Jamestown CA.

 

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We oulled into Jamestown about 7 PM on a Sunday and the sidewalks were pretty much rolled up. It did allow us to wander the town as dusk without a lot of cars and traffic. During the day this is a pretty busy tourist town. The first gold in the area was discovered at at Woods Creek in the summer of 1848. The first gold in the area was discovered at Sutter's mill in January of 1848 and Sutter tried to keep it secret. In 1848 most of the gold mining was done by those already in California. While the discovery of gold was published in newspapers back east most didn't believe it.

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President McKinley made a speech to Congress in December of 1948 about the gold discovery and that started the Gold Rush of 1849. But it took months to get to California from the east. The two primary means of travel were ship around Cape Horn and Covered Wagons.

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Jamestown was named for Col. George James. Many of the buildings in town represent architecture of the time. They would originally build wood structures that often ended up burning down. They would then rebuild using brick with iron shutters over the windows. The iron shutters could be closed in case of fire and helped keep the fire from getting into the structure.

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