. 2, at 13c. per lb. 20 52 350 feet triple taped fuse, at 72 c. per 100 feet 2 52 50 lbs. chemical wax candles, 14 oz , at 13c. per lb 6 62 2 boxes XXX blasting caps, at 80c. per box 1.60 224 feet lumber, at $22.50 per M 5.04 1040 lbs. steel rails (16 lb) (195 ft.) at 4c. per lb.. 41.80 Bolts and fish-plates, at 50e, per pair 4.00 Car oil .15 40 bushels charcoal, at 20e. per bushel 8.00 Wear and tear, etc 1.00 Total cost $435.80 Cost per foot $8.94 Not a timber was used in this ground, and it is still standing without any.”

Google Earth view of the mine and surrounding topography.

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.

Damascus, a ghost town in Placer County

It’s 1885, and The Damascus Brass Band has come to play a tune. Many small towns hidden in the foothills and mountains had brass bands. Some locations even had more than one band with the Italian, German, and British sometimes fielding their bands. If there was competition, it seems it was a friendly sort, with the Fourth of July, and other celebrations an occasion to “strike up the band!”

Damascus, Placer County.

This photograph shows the town of Damascus, in Placer County. It was located about seven miles south-east of Dutch Flat in a very isolated part of the county. The area started drift mining in 1850. In 1875 the Hidden Treasure Mine was discovered and worked until the mid-1930s.

You have to look closely to see these homes in Damascus.

Formerly the town was known as Strong’s Diggings after the founder of the town, Dr. D.W. Strong. In 1856 the post office was established, and the name Damascus chosen. Why they chose this name is a mystery, as the older town of Damascus is in the country of Syria. I’m guessing the town got this name the same way the town of Timbuktu, in Yuba County, garnered it’s. These towns were so far “out there” from anything else exotic names like Timbuktu and Damascus represent unusual out of the way locations.

A nice clear photo of Damascus in 1905. Mining was still taking place, but a bit more limited than during the Gold Rush and later 1800's.

The above map shows the location of the town. If you would like to check it out on Google Earth and see the relationship with the other towns, follow this link.

Finding stuff on the way to Timbuctoo

The goal on our most recent trip was an exotic sounding place in Yuba County, Timbuctoo. Other than an unusual name we knew little about it. We leave with the idea that we would try and find any signs of the old emigrant trail that once passed along this general direction. Other than those goals we left ourselves open to whatever the road would reveal to us on that day.

Camp Far West is a few miles east of Wheatland, a small town on the east side of the Central Valley. It was an army outpost during the emigration days in the later 1840s and early 1850s. Located just a few miles from Johnson's Ranch, which was the fabled end of the trail for many California bound travelers. Once you reached Johnson' Ranch, you’d made it! We wanted to try and follow as much of the old trail as we could, as it wound its way in the general direction from near Timbuctoo. We would keep our eyes open for wagon ruts, trail signs, or any other indication we were on the right path.

Monica walks among the Graham Hotel and Truckee Trail markers. Graham’s hotel stood for many years servicing travelers over the old road. yo can see the wagon ruts headed over the hill in the background.

We visited the Truckee trail "T Marker" and sign for Grahams Hotel by Lake Camp Far West. At this place, the wagon ruts can be seen headed down the hill. We would try and follow the trail back from here so we headed up Camp Far West Road which we felt would give us a view of the wagon ruts on the other side of the hill. They were easy for us to spot as we knew they were coming our way, and we've gotten better at detecting these old trails. Often they are more of an impression of a trail than an obvious path, as they have generally not been traveled on for well over 15 years. Sometimes erosion wears the track into more of a gully, and other times the ruts are still quite visible. The ones coming over the hill here are in between easy to see and hard. More of a swale than a path actually, but quite obvious when we know the trail came over the hill this direction.

You can see, though very faint, the two tracks headed from the hill in the back, towards the hill directly in front. These tracks were made by thousands of metal rimed wooden wheels carrying emigrant and others wagons. Camp Far West Reservoir is just over that ridge.

Now we headed up Camp Far West Road towards a name on the map, Waldo. Waldo was known initially as Cabbage Patch, named for the cabbages that were grown to sell to travelers. We had read that Waldo or Cabbage Patch was a way-point along the old wagon road. We found out after the trip there is even a Cabbage Patch Cemetery, which we will try and find on our next trip.

I wonder what’s down that road?

At Waldo, we decided to take a side trip, which is something we do all the time. Our destination is more of a hope than written in stone. If we don't make it because something else has come up, that's OK. The secret to finding these old sites and what they hold is a willingness to change plans during the adventure. We decided to check out another name on the map, Spenceville, located down that road.

Our first inkling that Spenceville held more surprises for us, a abandoned bridge going from where to where? It wasn’t the only bridge we happened upon.

In my next post we’ll discuss Spenceville and the finds we made there!

We're on our way to Timbuctoo!

In 1850 Timbuctoo, like most Gold Rush towns, built itself from the wealth generated by gold panning. It is located on a bluff above The Yuba River, close to the gold-bearing sand bars, but high enough to avoid flooding. Once the easy gold was panned out, they moved on to hydraulic mining of the bluffs around 1854. It's through this method of extraction that Timbuctoo gained its fabulous wealth.

Hydraulic mining in Timbuctoo.

As the town grew, it built a theater that could house 800 people, a bank, bakery, hotels, even an ice skating rink! The wealth continued to flow until 1884, when downstream farmers sued to end all hydraulic mining in the state. Hydraulic mining caused massive amounts of sediment to move downstream, causing flooding and a loss of agricultural land. It was also making riverboat travel difficult as sandbars would form and re-form, making navigation tricky. The District Court in San Francisco agreed and shut down all hydraulic mining. Timbuctoo was doomed!

Timbuctoo in 1862. The stage is passing in front of Stewart’s Wells Fargo Store.

The court ruling putting an end to hydraulic mining, which caused Timbuctoo to decline as miners their families and the businesses that grew up to support them moved away. Soon there was very little left of the town. During the 20th Century, there was an effort to preserve what little was left. Stewart's Wells Fargo Store was the most robust of what was still standing. The remaining townspeople had it preserved with a new roof and commemorative signs.

The preserved Stewart’s Store in 1945.

During the early part of the 20th Century, Timbuctoo enjoyed a revival as a historic stop on the road. It became quite popular with people looking for the story of California's history. Before 1980 the main road passed through town, making it much easier for people to stop and check it out. When Highway 20 was re-aligned in the 1980s, it bypassed Timbuctoo, and like so many other Gold Rush communities, it faded away.

Stewart’s Store today.

Soon the impetus that had driven the people to try and save the remaining structure(s) also died, and rumors of gold in the old building walls brought vandals, and they tore the old structure down. Now there are no standing structures from the early days, just a crumbling mass of bricks. You have to see the old photos and drawings of the town to get a feel for how wealthy and busy Timbuctoo was.

Monica checking out the old bridge crossing of The Yuba River.

There is so much to explore near Timbuctoo. The road coming in from the west passes over the Yuba River, where you can see the old bridge's support that crossed the river. The Town of Samrtsville is just a mile or so from Timbuctoo and has a great story of its own. Is it spelled with an "s" or not, Smartville? A little further lies Rough and Ready, a town that also built itself from gold and its spot on the old Emigrant Trail to Johnson's Ranch in Wheatland.

Timbuctoo in the 1860’s and the exact same spot today, 2018.

Here is a short video, less than 5 minutes, concerning our adventure at Timbuctoo.