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



137 



VOLCANO 



A side trip east of Sutter Creek via Gopher Gulch will bring the 

 visitor to the most picturesque of all the Mother Lode towns, Volcano 

 (Fig. 103) . The town was settled in January 1848 by members of Steven- 

 son 's regiment, but not until after the gold discovery at Coloma were the 

 rich ' ' Soldier 's Gulch ' ' diggings located. 



Three and a quarter miles east of Sutter Creek one sees the remains 

 of an old winery (Figs. 101, 102) built in 1851 of brick and stone (grano- 

 diorite, andesite and slate). Beyond, toward Volcano, one sees at every 

 hand crumbling 1 ruins of miner 's stone-mud-mortar cabins and the hum- 

 mocks and pits left by placer miners of the past. The whole country here 

 has literally been turned over in search of gold. Nearing Volcano the lime- 

 stone cliffs and road cut exposures prepare the visitor for the stone 

 material used in the Volcano buildings. On all sides are massive buildings 

 of quarried and rough -dressed blue limestone (Figs. 104, 105), among the 

 better are the brewery, the Lavezzo Building, the Wells Fargo Building, 

 the Masonic and I. O. 0. F. Hall with two stories (Fig. 106), the Adams 

 Express Building (Fig. 107), the old wineshop (Figs. 108, 109). The 

 most imposing building is the charming three-story St. George Hotel of 

 brick with continuous-front balconies (Fig. 110). Here also is the 110 

 year old cannon ' ' Old Abe ' ' used by the famous Volcano Blues in Civil 

 War times. The Gianinni family of Bank of America fame hails from 

 Volcano, and this town may also boast the first rental library in Cali- 

 fornia (1850). 



AMADOR CITY 



Through the two blocks of town traversed by Highway 49 one sees 

 on every side the signs of the abandonment of this once thriving city, a 

 contrast to the time when the placers and underground mines produced 

 in abundance. An abandoned brick building stands next to the Fleetheart 

 Store, beautifully constructed of stone whose dressed meta-andesite brec- 

 cia blocks show the stone masonry techniques of the 'fifties at their best 

 (Fig. 111). At the foot of the main street of Amador City is the old 

 Imperial Hotel, again an example of the beautiful brickwork of Cali- 

 fornia's past. 



DRYTOWN 



Here is a town, founded in 1848, which has already seen its day of 

 history. In the hills behind Drytown are a score of abandoned mines, their 

 names once household words, now forgotten. As Highway 49 crosses Dry 

 Creek, one may see the brick store built in 1854 (Fig. 112), and across 

 the road the Town Hall (1856) of brick with meta-andesite stone founda- 

 tions. Down the back road leading east is an equally ancient adobe house, 

 still inhabited, with a dry-laid foundation of meta-andesite which was 

 quarried from the cellar. The Masonic Lodge of brick still remains from 

 the 'fifties. 



FIG. 108. Wineshop, Volcano, DMBS Ama-H6. 



FIG. 109. Detail of doorway of wineshop, Volcano, DMBS Ama-H7. 



