Our first stop is Volcano, California. It's a cool little town population 103. I know that seems like a small place, but the 103 are just those who live in the town limits, if you will. There are a lot more residents and Volcano covers a pretty vast area.
To start off, I took a couple of pictures of what I consider the pivot point of the town. The town is basically a one street town with a 90 degree turn in the middle. From this corner you can look East and you will see the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Actually, you are in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Volcano sits at an elevation of 2070 feet.
Looking East |
Looking South |
St. George Hotel |
In the other direction is the Volcano Union Inn. Sorry about the tree shadow. It was 9:30 am when I took this picture. The Volcano Union Inn is a restored miner's boarding house circa 1880. It only has four rooms, but we had some friends come up from Sacramento and stay at the Inn and got a tour of their room. Very nice. the rooms are in the area of $100 to $200 per night. It's haunted too.
Dining is indoor and outdoor (when it's warm), the food is fantastic (we've eaten here many times) and like most country inns, everybody is very friendly.
Volcano Union Inn |
The plaque below is dedicated to Colonel Stevenson and has a few other interesting facts about Volcano. Double click to make is larger.
Like all the towns in this area, gold mining in the mid 1800's are the reason they are here. You'll notice as we go along this journey that most, if not all were founded in the mid 1800's.
George Marshall started the whole gold rush happening in 1848 with the discovery of a gold nugget in the tail race of the sawmill in Coloma, California, but that's for another day. In the mean time if I refer to the Motherlode, I'm talking about this area.
One of the most devastating tools the gold miners used was hydraulic mining. They used a pressure nozzle called a monitor and sprayed the hill side washing the water-sediment slurry through sluice boxes to extract the gold. For the most part, they just washed away the hill. Below is a picture of one of those monitors. There us a whole State Historic Park called Malakoff Diggin's SHP dedicated to this type of mining.
Hydraulic Mining Nozzle |
Below is one of our local hero's worth mentioning. Brigadier General Harry Bluett Liversedge. Born in Volcano and, well you can read what he did during WWII. A true hero.
From here we'll head East out of town.
Eastward Ho! |
Minion |
Up we go |
Going South |
Remember the field trip with my grandson and one time with the friends that stayed at the Union Inn.
So there you have it. Episode one of Small Town America.
To find out where we are going next, you'll just have to come back.
Stay tuned.
So there you have it. Episode one of Small Town America.
To find out where we are going next, you'll just have to come back.
Stay tuned.
I love small towns. New England is full of such charming places.
ReplyDeleteVolcano now there's a name to ponder.
very interesting little story of a small town..I like this.
ReplyDelete