Jamestown

California Gold Rush Camps

The Book Club of California 1998 Keepsake

The Idle And Industrious Miner
The lazy miner spends his time
In playing cards the while;
But here we see the industrious one
Already has his pile.

JAMESTOWN IN THE SOUTHERN MOTHER LODE is located some four miles below Sonora. Its setting continues to have some of the natural beauty that Benjamin F. Wood of Oregon Territory and his party of gold-seekers first saw in the summer of 1848. At that time the waters of Woods Creek ran clear, and a man could easily catch trout for dinner. Native grasses grew tall; a variety of trees ranging from lofty yellow pines to oaks, cottonwoods, and willows grew by its sides. Here Wood's party found enough gold to encourage them to stake claims and set up camp.

By 1849, Wood's party decided to head back to Oregon. They stopped to pan gold on the South Fork of the American River near Coloma. While they wore working in the river, they wore attacked and killed by Indians.

That same summer, Colonel George F. James found his way to Woods Creek. This former San Francisco attorney filed a claim, but James hired other men to do his mining. As they worked for his gold, James opened a hotel and a store and became alcalde of this town that was named after him.

This honor shortly gave way to dishonor when Colonel James declared bankruptcy. Fearful of the wrath of the townsfolk, he high-tailed out of town.

The people of Jamestown wore so angry that they changed the town's name to American Camp. But this was too much of a mouthful. After a short time, they returned to the old name, but put some distance between themselves and the founder through the affectionate and informal "Jimtown." Soon B. F. Butterfield opened his store, one business after another followed, and the fancy Bella Union Saloon pleased miners and merchants. On August 16, 185 3, the U. S. Post Office opened; the name was Jamestown.

After the easy placer pickings diminished, many miners turned north toward the dark lava cliffs of Table Mountain. Here they began to dig drift tunnels with the hope of striking pay dirt beneath this stark, ancient river of solidified lava. In Jane of 185I, miners working for the New York Tunnel Mine found a three pound lump of quartz. Breaking it open, they found one pound of gold.

"'Rock the cradle, Lucy,' appears to be all the go," a Jimtown miner wrote in May 1849. "When I first arrived here [on April 7], there were but two machines within two miles; at the present, rocking 'cradles' are as plentiful as they ought to be in any healthy district of a well-coupled community." Four years later, as this letter sheet shows, Jamestown was a fine, settled community. [Courtesy California State Library]

With this discovery, gold-seeking entered the era of underground mining. Stamp mills pounded and roared well into the twentieth century. The Jamestown district included such rich mines as the Harvard, discovered in 1850, and worked for some eighty years; the App-Heslep, the Dutch App, the Dutch Sweeney, the Jumper, the Rawhide, and the Santa Ysabel. Geologists estimate total production came to $30 million (measured at $20.67 a troy ounce).

With hardrock mining came steady jobs for miners, and a stable economy benefitting merchants. Best of all, it brought families, and families required a church - which also doubled as a school building. The Jimtown School provided employment in 1862 to humorous writer and would - be miner Prentice MulLord. His interview for the job, he claimed later, consisted of one trustee asking him to spell such difficult words as "cat" and "rat." After hiring him to teach sixty children ranging in age from six to seventeen, the head trustee revealed the reason behind their eagerness to obtain him: "There are two boys," he said, "that I advise you to kill [within] the first week!" Thus Mulford began his short career as a Jamestown schoolteacher - good training for his later entry into Democratic politics.

The Sierra Railway headed out from the main line at Oakdale in 1897 and three years later chugged through town, heading for Sonora. It became the lifeline between Tuolumne County and the outside world. A branch line from Angels Camp and the rich Utica Mine made Jimtown a junction town in 1902. Up near Fifth Avenue, the main depot, with its upturned rooflines and its bright yellow walls, had an oriental look. The freight sheds, loading dock, shops, and the round house buzzed with activity. Across the way, the three-story Nevills Hotel, with its beautiful lobby, marble fireplace, fine paintings, and comfortable leather chairs, gave a touch of class. Its bar, paneled in mahogany and hung with crystal chandeliers, offered the very best in liquors and vintage wines, while the menu for the dining room matched San Francisco's finest restaurants. Sadly, during the summer of 1915, the Nevills Hotel suffered the curse of Gold Rush towns - it caught fire and quickly burned, leaving only its foundation and memories.

Jamestown's literary wealth matched its gold production. In 1914, one young writer who wrote for the Mother Lode Magnet was Idwal Jones. He lived in a cabin at Quartz and made the daily four-mile walk to town to gather stories for the weekly newspaper. During his "Jimtown" days, young Jones came to love the Mother Lode country for its natural beauty and historical past - expressing that devotion in his many books and numerous articles. Natives and visitors carry on this Gold Rush heritage.

FEROL EGAN

FEROL EGAN is a fourth-generation native of Jamestown. His latest book, Last Bonanza Kings: The Bourns of San Francisco, arrived in 1998. Among his other books is the well-received Fremont: Explorer for a Restless Nation.