We’re finally heading up the road to visit California’s gold country, those countless mines and settlements scattered across the Sierra Nevada’s western slope. By way of very brief introduction:
Nevada City and Grass Valley—these fraternal-twin towns somehow combine contemporary cool with Victorian sensibility. Mark Twain actually did sleep here in Nevada City, as elsewhere, and regaled the crowds at the local theater. Once called Deer Creek Dry Diggins, Caldwell’s Upper Store, and then, simply, Nevada, when the state next door stole the name, in 1865, this Nevada became Nevada City. It’s hard to imagine it as California’s third largest city, but back in the day Nevada City beat out Sonora, farther south, for that honor.
In Grass Valley stop at Empire Mine State Historic Park, a hard-rock mining and mansion complex. Some say Empire has at least four times as much gold as the 5.8 million ounces already unearthed, but these days neighbors don’t take kindly to industrial pollution and noise. So, so far, new mining proposals go nowhere.
State Hwy. 49 tours gorgeous country, winding north. A don’t-miss destination: Malakoff Diggins State Historic Park, an ecologically horrifying, yet seductive, monument to 1870s hydraulic mining. Water cannons blasted off soil and vegetation and whittled the remaining bedrock into colorful spires that evoke Utah’s Bryce Canyon. Devastating floods and massive amounts of silt washing down into the valley from North Bloomfield here inspired the first successful environmental lawsuit.
Continuing north, once back on 49, takes you through charming Downieville, a mountain-biking mecca, then Sierra City and its excellent Kentucky Mine Park and Museum. Turn north at Bassetts to reach the unspoiled Lakes Basin area, or continue on 49 to Sierra Valley—the largest alpine valley in the Sierra Nevada—and Sierra Hot Springs.
Barely time for even highlights of the Southern Mines, but let’s try: Hwy. 49 south from Auburn snakes through Cool and Pilot Hill and finally Coloma, where the gold rush began, at Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park. Visit strategically: the area is swamped by whitewater rafters when it’s not overrun by school kids on field trips.
Next major stop is Placerville, known as Hangtown in its wilder days. Big draws include Apple Hill near here and wineries around Plymouth, Somerset, and Fair Play (this is zinfandel country). Uphill from charming Amador City and Sutter Creek—famous for its Knight Foundry, the last water-powered foundry and machine shop in the U.S.—are Volcano, site of the state’s first lending library, and Chaw’se Indian Grinding Rock State Park.
Angels Camp memorializes the miners’ tall tale made famous by Mark Twain’s first successful short story, “The Celebrated Jumping Frogs of Calaveras County,” with its annual frog-jumping contest at the fairgrounds. But, as gold-country towns go, I prefer nearby Murphys, where the hotel boasts genuine gold-rush bullet holes.
Columbia, near sprawling Sonora, restored and preserved in its entirely as a state historic park, was once the biggest, richest, wickedest of them all. A picture-perfect Western town, which explains all the Westerns filmed here, including High Noon and scenes from Clint Eastwood’s The Unforgiven. Railroad buffs will love Jamestown, with its equally cinematic steam-powered train. Then it’s on to Coulterville, Mariposa, and Oakhurst.
