Calaveras History

Judith Marvin, Julia Costello and Sal Manna have written the "Northern Calaveras County" volume in the Images of America series for Arcadia Publishing, released August 27, 2007. The book is filled with some 200 vintage photographs spanning Burson, Wallace, Valley Springs, Jenny Lind, Campo Seco, Paloma, San Andreas, Mokelumne Hill, Mountain Ranch, West Point, Rail Road Flat, and more. To obtain a copy, please send $23.95 (includes sales tax and shipping) to the Society for the Preservation of West Calaveras History (SPWCH), PO Box 714, Burson, CA 95225.

The only eyewitness account ever written of Black Bart’s last holdup will be revealed and recreated for the public for the first time at “Who Really Shot Black Bart: The Untold Story,” presented at 6 p.m., Thursday, May 24, at The Metropolitan (59 Main St.) in San Andreas by the Calaveras County Historical Society.

The Society for the Preservation of West Calaveras History will present the first-ever exhibition of photographs of the San Joaquin & Sierra Nevada Railroad not only in the last remaining depot of that rail line in Valley Springs but also on the 122nd anniversary of its first train pulling into town. The exhibition will be unveiled on Wednesday, April 25, at a mixer sponsored by the Valley Springs Area Business Association which will run from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m at The Ice Cream Depot (25 Highway 12/California St.).

The “Something From Nothing” photo exhibition of early West Calaveras history will be at Ironstone Vineyards in Murphys from Saturday, February 17 (the first day of Presidents’ Day Weekend) through Sunday, March 18 (the day following the Murphys Irish Day and Ironstone’s Daffodils Day festivities). Along with the exhibition at the Ironstone museum and gift shop, a wine-tasting reception on February 17 from 1-3 p.m. is also free and open to the public.

The public is invited to view "Something From Nothing: An Exhibition of Early West Calaveras Photographs," currently on display through November at Countrywide Mortgage in Valley Springs (in the Valley Oaks Shopping Center). The office is open Monday-Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The exhibit was created by the Society for the Preservation of West Calaveras History. Experience rarely seen photographs from the 19th and early 20th centuries depicting the people and places of Valley Springs, Burson, Wallace, Jenny Lind and more.

One hundred and twenty-five years after its founding, residents of the Calaveras County town of Wallace and their neighbors will for the first time in history honor the man after whom the town is named. In 1882, John Wallace surveyed the railroad line that went through the area; his son, John Herbert Wallace, then surveyed the townsite itself.

For those who are interested in learning about the man after whom Wallace is named..."Las Calaveras," the quarterly journal of the Calaveras County Historical Society, has published an article that encompasses the entire current issue (July). You may obtain a copy at the CCHS in San Andreas ($8 each) or via the Society for the Preservation of West Calaveras History ($10, including shipping and handling). For the latter, send a check to: SPWCH, PO Box 714, Burson, CA 95225. All contributions to SPWCH, Inc. are tax deductible.