Cherokee and Oregon City

Not too far away are two tiny towns, both from the Gold Rush era, that somehow cling to life!

The first town is Cherokee. If you can read the small print, you’ll find out that a lot of gold was extracted from the mines here. There was even a diamond mine (the first in the US) and the largest diamond extracted was 6 carats! When the town was founded, in 1853, 2 years after CA became a state, it had a population of over 1000. There were 2 churches, a post office, and 17 saloons! Now you know what was important!

Not too much is left of the town today. The ruins of the mining facility, 

the well for the town, 

and this caboose, standing on the grounds of the Cherokee Museum. I have no idea how they brought the caboose to Cherokee as the road is narrow, twisty and not well graded. It’s still nice to see a caboose as they were taken out of operation about 30 years ago.

Continuing down the twisty road, there’s a fork...to the left is the covered bridge at Oregon City. Oregon City was established in 1848. That’s an old town for CA. In fact the first civil governor of the state came from Oregon City. At least that is what the sign says. I have no idea what a “civil” governor is...but I wonder if CA still has one?

Then there’s the covered bridge. I don’t know when it was built, but I’m guessing it’s a recent reconstruction as it’s in pretty good shape.

Lastly, the old school is still standing.

It was a good day for a drive to historic California.