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.

Georgetown Divide History Tour, Part 3

We continue our tour of the historical side of The Georgetown Divide. During our last stop, we viewed the old Meyer's Dance Hall and Saloon, located in Uniontown, now known as Lotus. You can find that post here. Leaving Beach Street and turning left onto Highway 49, let's head to the site of Michigan Flat, located in today's Bacchi land, home of a local ranching family.

The Georgetown Divide History tour

The above map is interactive. You can zoom in and out to get a closer view. Click the orange boxes for more info on a particular site. To enlarge the map click the square at top right.

Michigan Flat is famous for being the site of one of the Stanford Brothers stores. Leland and Thomas kept a couple of stores in the gold country, with Thomas manning the one in Michigan Flat. One of the stones that made up the building still exists, supposedly in front of one of the homes in this area. For many years it was a feat to try and lift this stone. I wonder if it still exists?

Amos Bowman’s 1873 map of the Georgetown Divide. Interactive version here.

In the above 1873 map, we can see Michigan Flat as well as what appears to be an old river crossing near Greenwood Creek. These river fords were common, as the dams upriver hadn't been built, so in summer and fall, the water levels would drop so one could ford these rivers. Another interesting spot on the map is a town called Powningville, of which I can find no information, altho it's quite prominent on the map.

Michigan Flat consisted of several smaller mining camps with names like Red Hill, Coyote Diggins, and Rich Gulch. Before the Stanford Brothers built their store, Charles Smith had the first store in Michigan Flat, in a tent located at the location where Greenwood Creek empties into the south fork of the American River. We have marked his store site on the map. A man named Tutsbury built a butcher shop, hotel, and boarding house where drink cost fifty cents! Wentzel Stock had the first bakery. On the flat itself, Charles Dusenberg was the first merchant in 1850 with his canvas shop. The Stanford brothers then built their shop, while John Hass kept the watch at his store. Jack Miller kept three more boarding houses and a bakery, while Dr's. Stone and Wheelock were the town's physicians.

1868 Township and county Map. Interactive version here.

In the above earlier map, from 1863, we see no mention of Powningville, but we do know the site of the old Magnolia Hotel in both charts. This old building was still standing in 1915. We have marked the possible location on our tour map. Also, I have included a shot of the potential site from Google Earth. Is this the old Magnolia Hotel site? Also of interest in the 1868 map is the site of the home of J.W. Marshall, Discoverer of Gold. This possible Magnolia House site is on private property, and please respect.

Ever wonder why the Bureau of Land Management trail-head nearby is called, Magnolia Ranch? Now you and I know. The old Magnolia House.

Is this the Magnolia House site?

Powningville is quite a mystery. We have marked where we think the town stood on our map. You can compare it with the 1873 Amos Brown Map above. There is little to no reference to this town, other than the map. The other aspect of Powningville that I find interesting is the road titled, “Coloma Trail” that takes off from that town, roughly parallelling Highway 49 towards Cool. Powningville was close to the Fairmont Copper Mines, which according to the 1866 report by D.V. Whiting, Esq, also contained large blocks of the mineral garnet.

The old Coloma Trail, long gone.

To continue our historical tour of The Georgetown Divide we continue north on Highway 49 towards the old town of Pilot Hill. We will cover that section in our next tour post. The map of the tour can be found in our maps section, here.

Green Valley Road History Tour, Part 2

We continue our Green Valley Road history tour, Part 2. We are now on Malcolm-Dixon Road, which was the old route before the re-alignment of Green Valley Road. Just after turning onto Malcolm-Dixon Road, we come to the site of an old roadhouse named "New York." The New York House, located on the south side of the road near New York Creek, has quite the history.

The information for the New York House comes from Doug Noble's Green Valley Road history. The New York House, owned by Constantine Hicks, a carpenter from Vermont, had quite a reputation having been involved in a scandal concerning election fraud, as well as trying to claim "squatters rights" on 640 acres of surrounding land. He was defeated in part by the Central Pacific Railroad, which owned land intended for the transcontinental railroad, which eventually passed through Placer County to the north.

The story of Constantine Hicks gets brutal after this when his daughter eloped with a "hired hand." Hicks and friends overtook the man at the Rolling Hills house down the hill, horsewhipped him to death, then took the body back to the New York house and buried him on a hill across the road.

Live Oak School.

