Although Miwok natives originally lived in the area, the story of the town itself begins with the arrival of Colonel John Stevenson and his New York 7th Regiment from San Francisco during 1848.
Friday, June 14, 2024
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
On Highway 88 about 20 or so minutes east of Sutter Creek. Black Cave Chasm is there if you're into tourist caves.
ReplyDeleteThe biggest (by weight) rattlesnake I've ever seen was between Fiddletown and Volcano. He wasn't that long, maybe five feet, but his body was easily sixteen inches in circumference. And it wasn't something he'd just eaten. He was huge.
ReplyDeleteI grew up as a young lad on a ranch off Tyler Road above Fiddletown in the '60's. Went to Plymouth elementary school and freshman year at Amador High. Never saw a snake that big, but did see tracks across dusty dirt roads that made me stop (I was on foot or horseback) and look right and left.
DeleteRHT447-
DeleteThe snake I saw was laying in the middle of a narrow, paved county road sunning himself. It was almost like he was challenging any human being that wanted to use 'his' road.
Unfortunately, this was in the day before cellphones with cameras. I'd have loved to have gotten a photo of him, although he crept me out enough just looking at him out of the window of a pickup.
Oops. Anonymous above is me. The photo with sign for the Cobblestone Theater reminded me I got to experience the Claypipers--
ReplyDeletehttps://www.ledger.news/roots/the-claypipers-theater-in-drytown/article_79a9bbe2-ba55-11eb-a795-7b7df8baeb2e.html
Oh, Man. Are you bringing back memories. For two years in the '70s I did a weekly 'commute' from Angels Camp to Grass Valley, and I had to look up Drytown to make sure it was where I thought it was.
DeleteI double checked by way of Google Earth, and I can't believe how much that area south of Plymouth along Highway 49 has changed in 50 years. Amazing.
Memories you say. Oh my. Like I said, I grew up there. Everything has changed, even up in the "boonies" above Fiddletown. Still, using Google Earth street view, I can pick out houses in town where kids lived that I went to school with. This street view capture is about two miles out of Plymouth on the way to Fiddletown.
Deletehttps://earth.google.com/web/@38.48331948,-120.81171805,447.25100708a,0d,28.00252584y,95.68079283h,87.15091492t,0r/data=IhoKFndBc2NQbXgyM2lXYXp0OXhqVjllV3cQAg
The road to the right that heads off through the bushes is the OLD Fiddletown road. I used to ride the school bus on that road.
The original 160 acres of our ranch was a land grant to a Union Civil War Veteran, Thomas Burden. I still have copies of that grant (photostat I think. Looks like a photo negative) dated November of 1875, signed by U.S. Grant, President.
That's good to see there are still stretches of road that look like I remember, and that the old road is still visible to those that remember it. Nice.
DeleteOh the Irony! I was surfing Google Earth yesterday, and saw Volcano! How weird!
ReplyDeleteMy mother was bonkers for Volcano, CA. She was friends with the people who own Daffodil Hill and tried to go every year for her entire old age. She even named one of her race horses Volcano Blues.
ReplyDeleteShe was one of the world's larger pains in the ass, but it was pretty entertaining the way her enthusiasms completely overtook her.
Huh, I've been to Daffodil Hill quite a few times, mostly with friends I was showing around the Mother Lode.
DeleteUnfortunately, Daffodil Hill closed to the public 5 years ago because it got too popular because of social media. Such are the times we live in. Sad, that.
DeleteRight at the bloom, the Modesto Bee was running articles on it for a few years before I left California.
DeleteI believe the kindest way would be to dedicate a town in Northern California to OG Californians, a place where the rest of the state is not allowed, or maybe an invitation-only town, where we could just be the way we naturally are in peace before we leave this mortal coil. It would be full of so much love and fellowship, such a relief, a mercy on our immortal souls.
ReplyDelete