After our picnic on Saturday we stopped for a quick look at Sutter's Mill. This is where gold was discovered in 1848. They have rebuilt the mill (in 1967) to what it looked like back then. The mill was not used after 1850 and a flood in 1862 destroyed what was left of the structure. In 1947 some handhewn timbers were found and they used those to figure out the size of the mill. They have those timbers on display in a cabin with plexiglass windows so you can see them. I guess it is preserving them too. It was interesting to walk around and look at everything. There are placques that tell you all about everything you are looking at. There was a ranger there telling all kinds of stories about the gold rush..we didn't have time to listen to them all...but it sounded interesting! So here's a mini-tour of what we saw...
The Mill... the river is just a little bit past the mill, but you can't see it in the picture...we walked up to the top of the mill (the bridge you can see to the right) and it looks over the river. Very scenic....
This is up on top of a huge rock, where the Nisenan Indian women pounded their acorns. These holes are DEEP and we counted about 30 of them here. Apparently the gold rush destroyed the lives and culture of these indians. I will have to study more about that...I have never even heard of this tribe before...I tried to imagine the women pounding their acorns and their children playing amongst the trees and climbing on all the big rocks...
This is the Mormon Cabin - I guess some of us were there and helped at the mill! Members of the Mormon Battalion were hired to help build the mill. They lived with another family but were unhappy with the matron of the family so built their own cabin. The day they moved in, one of them wrote in their journal that some kind of mettle was found on the track and thought to be gold....
These are the "stampers" - huge machinery...it's so hard to imagine how they did things back then...the "sapling stamp" was used to pound ore for gold...the California Stamp (left) was used to crush the rock and it was so efficient that it was used in gold mining throughout the world. Sitting back behind these in the trees is the visitor's center...we didn't have time to get back there...maybe next trip!
This is what they attached the mules to...it is called an Arrastre and was introduced from Mexico. I don't think it's a replica...it looks pretty authentic! It was used to grind the ore and then the miners panned out the gold. It was effective but slow. The Chileans and the Chinese were other people besides the Mormons and Mexicans that came and helped and taught things they knew...I thought that was interesting...
One of the Chinese buildings... (they have display and pictures in here)...there are two of these buildings... they were called Wah Hop and Man Lee...they were built and then leased to the Chinese as stores...it was a social place as well as a store...
Chief Dave outside one of the teepees...this was made from the huge tree bark...amazing how it is all woven together from the inside with small branches...wish I'd have taken a picture inside it!
A historical landmark...there you have it...
1 comments:
VERY, VERY COOL!!!!!
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