Rich man, poor man

Placerville, CA – After picking up some brochures at the KOA office, we decided to drive in to Placerville and visit some local museums. The GPS took us there in an easterly direction via the state highway, and as we came to a rise of land, off in the distance was a breathtaking view of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, all white with snow, and the rolling green foothills between us and the horizon.

When we arrived at the town’s museum, we found out it was closed.  It’s not exactly high season for tourism right now, so we weren’t too surprised. After driving around a bit, we spotted the Chamber of Commerce with a “Visitor Center” sign, plus a city lot across from it offering two hours of free parking.

Brooks was the name of the woman who greeted us inside and offered lots of useful tips and advice about visiting the area, as well as more maps and brochures.  The main street of Placerville has lots of vintage buildings, and we stopped for a tasty lunch at Bricks, on Brooks’s recommendation.  We also visited the hardware store down the street, which has been in continuous operation since 1849!  It had worn wooden floors, stone interior walls and a huge inventory of fascinating items.

We headed out of town, after our little stroll, on Highway 49 toward Coloma, the town where the discovery of gold triggered one of the biggest migrations of people in US history. The highway had more twists and turns than any other we’ve been on this trip, through hills and valleys, and with almost no shoulders at all.  It also had lovely rural scenery of small farms, grazing sheep and trees with spring-fattened buds.

Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park is the name of the former town of Coloma, which is now almost entirely made up of preserved historic buildings. The spot was chosen in the late 1840s for its river and for the tall ponderosa pines – a perfect setting for a sawmill that would provide wood for the construction of buildings in New Helvetia, the town 45 miles to the west that would later become Sacramento.

James Mar-shall was the partner of town builder John Sutter, and the man who would construct and run the sawmill.  Workers had dug a chan-nel from the American River for the sawmill, but it needed to be deeper. After further digging, Marshall went, on the morning of January 24, 1848, to inspect the watercourse, and noticed some shiny flecks in the water.  He picked them up and had a closer look, and realized it was gold.

His comment about the discovery to the sawmill workers was like a match striking dry grass.  Word of it spread like wildfire, and the Gold Rush was launched.  Thousands came to seek their fortune.  Marshall’s life did not unfold as one might have imagined, however.  The sawmill was abandoned, and his efforts to find more gold were not successful.  He bought land and cultivated grapes, but by the time he died, at age 74, he was alone with only $200 to his name.  Ironically, the monument that was later raised to honour his role in US history cost $9,000 to build!