Continuing our journey, we come to the Live Oak School, which is still standing! The photograph at the top of the page shows the 1895-96 class with the teacher, Miss Donovan. L-R front row: Pete Leik, Annie Hughes(later Mrs. Louis Mettie), John Hughes, Frank Koffman, ___ Courtamarsh, &___Courtamarsh. 2nd row: Luke Avery, Maggie Hughes, Annie Leik, Lizzy Ricker, Lilly Orr, Cora Avery, Kitty Ricker, MamieGrace, and the teacher Miss Donavon.

The area around the schoolhouse has been approved for development by the county, with 2.2 acres around the school, as well as the building being preserved for history, while the rest will be developed.

The Green Valley Road History Tour

We now head up the old road where it will eventually lead us back to Green Valley Road, where we will turn left and head up the hill and the site of the Green Spring House, located on the south side (right side as your driving) of Green Valley Road, on a old alignment of the road. The Green Springs House was built by Rufus Hitchcock, who would run the place until 1851 when he died of smallpox. William Dormody ran it until he died in 1876 when his widow Sarah F. Dormody took it over. According to history, it was a favorite place to hold weddings.

Take Green-Valley Road towards Rescue, and our next stop on our tour, Deer Valley Road. We will discuss that in part 3 of our Green Valley Road history tour.

Tour map found here.

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.

The Rolling Hills Hotel

Here we see Oscar Fleming driving a wagon past the old Rolling Hills Hotel on the Coloma-Folsom Road. Now known as Green Valley Road, the road was heavily traveled with miners and others using it to reach the goldfields from the Sacramento Valley. Along the way were "Roadhouses," which were the motels of their times. Horses, and people needed to eat, sleep and get supplies as they traveled, and the roadhouses often supplied these.

The first roadhouse one would have reached after crossing the county line into El Dorado County was The Kentucky House, which we talked about here. Just past the Kentucky House, was the Rolling Hills Hotel, owned by Charles Post, pictured above. The Hotel, built in the 1850s, was about halfway up the hill that rises from Folsom to El Dorado Hills, just before Francisco Drive. The Hotel was a large two-story frame building, which by 1912, as seen in the above photo, was already falling apart.

The W A Thomas Store, Roseville

The W. A. Thomas Store, located on the corner of Atlantic and Lincoln Streets, was the first store in the new town of Roseville, California. Built-in 1865 by W A Thomas, who had run the 15 Mile House near Sylvan Corners for the previous 16 years. It had only been the year earlier that this new town of Roseville has its name mentioned in newspapers, relating to the 1864 presidential election.

Sylvan Corners had been a busy place with the hundreds of teamsters and wagons passing by. However, with the railroad's completion, the wagon road business fell off, so W A Thomas moved to the new town next to the railroad tracks, Roseville.

The Thomas store provided goods for sale, rooms for rent on the top floor, bakery, and the local post office. Thomas would also buy up grain from local farmers and had a wagon shop as well.

Photo: Placer County Museums

Thomas’s son, Lee Dignus Thomas joined the business in 1870 and for the next few years was one of the towns leading businesses. The building was torn down in 1910.

The most massive advertisement on the storefront in both historic photographs is for “Oliver Chilled Plows.” What's a "chilled plow?" Before the 1850s, farmers used wooden plows that had a metal edge. They would break easily, and the dirt would stick to the blade. In 1857 James Oliver patented his “chilled plow,” which featured metal that had been “chilled” while in a mold, making for a much harder edge, that soil would fall off quickly instead of sticking to it, revolutionizing the plowing of fields.

Be sure to check out the Roseville Historical Society website, which I highly recommend for information regarding the history of the town.

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.

Whitehall on the Lincoln Highway

Whitehall is located just two miles east of Riverton near the American River. In the 1910s, Bert Randall owned Whitehall and boasted "the best-kegged beer on the great turnpike." That turnpike became the Lincoln Highway from 1913 until 1928, when highways officially lost their names and were given numbers, becoming Highway 50. The building had a "club room" lobby on the first floor and sleeping quarters on the second floor. Randall became the postmaster, and the stop was known as Randall's for a while.

The dilapidated "Whitehall" building we see today resulted from a remodel in 1935 by Mr. and Mrs. Virgil Jones. The fully renovated and modernized Whitehall had a new lunch and cocktail room, a large dining room overlooking the river, and a dance floor that would hold 30 couples.