Stockton is about an hour away and has a fascinating Buddhist Temple, the Wat Dhammararam. There are acres of statues, about 100 of them, most in brilliant colors to grab your attention. Generally, they tell the story of the life of Siddhartha and his transformation to be the Buddha. Individually, I am much less certain about what they are. Signs, such as there are, are in Cambodian and unintelligible to me.
I continue my exploration with the new lens. Today we try the shorter extension tube, 11 mm. It seems to work much better. I'll probably stick with this one on this lens.
After checking all the groceries and run-ins around here, I've come to the conclusion there are no liquor stores around here. So we did some searching and decided to drive to Lodi. Naturally, we had to see something besides the inside of a liquor store so we stuck our heads in the train station.
I've been coveting a new lens for the smaller camera (X-H1) for some time. I have a variety of reasons for this but foremost among them is it complements the 10-24 mm lens I already have and gives me a good kit for travel. This new lens, formally known as XF 16-80mm f/4 R OIS WR Lens, now lets me cover the range from very wide to modest telephoto. This combination is great for travel.
The small community of Vallecito (pop. ~200) was once a booming town in support of the local miners. The one piece of the past that remains is this bell.
Not all the buildings here are restored and maintained. This one, on main street ust beyond the proper historic district, shows what some of the buildings must have looked like before becoming an historic park.
It has been quite warm here even when we are between the bouts of 100+ temperatures. Perhaps because of this and the covid, the small towns along hwy 49 are not very crowded. Some, such a Sonora are bustling, but in Sutter Creek, life moves slowly..
On Sundays, there is a small farmer's market in Murphys. It is located in a small park that sits next to Murphys Creek just a block or two from main street.
I thought the combination of a modern street "stop" warning along with the older house that appears to have a rail at the front for tying up horses made a nice juxtaposition.
On the other side of Jamestown, southwest of Sonora, lies the small town of Chinese Camp (pop. 174). Part of this settlement is the remains of a town that was once a major town in this part of gold country.
While you can see that the water level is down here, in the lake between Angels Camp and Sonora, New Melones Lake, the water level is down drastically; perhaps 50-75 feet as measures along the ground. Here, it is significant, but noticeably less.
About an hour from us, up the Sonora Pass highway is the Donnell Visit. This location, just off the road, sits on a rock outcropping above Donnell Lake. This is one of three reservoirs in the area that provide water to this part of California.
Don't ask me how that, now dead, tree once grew out of this rock.
Sonoma is not a large town (pop. ~11,000), but it is the largest place near Angels Camp. Today, we'll have a short walk along main street but a few miles away is a nice big, modern shopping center with all a modern family might need.
About an hour north of Angels Camp on Hwy 49 is the much larger (pop. ~12,000) town of Placerville.
Angels Camp has not one, not two, but three cemeteries (at least). Today we explore the Serbian Cemetery. It seems those Serbs are a traveling crowd of people. We find them nearly everywhere we go. there are two Orthodox churches in Angels Camp. One is Serbian Orthodox.
About nine or ten miles east of us on Hwy 4 is the small town of Murphys. It has a delightfully shaded main street with lots of old buildings still standing. Some, like this hotel are even still used for the the original purpose.
The Protestant Cemetery is located just across the street from the Catholic. These folks are generally less expressive with their gravestones. But this set caught my attention.
It is interesting to see these old wagons. So many parts of them persist and appear in our present day cars. For example, the brakes on this wagon have "shoes" made of a piece of wood that can be replaced when it is worn. And like the covered wagons we saw in Baker City, OR, there are "parking" brakes (the iron piece on the floor) that attach to the wheels to lock them completely. as with the covered wagons, these were used not for parking but for controlling the downhill speed of a loaded wagon.
In our small town of Angels Camp is a pretty amazing museum. It has a wide collection of all things Angels Camp. There is a good collection of jumping frog competition memorabilia. There is also many items from the medical community spanning the last century and more.
After recent views of cemeteries and small towns, It seems like a good time to show you a little of the countryside around us. Nearly every where is carpeted with golden brown grass. Grass that grew to seed and is now without water.
Hwy 49 is littered with small towns. This one, Mokelumne Hill was a rich spot indeed.
This is the town located at the meaty part of ground zero for the gold rush, Sutter Creek. There is a large hall for the Native Sons of the Golden West.
We made a quick stop in the town of Jamestown to have a look about. Not much here to see. A few antique/junk stores and a cafe or two.
Near the town of Arnold is the Calaveras Big Trees State Park. This is one of the several locations scattered along the Sierra Nevadas where sequoia are still found and thriving.
As you can see above, there are (in this case, were) some really enormous trees. I'm told that the stump was at one time used for a dance floor.
One of the store fronts contains an historical display on, among other things, the Native Sons of the Golden West.
Not far from us is the remains of the gold rush town of Columbia. It was designated a state park in 1945 by Governor Earl Warren. There are nearly 30 buildings here and it is all open for free. There is food and drinks mixed in with the souvenirs and educational displays. There are horse drawn coach rides through town and events are planned (once covid is gone).
Out along Hwy 49 near San Andreas is an old cemetery simply marked on the map as a pioneer cemetery. We pulled off the side of the road and climbed a hill. We had to open a gate in fence that warned us to be careful to keep it latched to avoid letting the cows out. Once inside we continued climbing up to a small grove of trees that shaded the residents.
There were graves here that were certainly not marked and others, such as the one above, that were denoted by natural and manmade markers.
We are surrounded here by small towns with their origins in gold mining. One of these places, now famous for other reasons, is San Andreas. It is not their fault 😊. Our favorite way to learn about the people who pioneered here is to visit them and see what they have to say.
