Page 108 - 2025-2026 Travel Guide to California

GOLD COUNTRY
Strike it rich with adventure, history and wine
B Y J O H N F L I N N
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
It 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 over the following years from the
eastern U.S., South America, Europe and even China. They
were known as the 49ers.
Overnight, the Gold Rush turned San Francisco from a
sleepy port into a bustling city. It also persuaded Congress to
fast-track California—wrested from Mexico just two years
earlier—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 “Mother Lode.”
In a state working tirelessly to invent the future, 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.
106 2025-26 TRAVEL GUIDE TO CALIFORNIA