Auburn and Its Environs

I love the town that I grew up in.  You know what they say.  The three most important criteria of real estate is location, location and location.  Much of Auburn’s function and aesthetic charm is due to its location.

Auburn lies on the western, foothill slopes of the Sierra at an elevation of about 1,200 feet.  It is high enough to escape almost all of the heavy fog that smothers the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys during the winter.  And, it is low enough to usually avoid the annual snowfall that hovers around the 2,000 foot contour of the mountains just a few miles to the east.

The eastern edge of town is limited by the rim of American River Canyon, where the north and middle forks of the river join up.  The western side slopes gently down through rolling hills to the Sacramento Valley floor.  Much of the town’s expansion has occurred to the north and south of the city.

Auburn’s location suggests that man’s presence may go back at least 3,400 years.  The first known people were an offshoot of the Maidu Indian tribe.  Euro-American settlers started coming to California in the second half of the eighteenth century when the Spanish

soldier-explorers and church fathers came up to exploit and Christianize Alta California.  The areas north and east of the San Francisco Bay area were generally unbothered by the Spanish, and, later, by the Mexicans.  John Sutter established a fort and ranch lands in the Sacramento area to serve an increasing number of migrant Americans who were drifting into Mexican California to trap furs and to settle.

Until the discovery of gold in 1948, the area now known as Auburn, California, was inhabited by several villages of the Nisenan group of the Maidu tribe. An abundance of food sources were available year-round in this territory, known for hunting, fishing, and other methods of staple food gathering, such as acorns and other nuts, roots, grasses and herbs, and native fruits, not being dependant on a single crop. Most harvests, ceremonies, trading, etc. were social activities.

Hunting consisted of deer drives, antelope, elk, black bears (grizzlies were rarely hunted), wildcats, rabbits, and other small game. Hunters had a wide variety of tools in their arsenals. They used weirs, harpoons, snares, gorgehooks, blunted arrows for small game, nets and poison from turkey mullein and soaproot for fishing. Some of the aforementioned methods, including nets and snares, were used to catch birds. A variety of game was not captured or killed, or were only hunted on special occasions. The black bear hunt, for example, was only performed in Winter and was very ceremonial. Game not killed included birds such as owls, vultures and condors

Food was prepared using salt, obtained from several sources in the areas around Lincoln, Cool and Latrobe, from springs and a plant, which was gathered during the summer months. Most game hunted was then prepared by baking, roasting, or drying. Certain berries were either gathered for trade or made into drink resembling cider. Flour was made from acorns, and could be used to make several days worth of mush or soup.

It is important to note and preserve the history of the Maidu, specifically, the Nisenan group, and the major villages in the area now known as Auburn, California. Most sources do not tell this history. Web sites such as those belonging to the county and city, only tell a small part of the story. Once John Marshall discovered gold near what is now the town of Coloma, those villages were overrun within three years.

John Charles Fremont, John Bidwell, and Theodore Sigard were some of the earliest settlers in the area during the early to mid 1840's. A native of France, Claude Chana, while camping next to a ravine near Old Town Auburn, on his way to Coloma, on May 16, 1846 found gold deposits in the soil. His route to the Auburn Ravine was brought by his want for avoiding the long trip to Sutter's Fort. His short-cut, and chance virgin pan of the creek, proved to be worthwhile, ending his trip to Coloma.

April 1849 marked the birth of a new mining camp in the area. This camp went by several names, including North Fork Dry Diggings, Rich Ravine, Wood's Dry Diggings, and Auburn Ravine. Auburn received it's official naming in August of that year. The town is believed to be named after Auburn, New York. Many members of "Stevenson's Regiment" were originally from there, were some of the first arrivals to the area. The regiment was led by John S. Wood.

Because of the rough terrain and narrow trails, Auburn was the last point for wagons traveling from Sacramento. From that point on, travel was only possible using pack mules, which were used to carry supplies to miners in the remote areas. Miners soon began to prefer to spend the winters in Auburn, and land was up for grabs. The area was all but deserted during the warmer months, when water was lacking. Dedicated miners would haul soil and dirt a great distance, to find water, in order to pan for the gold. With enough work, it was possible to bring in $1,000 a day.

Miners picked up pieces of land in and around Auburn through mining claims, but most was inhabited by squatters. Such claims were often referred to as "shotgun titles" and by 1850, Auburn had a population of 1,500 people. During that year, the original 27 counties were established. Auburn was originally part of Sutter County and was one of several towns striving to become the county seat. While the so-called town of Oro originally won, Auburn, rightfully, received the title in 1853. A decade later, in 1860, Auburn was incorporated, but it was short-lived.

During the 1850's the town was relatively peaceful. The ground where the courthouse stands in what is now Old Town Auburn was home to bull and bear fights, popular with the miners at that time. The log jail situated next to the courthouse burned in 1855, and was later replaced by a two story brick structure. The town witnessed its first lynching (an Englishman who killed another miner) on Christmas day of 1850, after he turned himself into the sheriff. It is believed that the residents removed the prisoner from the Sheriff's possession and, with their own judgment, hanged the man in the middle of town.

In the 1860's, the transcontinental railroad reached Auburn. The California Central, the Central pacific, and the Sacramento, Placer and Nevada Railroad companies competed for the privilege of laying tracks in the area. Sabotage was common, as was fierce fighting. Auburn had a local militia, the Auburn Greys, which were called out and with their help in stopping the sabotage, Central Pacific became the victor in the railroad wars. The railroad finally reached Auburn on May 13, 1865.

Auburn was incorporated a second time on May 2, 1888. The population grew to more than 2,000 people by the turn of the century. During this time, there was a major rift among the residents because of the growth, expansion and moving as a result of the railroad. Those in the area of new growth, many of which moved from the area known as Old Town Auburn, attempted to declare their separation from Auburn and identified their area as East Auburn. The efforts were for naught as the United States Postal Service would not accept the new identity.

In 1894, construction began on the Auburn Court House, which is now a museum, located on the corner of Maple Street and Lincoln Way. It was completed in 1898. The building is a cornerstone of the downtown area, with beautiful Classic Revival and Renaissance Revival architecture, consisting of bracketed cornice and dome. It is one of four remaining courthouses in northern and central California that actually kept the majority of its ornamentation.

Just after the turn of the century, Pacific Portland Cement Company found itself in need of a way to connect their limestone quarry to the Southern Pacific line in Auburn. Located four miles east of Auburn, actually in El Dorado County, Mountain Quarry produced material that would later be used to manufacture cement and refine sugar. In 1912, they completed construction the No Hands Bridge, originally known as the Mountain Quarry Cement Bridge, for obvious reasons. At the time, this bridge was the longest span of a concrete constructed bridge in the world, proving the strength of concrete and quality of engineering. It went out of service in the 1940's, but is still used as part of the Western States Pioneer Express Recreation Trail.

Old Town Auburn, and the new areas of commerce established around 1900 still exist today. The city has expanded to encompass both areas, everywhere in between, and beyond. Auburn is the county seat of Placer County, CA. The population is now somewhere above 12,000. Much of the historic Old Town Auburn area has been preserved.

We had the Japanese farmers.  We also had the Portuguese farmers with a few Chinese from the Sacramento area, some Italians, and a few Mexicans.  Of course, the majority of us were of Northern European extract: English, Germans, and Irish.  The only truly absent major segment of our American population were the Negros or “Colored,” as we called them before the 1960’s.