I found the Dave Moore Nature Area almost by accident, as I was researching hiking trails in the area of Coloma. This quiet spot is just a short way up Highway 49 from the Marshall Gold Discovery SHP, and there’s no fee for parking or day use. This is a fun trail loop, not very demanding, that takes you down […]
It’s a steep climb up to (and then back down from) the James Marshall monument in Coloma, although there are a few different routes to choose from. If you’d rather not trek the full 3-mile dirt loop from Highway 49 to the top of the hill and back, you can take a car up the paved switchbacks of Marshall Park […]
James Marshall really was one unlucky guy. All he wanted to do was work hard at his trade as a carpenter and millwright; but after he accidentally uncovered a small piece of gold in the American River his life was turned upside down. He no longer had the chance to work, and he never managed to profit from the historic […]
The Yuba Gold Fields are a fascinating place for me because they give a very good idea of what the area around Mississippi Bar on Lake Natoma would have looked like after the dredgers finished their work in 1962. At Lake Natoma, the Teichart Aggregate Company reclaimed much of the resultant dredger tailings and crushed them into gravel; when the […]
When I first visited the Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park as a young schoolkid, I was especially fascinated by the two small buildings known as the Chinese Stores. I think it was partly because these two small buildings are authentic structures from the 1850s, not replicas. I liked to imagine the Chinese miners going in and out of the […]
The theme for Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge this week is Yellow.
1950s Odds and Ends — Just before I move on to a bunch of slides from the 1960s, I thought I would share a selection of slides that (for the most part) have left me with some unanswered questions. Maybe seeing them here will jog a memory or two in my family members — or not. Either way, I’ve enjoyed […]
The men and women who built St John’s Catholic Church and worshipped there, who now lie buried in the adjoining cemetery, most likely were never famous. Although their names may never be found in the history books, they created a community in the town of Coloma — and in their own ways, quietly helped shape the course of the events […]
