Gold Country
Downtown Murphys. Waiting for his master.
The Gold Country is a fair drive away from San Jose, so we left at 5.20 in the morning. Planned to make it to Copperopolis for breakfast. After an hour, we were driving over the Altamount Pass towards Tracy. Half an hour later we had Stockton in our rear view mirror, heading east on Highway 4.
We came up to a railroad just as the barriers came down and we sat and waited for five minutes. To our right we saw the train – a long freight train, coming towards us at a snails pace. Oh no, we thought, this is going to take some time. The the train stopped. Two minutes later the barriers opened and we were able to cross. Maybe the train was waiting for another to pass but we were just grateful not to be held up for half an hour.
Highway 4 dissects the Central Valley so, for the first part, we drove past corn waving in the breeze and orchards. After Farmington, the scene changed to vineyards and cattle grazing. The the road started to climb towards the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains.
At 7.20 we arrived in Copperopolis, only to be hugely disappointed because we could not find anywhere to eat breakfast. We drove on to Angels Camp, where it was almost the same story. We did find one cafe but it was not open.
Angels Camp, otherwise known as Frogtown, is an interesting town though. Why Frog Town? - I hear you say. In the 1860′s a young journalist named Samuel Clemens stayed overnight in Angels Camp on his way to Nevada. While there, he heard of a frog which locals claimed could jump higher and further than any other frog. Samuel Clemens write a short story entitled ‘Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog’ and it was published in the New York Saturday Press. Two years later the short story was turned into a book entitled ”The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County’ but this time under the pen name of Clemens, which was Mark Twain.
To this day they hold an annual contest to find the frog which can jump the furthest. Every third week in May this contest is held during the Calaveras County Fair and Jumping Frog Jubilee. Installed in the sidewalks on Main Street in Angels Camp are bronze plaques shaped like frogs. Each plaque has the year, the name of the winning frog and the distance it jumped. The record stands at just over 21 feet.
Hunger and the need for coffee motivated us to move on. The nearest town of reasonable size was Murphys and here we were successful.
After breakfast at the Foothills Restaurant – see previous post – we moved the car to the main street where we found a nice shady tree to park under. We noticed quite a few empty shops on the way in, which is a sign of the times. On the other hand, there were more wine tasting rooms than on our previous visit.
We did our usual wander up one side and down the other to see what we could see. Murphys is an old gold mining town and a lot of the buildings have been here for over 150 years, with covered sidewalks – just like in the old westerns you see on TV. It is very pleasant to saunter up and down and there are many convenient benches to sit on in the shade.
A sign pointing to a ‘Point of Historic Interest’ caught my attention. Following the sign, I came of a wall which was called the E C V Wall of
E C V Wall of Comparative Ovations in Murphys
Comparative Ovations and was covered in plaques commemorating an unusual array of men and women who have left their mark on California. One of the plaques explains about the society of E Clampus Vitus – ‘sort of parody of the solemn and mysterious fraternal orders then so popular in the states’; ‘helped widows and orphans – especially widows’. It was very much tongue in cheek and very amusing. There was, of course, one for John Murphy, 1824-1892, who was the founder of Murphys. In December 1949 at the age of 25, he returned to San Jose with one and a half million dollars in gold. He married Virginia Reed of the Donner party and served as mayor and sheriff of Santa Clara County. There were just two women honored among the 50 or so plaques. One was Julia C Bulette, born London 1832 – ‘gentle companion to the miner……..strangled (in her bed maybe) in 1867′ and the other was Emma Nevada (Wixom) who was known as the Nightingale of the Comstock and sang for the Clampers and even for Queen Victoria.
