Angels Camp CA.

 

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Angels Camp was started like most of the towns / cities along Highway 49, by placer gold. The placer gold plays out and they moved on to hard rock mining. Henry and George Angel were soldiers serving under John C. Frémont during the Mexican-American War. When the California Gold Rush started, they tried their hand at prospecting, but decided they didn't like the labor involved, so they set up a trading post, which became a camp, and eventually a town.

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Angels Camp is also the place where Mark Twain heard the story about a jumping frog that he based his book "The Celebrated Jumping From of Calaveras County" on. There is a site just outside of town called Jackass Hill with a cabin they believe to be the spot where he wrote the book. They still have the Jumping From Contest annually. Teams come for all over the world to compete.

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The red brick building at the left has the iron shutters and decorative iron work that because popular after towns burned down. The iron shutters could be closed to keep fie out and thus keep the building from burring down.

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