Gibsonville Ridge

California Gold Rush Camps

The Book Club of California 1998 Keepsake

Friends In The City
He's made his fortune, and to seek
His home he now intends;
See how genteely now he he meets (sic.)
With all his city friends.

HIGH IN THE SIERRA NEVADA, along the borders of Plumas and Sierra counties, was a group of rich Gold Rush towns. These included Rabbit Creek (La Porte), St. Louis, Gibsonville, Port Wine, Howland Flat, Spanish Flat, Poker Flat, and Whiskey Diggings. They were a few miles apart, and most are ghost towns. An exception is Rabbit Creek, now known as La Porte. Gold was discovered in the region in 1850, and the district was extremely rich for many years.

During the winter months, the towns were almost isolated by snow. In 1851-52, the Rabbit Creek area was covered by fifteen feet. At times, the snow remained until June!

One newspaper correspondent pointed up the hilarity of ski races sponsored by E Clampus Vitus - at a time when only a dope would not use dope to "ride fast dope," and dope meant ski wax, not narcotics. The famed Snowshoe Thompson was dopeless that day, and he ran "behind like an ox team after a railroad car," this observer declared - as Thompson "came out over zoo feet behind the last man in his squad." Since Thompson admitted "such speed he never witnessed before," the Clampers did not rub in his defeat too much. "He went home with his brains and pockets full of dope recipes, which the boys kindly furnished him."

Transportation was difficult in this remote region. Only in the summer months was public conveyance available. From Quincy in Plumas County to Rabbit Creek, a stage line ran tri-weekly in the 1870s. The distance was thirty-three miles, and the passage was five hours. The fare was four dollars. A second route, from Downieville in Sierra County to Howland Flat, a distance of twenty miles, took four hours and cost five dollars. This was by a saddle train, not a stage line, and departed from Downieville on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

Because of the isolation, the miners developed their own recreation. For example, in May of 1864, a prize fight was held in Port Wine between Daly and Davis, a fight that lasted for fifty-four rounds! Also, the fun-loving organization of E Clampus Vitus was active in the area by at least 1855. This was only a few years after its California beginnings in Mokelumne Hil1 in 1850. An invitation to a ball in Rabbit Creek on December 24, 1858, was signed by the Noble Grand Humbugs of not only Rabbit Creek but also Spanish Flat, St. Louis, and Gibsonville. This invitation was printed by the Mountain Messenger, a historic newspaper founded in Gibsonville in 1854 but moved to Rabbit Crceek in the fall of 1855. In 1864, the paper relocated to Downieville, where it is still published, one of the oldest newspapers in California.

Downhill racers flash past the judges, most remaining upright, while in the center, spectators lubricate themselves, and to the right, waiting contestants "dope" their skis. [San Francisco Mining and Scientific Press, October 9, 1886]

These Gold Rush towns are remembered not only for being rich in minerals but for being the site of the first organized skiing in California. An official California Registered Historic Landmark monument erected in 1960 dating the Olympic Winter Games claims more. It reads that on this site was "the first organized Ski Club and competition in the Western Hemisphere," and who can doubt the accuracy of an engraved plaque?

One of the first to ski in California was the renowned Snowshoe Thompson, who as early as 1856 was skiing in the Sierra Nevada. In 1858, skis wore introduced into the Sierra Plumas region. Indefatigable traveler J. Ross Browne reached Howland Flat in 1868 and remarked, "The abundance of the snow and the long duration render it necessary for the people to accustom them selves to snow-shoes [skis]. And snow shoe races are the chief amusement of the winter. People travel 20 or 30 miles across the country to see them, and large sums are bat on the results." In 1869, Snowshoe Thompson left Alpine County to enter the Howland Flat races. There he met with defeat by the local skiers. His defeat was attributed to his opponents' use of "dope," a lubricant applied to the snowshoes.

Most of those mining towns are now ghost towns, but they will always be remembered not only for being rich in gold but also for being the first region to develop organized skiing in California.

AEBERT SHUMATE

DR. ALBERT SHUMATE, dean of San Francisco historians and (in)famous X Sublime Noble Grand Humbug of E Clampus Vitus, is a frequent Book Club contributor and author of such noted works as The California of George Gordon (1976) and Rincon Hill and South Park (1988).