Images of America-ANGELS CAMP and COPPEROPOLIS

By Judith Morgan, Julia Costello & Salvatore Manna, Arcadia Publishing. 

Book Review by Craig MacDonald

The Calaveras County Historical Society, Calaveras County Archives, Angels Camp Museum and others, including descendants of pioneer families, helped bring this project "to life."

Thanks to everyone involved in creating this book and to Arcadia for helping preserve history through tremendous old photos, including ones showing the joy, sorrow, perseverance, courage, pride, triumphs, tragedies & trials in the faces of these pioneers and through fascinating stories about these two significant towns and others. Angels Camp is still remembered today for several things, such as its world famous Jumping Frog Jubilee. Copperopolis also has a strong sense of history and is remembered for how its copper significantly helped with munitions and telegraph wire during the Civil War.

In the 1880s, there was a second major mining boom because of the consolidation of mines, advances in mining technologies as well as available eastern and foreign capital for underground mining. Add to this waves of immigrants arriving from England, Ireland, Germany, Finland, Italy & other countries—waves which brought different cultures together that helped provide the rich fabric of communities to this day.

The original inhabitants were Mi-Wuk and a 10,000-year-old village was discovered 9 feet underground in Salt Spring Valley in Calaveras County. This book reveals Petroglyphs, carved into rock surfaces, depicting people, animals, messages and cultures.

Interesting tidbits: West of Copperopolis was a community known as Grasshopper City; Olivia Rolleri purchased a boarding house in Angels Camp, ran the Calaveras Hotel in Angels Camp, where she made her famous ravioli dinner & purchased two ranches to supply beef, poultry, hogs & vegetables for her butcher shop & restaurants; Between 1872-1923 there were six newspapers published in Angels Camp, including the Mountain Echo; Grillo's Store provided elegant fashions for men and women, who'd sit on a row of stools to try on the latest hats, gloves & other accessories; Lemue's Barber Shop was the place for men to get their moustaches trimmed, waxed, faces shaved (75-cents) and hair cut ("two bits").

The hard-working miners and townspeople loved parades and music. From the 1880s through the 1940s, every community had a band made up of nicely uniformed musicians. One of the photos shows the Modern Art & Novelty Company, which toured the Gold Country, taking photos ($1.50 for 12). Their poster image of a boy was later popularized as Alfred E. Neuman in Mad Magazine!
John Charles Kemp van Ee mined in the Mother Lode before becoming a well-known photographer in Bodie. There's a photo of him in Hodson (lower Salt Spring Valley). He moved on to London where he promoted the Roll Film Camera, which he sold to George Eastman, who perfected it as the Kodak!

The hit TV show, Little House on the Prairie, used the Salt Spring Valley School (1873) in its filming. But perhaps one of the most notorious people to visit the area was Charles Boles alias Black Bart, who held up 28 stagecoaches between 1875-1883. His first & last hold-ups were below Funk Hill, near Copperopolis. Today his jail cell & the courthouse where he was sentenced in San Andreas attract tourists from around the world.

One of the most intriguing photos shows copper ore being dropped from a motorized vehicle into railcars below. The ore was taken to Stockton, then on river barges to San Francisco & finally onto steamers headed for smelters in Wales.

Readers will find out about the Sierra Railway, whose locomotives & trains have been featured in such hit TV shows/movies as Petticoat Junction, Unforgiven, The Virginian, High Noon and Back to the Future-Part III.

This well-researched & painstakingly put together book is a labor of love for all involved. It's a real tribute that brings to life the area which attracted people from around the globe. Angels Camp & Copperopolis still remain destinations for thousands of folks who love the beauty of California's mountains, history and culture.