Cave City

California Gold Rush Camps

The Book Club of California 1998 Keepsake

Miner's Dream
But in bright vision through the night
The miner's fancy teems,
Till, in imagination, comes
An angel in his dreams.

CAVE CITY LIES A FEW MILES from the surprisingly lively town of Mountain Ranch, which changed its name from "E1 Dorado" in 1868 when the post office arrived, and not too far from Sheep Ranch, today only a rather sleepy if not downright dreary assemblage of old houses. These hamlets are in Calaveras County, east of San Andreas, the county seat. So advanced is San Andreas that caff� latte is commonplace there; and Mountain Ranch has a smart gift shop (formerly Domenghini's store, founded 1902; built in 1856) and a stall for organic vegetables in one of the typical old stone buildings. The less-accessible Sheep Ranch offers no such delights. And however lively it once was, nothing now remains of the Gold Rush-era settlement at Cave City. Signs direct visitors to California Caverns, where knowledgeable guides will lead them through the caves, owned since 1982 by Stephen Fairchild of Vallecito.

The cave itself was known to the local Indians, of course; they are said to have used it as a sort of jail, and bones were found in it, as in many of the caves of the area. It is close to McKinney Creek, and there are numerous grinding-holes in the vicinity.

"This hotel is commodious and comfortable," James Mason Hutchings wrote in 1856, "and we shall long remember the enjoyment of our visit, and the personal attention we received from Mr. John Wasley, the present agreeable and enterprising proprietor." Hutchings traveled with photographers and artists, including Edward Jump. Back in San Francisco, wood engraver Warren C. Butler, known for billheads and ballots, turned their representations into those sketches. Hutchings' California Magazine, January 1857.

By 1850, when one Captain Taylor discovered the cave, there was a large mining camp, consisting of twenty wood frame buildings and scores of tents. A hotel was built in 1850, but it burned down twice. In 185 3, Messrs. Magee and Angels erected a hotel at a cost of $4,500, and at that time, the caves were opened to tours.

Population estimates for the area during active mining days go as high as 1,0OO persons, and Cave City School District was established; the school itself was eventually moved to E1 Dorado. From time to time, the place was known as a haunt for outlaws. Sheriff Ben Thorn signed his name on the cave wall, while the "hanging oak" still flourishes. There were numerous saloons and gambling houses until the 1860s, when mining was essentially over. Approximately 25,000 ounces of gold were taken out.

Still another hotel was built in 1881, but a visitor wrote, published in The Calaveras Weekly Citizen of December 29, 1883, that Cave City "once contained 1000 inhabitants but in the failure of the gravel mines the population diminished as in other mining towns, till at present the 'city' consists of a hotel, a saloon, and a haystack. A few other curiosities of early times still remain at the place..."

"As the light was borne up along a glorious fairy stairway," a visitor enthused in 1856, "pillars, curtains, pendants, and carved work, white as snow and translucent as crystal - glistened and shone, and sparkled with a glory that surpassed in splendor aH we had seen in art or read in fabled tales. This is called the Bridal Chamber."

John Muir described his visit to the cave first in an article in the San Francisco Daily Evening Bulletin for August 12, 1876: "Here we lingered...rejoicing to find so much real splendor in the darkness, such profusion of beauty without overabundance; a building ever in process of construction, yet ever finished...." Although he was scathing about the dancing amid the destroyed natural wonders, he was much moved by the beauty and variety of the caverns themselves and enjoyed the hospitality of the hotel in its then-incarnation. He remarked upon the fig trees of the area, and fig trees grow there at present.

The abandoned hotel was still standing in 1915, but in 1920, a settler in the area saw a certain Hamilton, known to be a bootlegger from San Francisco's North Beach, taking away the lumber to build a house for himself on forty acres he held nearby. Such "recycling" was apparently quite common throughout the area. In the 1940s and 1950s, only scraps and shacks remained, and the caves themselves were more often than not open to anyone who cared to explore.

Mr. Fairchild, present owner of the property, continues to look into the history of the place. He has found traces be believes to be from a cabin in which Samuel L. Clemens and Francis Bret Harte spent time. Bret Harte's story "A Ghost Story of the Sierras," though charming and set in Cave City, could not do for that place what Mark Twain's Jumping Frog did for not-too-distant Angels Camp, but at least Calaveras County can boast several spots on the literary map.

ANN WHIPPLE

ANN WHIPPLE is The Book Club's Executive Secretary. She spent many summers of childhood on the banks of O'Neill's Creek and revisits the Mother Lode regularly. The author wishes to thank Mr. Stephen Fairchild and his staff at California Caverns for their kind help; and Earl F. Schmidt and various members of the Yothers family for assistance, reminiscences, and encouragement.