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AUBURN, CA
The first culture that
can be documented is the Nisenan, who were a southern linguistic group
of the Maidu Tribe. Several major Nisenan villages were established in
the Auburn area
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Unlike the valley
Nisenan, who were missionized by the Spanish, killed by the great
epidemic (thought to be malaria in 1833, and controlled through
persuasion and force) by the white man, the hill Nisenan had little
disruption to their peaceful, native lifestyle until the discovery of
gold. The hill Nisenan, living in the prime gold hunting areas, were
overrun in two to three years following James Marshall's discovery of
gold near the Nisenan village of Cullomain (Coloma).
(Copyright © 2003-2011 by American Ghost Towns/Paschall Publishing) |
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The earliest
Euro-Americans to come to the Auburn area were hunters and fur trappers,
followed by such men as John Charles Fremont and his party of surveyors
(1843-44), John Bidwell (1844-45), and Theodore Sigard (1845). A few
adventuresome young men joined the earliest emigrant wagon trains in the
late 1840s. Claude Chana, who was born in Burgundy, France, in 1811 and
immigrated to New Orleans in 1839, joined one of these early wagon
trains and made the treacherous continental crossing, ending up at
Sigard's ranch on the Bear River.
(Copyright © 2003-2011 by American Ghost Towns/Paschall Publishing) |
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By April 1849, a
new mining camp was well established. Sometimes called North Fork Dry
Diggings, Rich Ravine, Wood's Dry Diggins or Auburn Ravine, the mining
camp was officially named Auburn in August of 1849. Auburn was centrally
located as a "jumping off" spot to other remote gold areas. It was the
farthest a wagon could travel from Sacramento - from Auburn the road
became trails traveled by pack mules carrying supplies to the miners.
When the gold began to play out, miners discovered Auburn was a good
place to spend the winters. The land in Auburn was free for the taking.
The Indians were all but destroyed, the Spanish grants did not include
the area, and federal law allowed free access to public and private land
for the purpose of prospecting and mining. Much of the land in Auburn
was acquired through mining claims, but the majority were held as
"shotgun titles"; that is, a squatter defending the land in his
possession. In 1850 the population of Auburn was 1,500
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By the 1860s Auburn was
a full-fledged town with a sense of permanency. The biggest event in the
1860s was the coming of the transcontinental railroad through Auburn.
The planning and building of the railroad was a complicated affair with
three separate companies: The California Central, the Central Pacific
(Stanford, Crocker, Huntington and Hopkins) and the Sacramento, Placer
and Nevada Railroad (conceived and financed by local residents). There
were millions of dollars to be made from the ownership of the first
transcontinental railroad and the competition was fierce. The California
Central and the California Pacific literally carried on a war "ripping
up each other's tracks by night and fighting by day." At one point the
Auburn Greys, the local militia, were called out, and they actually
fired on a railroad crew intent upon ripping up a rival's track. The
Central Pacific eventually won the railroad war, and their railroad came
to Auburn on May 13, 1865. After a short-lived incorporation in 1860,
Auburn was incorporated for a second time on May 2, 1888. By 1900, the
population numbered just above 2,000. The building of the railroad depot
and the development of several major commercial building blocks in Upper
or East Auburn caused a mass exodus of merchants from Old Town. This new
commerce center caused a major rift among the townspeople. The area
began to call itself East Auburn and even tried to declare itself a
separate town. Although the feud continued for many years and ended when
the U.S. Post Office refused to recognize East Auburn, separate centers
of commerce were firmly established and still exist today.
(Copyright © 2003-2011 by American Ghost Towns/Paschall Publishing) |
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