SURVEY OF BUILDING STRUCTURES OF THE SIERRAN GOLD BELT, 1848-70 HEIZER AND FENENGA 

 BIG OAK FLAT 



Four miles east of Moccasin via Highway 120 is the town of Big Oak 

 Flat, founded by James Savage in 1849. It is the site of one of the best 

 preserved and most attractive stone buildings in the Mother Lode country. 

 The Odd Fellows Hall is made of dressed schist slabs set in lime mortar. 

 The door frames are made square by the use of brick (Fig. 33). 



Nearby is Groveland, once named Garrote by the French miners. 

 Here may be seen a splendid example of a brick front-schist walled 

 building with its full complement of heavy iron doors and shutters. 



CHINESE CAMP 



Named for its Chinese laborers who settled here in 1849, Chinese 

 Camp is famous in Gold Rush history. Most of its surviving buildings 

 adhere closely to a sino'le plan, side and rear walls are made of cobblestones 

 (of gabbro and serpentine) set in mortar, and building faces are of brick. 

 The ruins of the Wells Fargo Company Building, built in 1849, the Post 

 Office (Fig. 34, left) and Rosenbloom's Store (Fig. 34, right) all are of 

 this type. The ruins of one all-brick store can also be seen.' 



Among the ruins the "trees of heaven" (Ailanthus) have grown 

 into a miniature forest. Wherever Chinese settled these trees were planted, 

 and today their distribution along the Mother Lode attests the wide- 

 spread presence of these people. Flo . 33 . T . o . o. F. Hall, Big Oak Flat, HABS 1578. 



105 



FlG. 34. " Left: Post Office; ri^ht, store with iron doors, brick front, stone sides, 

 Chinese Camp, IXMBS Tuo-Hl, II1>. 



FIG. 35. Stone corral. Mountain Pass, DMDS, 233-H-ll. 



