There’s Gold In Them There Hills ! !

Coloma California…. One of my favorite places from when I was stationed at McClellan AFB in Sacramento.  Although the area can seem dry and barren, it is still beautiful to me.  Sutter’s Mill where John Marshall reached down into the trail races of his lumber mill and plucked out the gold nugget that would start the great Gold Rush of 1849 !  A little ways outside of Auburn CA along the winding, twisting route 49 is the tiny town of Coloma.  It has changed a bit in the 20 years since I was last there, but the general feeling is still the same.  A nice quiet little place to spend the day, exploring the river, panning for gold and just wandering around.  The mining town that became the nucleus of the Gold Rush, is but a few buildings now.  The mill has been replaced by a replica and moved back from the banks of the American River.  A few original building remain, but there are plaques designating where prominent building had stood.  I wandered into the Blacksmith shop and spent the next 45 minutes being entertained by the two gentlemen that volunteer there.  When they found out that I had been a Sheet Metal Technician in the Air Force for 20 years they told me that they needed someone like me in the shop and would I want to volunteer.  They asked me a couple questions about different tools and such, which I think was a test to see if I really did know what I was talking about, and were pleasantly surprised when they realized I knew my stuff.  lol….. Ironically, John Marshall died a pauper, never capitalizing on the boom that he started.  A statue sits on a hill overlooking the riverbank of John Marshall pointing to the place where he found the first gold nugget.  I discovered a doe and her twins hanging out in a hedge row in the park.  They are so used to visitors that they payed me no notice as they moved along the trail.