Murphys Hotel in downtown Murphys
Further down the street was the historic Murphys Hotel – lovely old building with an upstairs balcony swathed in red, white and blue bunting. On a plaque outside it told the history of the building. Originally it was the Old Speery Hotel or the Speery and Perry Hotel. It has been a hotel since 1856 and is one of the oldest operating hotels in California. Over the years it has had its share of famous guests – Mark Twin, The Rothchilds, General U S Grant, Thomas Lipton and Black Bart (an infamous highwayman of the late 1880s in the area). Today the hotel is still very active. In fact, we wished we had waited just a little longer because they serve breakfast on the patio at the side of the hotel in a very nice shady garden. We must remember that next time we visit here.
Another old building ,which was originally called Jones Apothecary and Cash Store, still has the old painted sign on the side of the building. It is quite faded but the words can still be made out. Now it is an art gallery.
Along the way I saw a couple of interesting posters. Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young will be performing at the Ironstone Winery on September 19. They would be interesting to see in concert but probably to far to come. The other post was advertising the Calaveras Grape Stomping in Murphys Communal Park on October 3. That sounds like fun.
There are lots more interesting buildings in Murphys and I hope the above has given you a flavor.
At the end of shops and the beginning of the residential part of the town, there is a bridge over a fast running stream. This is Murphys Creek. On one side of the bridge are two houses with the creek running between them. One of the houses has a small, ornamental water wheel with a crank shaft leading to model windmill. The sails of the windmill were not turning though. It all looked very pretty.
Time to move on, so we made our way back to the car. There were more people walking along the sidewalks and the shops were open now. All the shady parking spots had been taken. There weren’t many parking places in the sun either but there is a large car park behind the Main Street.
We decided to pay a visit to the Irish Vineyard in Vallecito. This a family run winery and one of our favorites in the area. It was October when we last visited and as they were not busy we were taken out the back to taste some of the newly crushed wine before it had started to ferment. Stems and seeds were floating on the top and it didn’t look at all drinkable. It smelt divine though. A glass was dipped in the juice and we tried it. It was absolutely gorgeous it was completely alcohol free. On this visit, though, we were disappointed to find that the tasting room was not open. It was 10.15 and they don’t open until 11.
Old Dodge truck in Mokelumne Hill
We decided to drive on to Mokelumne Hill – another old gold mining town. Drove north on Highway 49 through San Andreas. This brought on another bout of memories as we relived our early morning drive from Murphys to the hospital in San Andreas.
Molekumne Hill is just off Highway 49 to the right. Not so commercialized as Murphys and much smaller and quieter. Before, when we’ve visited, it has been early in the morning and nothing has been open. Now, at 11, we might find more life. This is a funky little town and it looks as though little has changed since the height of the gold rush. We parked on Main Street in front of the library, which looks like a large log cabin. On the covered veranda outside were tables full of used books so I went to browse amongst them whilst Tom went exploring on his own. There was a wide variety of subjects, including magazines and sheet music. The sign outside gave the prices for hardbacks, paperbacks, etc and if the library was closed to put the money in the book drop. I would have liked to have gone inside the library but it was closed and, in fact, it doesn’t open on a Saturday at all.
Just along from the library is the historic Hotel Ledger . Like most buildings in Gold Country towns, buildings are made out of wood and have raised, covered sidewalks. The Hotel Leger has a balcony above the veranda. How wonderful to have a room which opens onto the balcony and to be able to sit out there and look at the view and to watch the world go by. Mind you, it must get pretty noisy at times with the bar underneath. On the wall of the hotel is an old poster showing all the historic buildings in the town with a map.
Across the street from the hotel is another old building but I haven’t been able to find about what the building was originally called. One section is a small windowless room with an art display in in. To view the display you have to look through the glass window of a locked door. It’s entitled ‘Plane View and the artist is Kristin Farr and consists of 12 paper airplanes, ranging in size from small to very large, made out of thin cardboard of different colors and suspended from the ceiling.
