106 2024-25 TRAVEL GUIDE TO CALIFORNIA
B Y J O H N F L I N N
I
t was a flash in the pan that changed the world. The
sparkling nugget that caught the eye of James W. Marshall
as he tended a sawmill in the Sierra Nevada foothills in
January 1848 set off a gold rush that drew more than 300,000
would-be prospectors the following year from the eastern
U.S., South America, Europe and even China. They were
known as the 49ers.
Overnight, the Gold Rush transformed San Francisco from
a sleepy port to a rollicking city and persuaded Congress to
put California—wrested from Mexico by war just two years
earlier—on the fast track to statehood. Most of the gold was
found in a 300-mile belt that extended through the Sierra
foothills, from Downieville in the north to Coarsegold in the
south. Miners called it the "motherlode."
In a state working tirelessly to invent the future, the Gold
Country remains the most visible manifestation of its not-
so-distant past, with towns sporting wood-plank sidewalks,
swinging saloon doors, hitching posts and red-brick build-
ings. You'll quickly discover that the best preserved of these
belonged to Wells Fargo and, oddly, the Independent Order
of Odd Fellows.
GOLD
COUNTRY
TOP CITIES
Sacramento, Sonora, Placerville, Auburn, Downieville,
Sutter Creek, Nevada City, Jackson, Columbia, Murphys,
Jamestown, Angels Camp
INTERNATIONAL GATEWAY
Sacramento International Airport (SMF), 13 miles (21 km)
from the city center
TOURISM WEBSITES
gocalaveras.com
visit-eldorado.com
visitamador.com
visitplacer.com
gonevadacounty.com
visittuolumne.com
visitsacramento.com
POPULATION
650,000
GOLD COUNTRY
A Mother Lode of attractions in the Sierra Foothills
