Gold Rush Country: Auburn, Placerville & the Mother Lode

Auburn's Old Town is a remarkable survival — the original 1849 downtown compressed into a few city blocks that include the oldest operating firehouse in California (1891), the original Chinese laundry buildings on Lincoln Way, and a Chinatown district that once housed 3,000 residents. The Gold Rush-era commercial buildings are intact and still in use.

The Placer County Museum in the restored 1898 courthouse documents the county's history from the Nisenan people through the 49er camps, the hydraulic mining era, and the railroad years. The Gold Rush-era artifact collection is one of the most complete in the Sierra Nevada foothills.

The North Fork of the American River below Auburn cuts a 1,200-foot canyon through the Sierra Nevada foothills — the canyon trails descend through chaparral and oak woodland to the river's edge, where the gold-bearing gravel deposits that launched the Rush are still visible in the canyon walls.

An Auburn institution in a converted 1849 building with exposed brick walls and Gold Rush-era decor — breakfast and lunch served with local eggs and produce. The Lumberjack special and the housemade jam biscuits are the correct orders.

A cluster of 1851 Gold Rush-era buildings on the outskirts of Auburn Old Town — the original home, winery, and carriage house of a German immigrant businessman who arrived in the first Rush and stayed for 50 years. The Bernhard complex gives the most detailed picture of middle-class Gold Rush domestic life in the Sierra foothills.

An Auburn Old Town tavern and restaurant in a historic building with local craft beers and a menu of elevated bar food — the cheeseburger and the fish tacos are well-made, and the patio faces the Old Town pedestrian street.

The El Dorado County Museum documents Placerville's history as 'Hangtown' — the Gold Rush camp where three convicted thieves were hanged simultaneously in 1849, establishing both the vigilante justice tradition and the town's permanent nickname. The collection includes original mining equipment, a Pony Express saddle from the Placerville station, and documentation of the Overland Trail emigrants who passed through.

The only gold mine in the US that is owned and operated by a municipality — Gold Bug Park preserves two hand-dug hard-rock tunnels from the 1880s Gold Bug and Hattie mines, self-guided with audio tour. The surrounding park is built on the original mining claim, with stamp mill ruins and original arrastre (Mexican ore-grinding wheel) in the apple orchard.

Placerville's main street retains several 19th-century buildings including the original undertaker building, the Wells Fargo office, and the Confidence Hall. The Boot Rack Saloon occupies a building that has been continuously used as a drinking establishment since 1857.

A well-regarded Placerville restaurant in the Smith Flat historic district, one mile from downtown — the Gold Rush history context of the surrounding property gives the farm-to-table menu a grounding that urban California wine country restaurants sometimes lack. Good Sierra Nevada wine list.

The Apple Hill district east of Placerville encompasses 50 family farms, cideries, and wineries in the 2,000-3,500-foot elevation belt that produces some of California's most interesting cool-climate varieties. The Zinfandel and Barbera planted on century-old rootstock at several wineries are unlike anything grown in Napa.

A craft brewery in the Sutter Creek historic district serving beers that reference the Gold Rush mining culture of the surrounding Amador County — the Gold Rush IPA and the 49er Pale are the local standards.

Amador City (population 185) was built around the Keystone Mine, the most productive hard-rock gold mine in Amador County. The main street of Victorian commercial buildings is entirely intact; the Mine House Inn occupies the original Keystone Mine manager's house and the machinery buildings. The town center is one block long and has been operating continuously since 1854.

A comprehensive county history museum in the 1859 Brown House in Jackson — the collection documents the Miwok and Miwuk tribal history of the Amador Valley, the 1848 Gold Rush, and the 20th-century ranching and wine culture. The working scale model of the Kennedy Mine stamp mill is one of the best mechanical history artifacts in the Sierra foothills.

The best-preserved Gold Rush town in California, maintained by the state as a living museum of the 1850s — the 12-square-block town center is almost entirely authentic, including the original buildings, the water system, and the active stagecoach and Wells Fargo operations. The Columbia Diggins gold panning is genuine; the hotels, saloons, and candy shops are in original buildings. No cars allowed in the historic center.

The oldest continuously operating theater in California, built in 1855 and still presenting California stage productions in the Gold Rush-era building. When dark, the interior is available for self-guided tours — the original proscenium and box seating are intact.