On the corner of Main and Center is a burger joint with an outside garden but it didn’t appear to be open. On Center Street, near a building which
British Telephone booth in Mokelumne Hill
had a sign proclaiming it to be the Blacksmiths Shop, we spotted an old, red, British telephone kiosk which had no windows and was in a decrepit state. So forlorn it looked. Nearby was a large sign which said Rooster vertically and Crossing horizontally. Did it really mark a rooster crossing? Was it the name of a house or farm? Very odd. Just a few steps down the road was another strange sight – a very old Dodge truck backed off the road with its tires disintegrated and an old dinghy on the back. What is the history of that I wonder? I bet there are a few stories out there to explain these strange sights. This whole area was in a very run down state.
So much for me thinking shops would be open here. The only business open was the old Wells Fargo building – built 1853 – which is now the Mokelumne Exchange and Reading Room. It sells new and used books, antiques, gifts, art and craft items by local artisans and various consignment items.
While I had been browsing through the second books outside the library, Tom had been chatting to a local who told him about a nice drive along the Mokelumne River so we decided to go and look for it. Back to Highway 49 we drove and turned north. The specific instructions were to drive until just before crossing the bridge over the river and to turn right on Electra Road. On the map I could see exactly where Electra Road was but in reality it was completely different. There was the bridge over the river and there was the road off to the right but it had a gate halfway across the road and signs saying no parking and no trespassing. No sign at all to say it was Electra Road and it looked as though it branched off to two driveways to house. We abandoned that idea.
We carried on driving north through Jackson and then turned left on Highway 104/88. Soon we had wonderful views down over the Central Valley. There it was, stretching to the right and left of us as far as the eye could see. Straight ahead across the valley the Diablo Range was not even visible. All we have to do to get home is to cross both the valley and the mountain range.
Once we left the foothills behind us and started to cross the Central Valley, the grapes and orchards appeared again and the road was long and straight. At Lockeford we took a break, for in this place the best home made sausages and beef jerky can be purchased at the Lockeford Meat Service. Here we bought two smoked Dakotas and two British bangers, a marinated tri tip and half a pound of beef jerky. Tom bit into the jerky as soon as we got back to the car. I had a taste but it is not really to my liking, though it does taste a bit like marmite. One more short stop at a fruit stand to buy some fresh vegetables and dried fruit and we were set for the long drive home.
After driving over 300 miles we were back home again. It’s been an interesting and entertaining day where we have seen several cute little old mining towns, giving us a flavor of the California Gold Rush days and seen tons of wonderful scenery ranging from the flat and fertile Central Valley to the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas.
July 22 2009 07:42 pm | Special Places
Katherine on 23 Jul 2009 at 6:38 am #
Hi, there: Unfortunately, you turned down a private driveway on the Calaveras side of the Mokelumne, not on Electra Road. Electra Road runs along the Amador side of the Mokelumne, from Highway 49 about 3.5 miles east to PG&E’s Electra Powerhouse. It’s definitely open the full length. I was out there on Sunday (along with many, many other people seeking to beat the heat).
See photos, map link and more on this page: http://www.foothillconservancy.org/pages/ws_electra.cgi
Come back another day!
Margaret and Tom on 23 Jul 2009 at 8:44 am #
Thanks, Katherine, for clarifying. We thought Electra Road was before the bridge. We started up the road after the bridge but didn’t see a street name so gave up. We should have kept going. The map on your link shows it clearly.
We’ll certainly give it a try next time.
Regards,
Tom and Margaret
Steve Howe on 29 Jul 2009 at 7:14 am #
Murphys is a fun place to visit. My wife and I always enjoy staying at Dunbar House on the main street. It’s walking distance to more than 10 wine tasting rooms and our favorite restaurant….V Bar and Grill. Make reservations for lunch or dinner(especially on weekends) as V is a small restaurant with a loyal following.
Margaret and Tom on 29 Jul 2009 at 3:38 pm #
Thanks Steve. We’ll try V next time. There’ll certainly be a next time as we love the area. Does V serve breakfast?
Regards,
Margaret and Tom