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HISTORY
El
Dorado County, California.
LOCAL
HISTORY.
salmon
fALLS
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Normally under water (in Folsom
Lake), this Salmon Falls Bridge is the third built near this site.
The first two were wiped out by floods. Bridges used to be privately
built and then a toll was charged for crossing. It was a very
profitable business in its day. |
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There's little left of the historic town of Salmon Falls. The
foundation and stairs in these pictures belong to one residence and
are some of the best preserved. If you look closely in the upper
picture, you'll find the Salmon Falls bridge to give you some
perspective on the layout of the area. This residence was probably
on Sacramento street.
This entire area is flooded
with Folsom lake normally and is only available for inspection in drought years.
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Located on the banks of the South Fork of the American
river, at the mouth of Sweetwater creek. The name of the town was derived
from the cataract in the American river near the site of the town, whither
the Indians used to come down from the mountains to catch salmon, of which
the river abounded. Early in 1849 very rich diggings had been discovered by Mormons at Higgins'
Point, about a quarter of a mile below town, close to the river, and
called after Higgins, the first person who settled here with his
family--sometime during 1848 -- coming from Australia to California, and
he consequently opened the first store. R. K. Berry, from New York,
arrived here in September, 1849, in company with H. Passmore, Thomas
Brown, H. Williams, Larraway Benham and ______ Barlow. O. Smith, who
afterwards kept the first store at Uniontown, and one Haskell were
arrivals of that year also. Up to this time it had been only a Mormon
settlement, but Mr. Berry's idea was not satisfied with such things. With
great energy, in the spring of 1850, he want on to take out a possessory
claim of the land, laying out a town there, which was surveyed and platted
by P. N. Madegan in May, 1850. The streets were laid out after a regular
square network. Those running parallel with the river were named : Water,
State, Government and Washington streets. Across the Sweetwater creek was
Sacramento street, and those running across, up from the river, were
called High, Polk, Taylor, Clay, Brower and El Dorado streets. The
population during the summer of 1850 was growing fast, and plenty of town
lots were sold. among the purchasers we find the names of Riely, Fradion,
Berry, Bowls, Cramer, Smith, Hunnewell, Coon, Plumb, Downs, Higgins, Burk,
Beasly, Cooledge, Kelsey, Haskell, Miller & Ford, Brooks, Richards,
Asbeel, Van Chausse, Whipple, Boyd, Gifford, Rice, Fulberton, Brownell,
Kelley & Tate, Packwood, later of Pilot Hill ; Friedschlager, Lamarre,
who struck the first digging on the flat ; Ramsey, Markham, Spong, Walls,
Brown, Dr. McMeans, Hayes and Otis.
The area above
the river and on the left is a wall that I spotted on our first trek
to the site. This was at or near "Higgins Point" mentioned
above in the text.
Out of film at the time I returned alone with my dog
Jenny to get some pictures of it before it went under water again
with the winter rains.
We'd no more
than gotten to the base of the wall when Jenny found herself some
quicksand and promptly went in. After a scary 20 minutes of
struggling, I managed to get her out and get me in only up to my
knees (of course there wasn't a sole to be seen anywhere in the
area).
Originally, I thought that the
wall was a base for a structure that might have been built above it,
but mud dog and I didn't find any signs of a structure above... it
looked more like an early roadway with a retaining wall near water's
edge. |
Berry opened another store in the spring of 1850,
located on the bank of Sweetwater creek, and got the appointment as the
first alcalde of the district. Crug kept the first hotel in town, but he
sold out to Berry and went east ; the first physicians in town were Dr.
McMeans and Dr. Hook. Mrs. Higgins was the first white woman in the
community, and kept on so for quite a while until Mrs. Berry and her
sister arrived from the East, in the fall of 1852. A Post office was
established here as early as 1851, with T. R. Brown postmaster, and a
regular stage line to Sacramento passed here since 1851. School was first
taught by Miss Charlotte A. Phelps, now Mrs. Ed. T. Raun of San Francisco,
then of Coloma, who owned the bridges at Coloma, Spanish Bar, Kelsey and
Salmon Falls. The first bridge across the American river here was built in
1853, this was washed away and another one was put up ; the bridge
property being a very well paying business, this being the main road from
Sacramento to all those mining camps in the northern part of this county
to all the river bars on the Middle and North Forks of the American river,
and to all the mines beyond there in Placer county. In 1856, Mr. Raun sold
out his interest in all those bridges to Richards and Pearish, and later
Mr. Richards was the sole owner of this bridge. The railroad, however,
which took away the t4ravel from this road and the giving out of the river
bars, did not give a profitable outlook, and since the high-water washed
away the bridge for the second time it has not been rebuilt.
The town that in a short time did grow from a few Mormon
huts to a community of some note, with a population of about 3,000, with
many stores, and other pertainings of a mining town, that could make some
show with three well built up streets, with good paying mines, on the flat
as well as on the river bar, is gone. All that is left is a store, the
school house and Mrs. Berry's residence and hotel ; the latter was partly
erected in 1850, this had been shipped around Cape Horn from the East, and
was bought by Mr. Berry to make some debt good. The trees in front of it
were set out in the fall of 1854, and January, 1855.
There were some mining camps in this township around
which some little towns had been built up ; their fate, however, was
similar to that of Salmon Falls ; only a few scattered roofs remind one of
the location of the town site. One of them was Pinchem gut, or Pinchem
tight, located at the junction of Pinchem ravine and Weber creek, near an
old saw-mill. A man by the name of Ebbert kept a store and saloon there,
and taking out his pay for drink or goods in gold dust, used to pinch the
gold dust so tight in order to get as much as possible. He was
shoemaker by trade, and a German by nationality. The first school in the
district was taught be a Frenchman in the house of Mr. Etzel, another
storekeeper, and Miss Van Doran succeeded him. Near by was another town,
Jayhawk, named after the Missourians, who first settled down on the place.
On the Coloma road there was Green Springs, once the location of Green
valley Post office, which is now located about four miles farther east
close on to Rose Springs, so called from the abundance of wild roses
growing there around the springs. There was a store kept on the place till
1868, also a saloon and a blacksmith shop. Wing's Store, the place where
polls are kept now, in this precinct, used to be a store in former years.
McDowell Hill on the South Fork, below Salmon Falls, once had a population
of about 100 miners with four stores.
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