*****
Sadly, Chinese Camp burned to the ground this past Tuesday due to thunderstorms and lightning strikes all up and down the western foothills of the Sierras. From what I've heard, the church and school survived but not much else.
As I was telling Elmo who sent me a link, the fire was decades overdue because of the poor maintenance of the remaining buildings, but especially due to invasive and hardy trees imported from China known as Trees of Heaven or Chinese Elms. Those fuckers are so thick in Chinese Camp that they're growing out of windows and doors of the abandoned buildings. Even the asphalt on the roads was uneven because of the shallow roots they have - nature's speedbumps. It also didn't help matters that Chinese Camp is in an area with heavy thickets of manzanita, a large shrub that burns fast and very hot. Basically, Chinese Camp was one big self fed bonfire.
Below is a link to a youtube video that shows how overgrown the town is with those damned Chinese trees.
VIDEO HERE (6:23 minutes)
I wish I had a personal story to tell about the town but truth be known, even though it was only about 45 minutes from my place, I've only been through the town itself maybe 3-4 times. I've whizzed past it about a million times though. I stopped in at the old store one time but was disappointed they didn't sell rolling papers, so I never went back. If they can't even carry life's bare essentials I'll just take my business elsewhere. Fuck 'em.
There just wasn't any reason to stop there because the town didn't have a lot of history and the area wasn't much of a gold producer. It was such a poor producer of gold that the site that I go to for my Friday mining posts doesn't even list the town. I mean, it's right on the lower edge of the Mother Lode.
Chinese Camp's biggest claim to fame was the Tong War of 1856 when several hundred members of two Chinese gangs got pissed at each other and had a big fight 3-4 miles away where Red Hills Road tees off into La Grange Road (J59) near what is today the site of the old stage station and hotel. They fought halfheartedly for a few hours with clubs and swords incurring only four fatalities before saying fuck it and calling it a day, heading back to town to lick their wounds and smoke some opium with their homeboys.
Now you'll be singing Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting to yourself for the rest of the day. You're welcome.
The old stage station and hotel..... I'm pretty sure the Tong War happened 10 or 20 years before the station and hotel were built. I was able to check the sites out close up one day when I was working at the ranch they're on, but there's nothing left. Other than a single square nail I found where the hotel stood, there were no artifacts - no braces, hinges, latches, or anything else you'd normally find where an old building once stood.
The only thing marking the site of the station is a large circular stone corral that still stands on the south side of Red Hills Rd and can be seen using Google Earth. It can also be seen from either road using Street View. The area around the corral was used as a storage yard for ranch equipment when I was there so everything else has been erased - you can't even tell where the station building itself was located.
On the north side of road right there on the flat is where the hotel was. There's a short line of foundation stones still there that are visible during the winter when the grass is down, and that's the only clue as to where the hotel once stood.
And that's about all I know about the Chinese Camp/Tong War area.
Since no one else has done it yet:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmfudW7rbG0
I was telling Ken that the day Chinese Camp burned two other good sized fires started within a 20 mile radius, all lightning strikes. Chinese Camp turned out to be the most destructive of the three.
ReplyDeleteI was watching FlightRadar24 that day and it was literally a Chinese fire drill in the sky, with the 10+ S2Ts and multiple VLATs (Very Large Air Tankers) being told where they were needed the most as they were approaching the area. It was nuts.
BTW, manzanita is #2 on CDF's flammability list, right behind chamise, the crap that carries the fire that burns up SoCal every year. Madrone is kind of the tree version of manzanita and it burns so hot I don't even like using it as firewood. It will run you out of the house and wear your stove out prematurely if you're not careful.
I bet madrone would cherry up your stovepipe in no time at all.
DeleteI had to look up chamise and then went 'Oh! Greasewood!' I didn't know what the proper name was.
I recall watching the smoke billow up from fires in the foothills. You could see it suddenly change color from white/grey to black as it hit a patch of that oily fuel.
DeleteI read about the fire there a week or so ago...
ReplyDeleteJD
Not Chinese Camp. That happened Tuesday evening.
DeleteI went back to check, it was Chinese Camp but I had my days wrong. Time has been flying by lately
DeleteJD
I know the feeling, trust me. Since I retired, I have a hard time keeping days, weeks and months apart.
DeleteAs a kid I remember a teepee burner at Chinese Camp. There was a lumber mill there and they would burn all the scraps. I don't know if the burner is still there or it got scrapped.
ReplyDeleteThat canyon between Groveland and Yosemite park burns on a regular basis. Overgrown with Manzanita.
We burn Madrone almost exclusively here. Great heat, coals last overnight, very little ash, never a flue fire.
I don't recall seeing a burner there back in the 1980s, but again, I didn't spend a lot of time in that area.
DeleteThinking back, I do remember the Standard lumber mill that was on J59 close to Hwy 120. Is that the one you're talking about?
DeleteDamn, my brain got a workout with this post.
SPI has mills in both Chinese Camp and Standard. According to Google Earth, the Chinese Camp mill is a regular sawmill with large decks of logs. The Standard mill is still open and running but it must be a window plant or some such thing, as I can see no log decks there, just lots of units of lumber. I can't see a burner at either place.
DeleteYou may remember, Ken. I mentioned that the old burner still stands that was part of the long-closed Yuba River Lumber sawmill in Grass Valley. It's right next to the new TSC store. They bought the land their store is on from the Yuba River Lumber family, the Pendolas.
It sure brings back memories looking at that old burner.
I don't remember the Chinese Camp mill, and I've never seen any activity at all or lumber outside of the Standard mill. That goes to show how observant I am.
DeleteTraveling east on 120 you were looking right at the back side of the mill and didn't know it. It's 2 miles after 120 leaves 108 before you get into Chinese Camp.
DeleteThanks for this. I've always been curious about that mill, didn't know the first thing about it and was too lazy to look it up before now. Now I could drive right to it from memory.
I do these posts so people can learn something and now I'm the student.
DeleteNo complaints, though. Thanks.
Hi Elmo. Not to hijack this thread, but since you mentioned Grass Valley, did you ever shoot at the Nevada County Sportsman's Club?
DeleteNo, it's kind of expensive to become a member and somewhat inconvenient to get there from here so no, I haven't shot there.
DeleteThat and most of my shooing has been at the family ranch, where I had a 500+ yard range set up.
Nowadays I stay close to home as my bride needs me because of her health.
Ah. I only ask because I used to shoot rifle matches there during the summer. Couldn't say for sure when the last time was, probably around 2005
DeleteGood man. We can't be better men if we don't look after our better half.
When this pony ride comes to an end one of the few regerts I'll have is that I never met some of the good guys I've met on the blogs, like you, Ken and a guy that wastes my time daily. Mighty good folks, all.
DeleteThe years of decline and recent fire means that some where close there will be an old and or abandoned gold claim. Id be checking and staking claim asap especially since it is close to home.
ReplyDeleteIt would a waste of time in Chinese Camp. What little gold was there was thoroughly cleaned out by Chinese miners who were famous for that.
DeleteI recall "Chinese Camp" was a pit stop in the Sierra road race in "Herbie The Love Bug".
ReplyDeleteCC
Kendall is a family friend who had this 6:23 video in the works when the fires erupted. I pretty good breakdown of the history of Chinese Camp. https://youtu.be/7eqP2vRDAhM?si=b6hozFB6f7XEgzdl
ReplyDelete