Site Visit: May 8, 2021A visit to Mom’s, but first a quick re-cap. So what is this blog about? In 1948, the 100-year anniversary of the discovery of gold at Coloma and the beginning of the California Gold Rush, the state Division of Mines published a ceremonial bulletin called Geological Guidebook Along Highway 49 - Sierran Gold Belt: The Mother Lode Country. Within the guidebook is a chapter written by two prominent archeologists called "Survey of Building Structures of the Sierran Gold Belt". The writers traveled the Gold Country north from Mariposa to Downieville. Along the way they documented still existing stone and clay buildings built between 1850-1870. My objective is to discover if these building still exist and then try to re-create as near as possible the photographs they took for the survey. Some of these buildings are hours from my house in Sacramento. One of the easier sites to get to though is the Rammed-Earth Adobe in Virginiatown, Placer County. That's because it’s just a few miles from Mom's house in Lincoln. It makes it a fun one to poke around looking for, and this one took some looking. As you probably noticed in the pictures above, my repeat photograph lacks a building. Sadly time has not been kind to Virginiatown. No buildings from the Gold Rush still exist. This is despite the fact that the town had some notoriety. California’s first railroad (really just carts pulled by horses over a rail) was used in Virginiatown in 1852 to move gold-bearing gravels from Virginiatown to Auburn Ravine. Also, the building shown above and subject to this search was supposedly the butcher shop where the Armour meat packing company got its start. This is almost assuredly not true, but it is a fun "fact" often repeated about Virginiatown. I knew nothing about the building when I first attempted to find it. But an internet search gave me a few clues, such as a few black and white photos, but no intel on the exact location or if it even still existed. Google maps is usually good for recon from the home office, but street view and a fly over only got me the location of the State Landmark plaque above. Perhaps an old map would help? The earliest USGS topo showing Virginiatown is this one from 1893. For a town that once had over 2000 people including a general store, butcher shops, livery stables, post office, saloons, and a racetrack, there wasn't much left by the early 1890s. It did appear that most of the buildings were on the north side of the road, like the plaque, so maybe that would help in the search. Maybe you’re asking, "But what about those black and white photos you mentioned? Surely they can help with the search." Good point! Let's take a look. State Parks has an amazing photograph collection, part of which they are sharing on their website. Among the images are these below, taken in 1931 by Harry Peterson. Based on these images, it looks like there were only two buildings, both adobes, left by this time. The photo on the left faintly shows both buildings, one on each side of the road. Since the Sierra is in the background, we know the photographer was facing east. And from the other two pictures, it’s easy to see that the nearest building on the north side of the road is likely our target. Closing in! To confirm that this is the right building of the two, we can look at photos taken in 1940 for the Farm Security Administration. Their photographer was sent to document the Placer County countryside during the Depression. And then luckily these images ended up with the Library of Congress, who then put them on the internet. Oddly, the photographer called the building an old bank. He was probably right though in saying it was being used now as a barn. Also note the flagpole seen in this and earlier photos. The USGS published a new map of the area in 1954. These two buildings appear near each other on the map. The so-called Armour Adobe is the square dot below the letter "O" in Virginiatown and the other building is the dot on the south side of the road. I was able to then find an image of the adobe was from the early 1960s. UCSB has an amazing aerial photography collection with locator. And they allow you to download many of the photographs. After a little searching, I found this flyover from 1962 showing the two buildings. The follow up from 1999 though indicates the buildings were destroyed by that point. So where exactly was the building? Well, it finally donned on me that I did know something about Virginiatown. While in college I worked at an archaeological information center on Sac State's campus. At that time one of the digs the archaeology department was conducting was the Virginiatown Adobe in the photo above. Not the building I wanted but close enough to get some great information. At least 5 theses were written about the dig and Virginiatown. They confirm that the Armour Adobe was misidentified. Both adobes were in the Chinese section of Virginiatown. One of the theses held the smoking gun that would have saved me of all this research. Based on a photo from it, the Rammed-Earth Adobe was just to the left of the present-day historical marker. I'll need to take a much better picture next time I visit Mom.
1 Comment
Sebastian Nelson
2/12/2022 06:29:50 pm
ever heard of Mugginsville?
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AuthorMy name is Jeff and I am on a hunt to find historic brick and stone structures along Highway 49. Archives
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