Gold Rush era- Jackson.

In 1848 a gold mining camp was started on the side of a creek and ford where placer miners were finding enough gold to stay and make money. It was called Botellas “Bottles”by local Californios ( Mexican/Spanish settlers), but as it started to grow, and soldiers, deserters who flooded into the area to mine gold,it’s name was changed to Jackson’s Creek. Whoever Jackson was. Other nearby mining camps/towns were given names of local people like Sutter Creek, named after John Sutter from Sutter’s Fort, and Amador Creek after Jose Maria Amador.

soon the placer mining dwindled, and the miners wandered off, but by 1851 gold was found in rock quartz in nearby Amador Village, and another gold rush was started and Jackson Creek became the market and government center for the immediate region. In 1851 it got permanentcy when the town got a post office (stage coach office) and the town won the election to be the county seat of Calaveras county.

In 1854 local politicians voted for a new county with Jackson Creek as the county seat and they won the election. The county became Amador County with the town of Jackson as the county seat.

By now, some of the towns buildings were being made out of brick, but a major fire in 1861 burnt almost all of downtown, so when they rebuilt they built all the buildings of brick and stone. The 5 year old town was now recorded as having 100 buildings.

It took a while, but soon the miners hit pay dirt, with the Kennedy, Zeile and Argonaut gold mines reaping a fortune. With government, gambling, girls (prostitution), Jackson had its financial position secured. By the turn of the century, 1905, Jackson had a population of 5,000 people, 3 churches, 4 newspapers, banks, a cigar factory, candy factory and a macaroni factory. It had several boarding houses and 4 hotels. It was the first incorporated city in Amador County.

By 1950 the gambling was ended, and the bawdy girls “dormitories“ were closed. As a side note, my father in law lived outside of San Francisco, and he and his friends would go to Jackson to enjoy the atmosphere of the rowdy, gold mining town of Jackson. He remembers the prostitutes hanging out of the balconies of the National Hotel calling to the passing men drumming up business For themselves.

I mention that because this weekend I am going to Jackson to visit my father in law who is living in an assisted living home there and my wife and I will be staying at the National Hotel. History is still alive in Jackson, and although it is 180 years since Jackson was founded as a mining camp called Jackson Creekand very briefly as Botellas, and grew into a town and a city, from a wild and rowdy western gold mining and gambling and prostitution town, to its current status as a modern tourist town and county seat of a quiet, serene nature, it is still alive in the memory of people living, and of people like me who can still imagine what it was like to live in it. It must have been very heady and exhilarating to walk those streets and interact with all the characters of those bygone days. Oh, and on Main Street there is still the deadly famous live oak hanging tree, with a commemorative placard telling of the men who were lynched for their crimes. Jackson was a real Wild West town of the gold rush era, still alive today.

There are still a couple of working gold mines still in operation today, with tours being conducted. Maybe if you listen closely, you can hear the girls calling out from the balconies of the hotel, and catch them waving out of the corner of your eye.