Basic Info
This beautiful little foothill town was founded in 1848 and two years later Placer gold was discovered. Located in Calaveras County, and the home of Mark Twain's famous Jumping Frog Jubilee, Angels Camp is nestled peacefully in the Sierra Foothills between Yosemite and Lake Tahoe, just three hours from the bay area. Angels Camp's greatest prosperity came with the deep gold mines between 1880 and 1920. Take a walking tour of Main Street and pause for a moment to imagine. Angels is a quiet mountain town now, but at one time the city vibrated to the roar of the stamp mills and danced to the music of many saloons and dance halls. Many of the original buildings still line Main Street, buildings from the mid 1800s bearing thick stone walls and iron shutters.
- www.angelscamp.gov
"We suggest that you stop by the Calaveras Visitors Bureau and pick up a "Walking and Driving Tour Map" of Angels Camp.
As you visit Angels Camp, pause for a moment and imagine. Angels Camp is a quiet mountain town now, but at one time the city vibrated to the roar of the stamp mills and danced to the music of many saloons and dance halls. There is some humor in the fact that City Hall was the site of the Starcevich Saloon in the 1880's, and during Prohibition was a local source for bootleg. Old timers say the whiskey was hot stuff.
Some interesting places in Angels Camp include the Chicken Ladder on Hardscrabble Street. This wooden ladder was constructed by home owners residing on the narrow, "nearly vertical" street, to assist in walking up and down the hazardous slope. Many homes have front entrances on one street and back entrances on the next, as Angels Camp is built on hills and honeycombed with mine tunnels.
Utica Park was built in 1954 on the site of the Utica Mine after the ground had been leveled and shafts filled to the 60 foot level. Note the ground slippage after numerous cave-ins; the Highway on one level, the park on the next. The park originally held a huge frog pond but water seeped into the tunnels underneath causing both water and frogs to disappear."
- www.angelscamp.gov
