Mining Rich History : Where textbooks leave off, 49ers’ mother-lode land is living legacy

If you have a child in elementary school, he or she will study California history and government, probably in the fourth or fifth grade. It’s the law.

Don’t dread this as just another massive homework topic. Think of it as an excuse for a trip. And don’t limit yourself to San Juan Capistrano or other local missions. If you want to grab a child’s attention, paddle-wheel boats, horse-drawn carriages and the possibility of finding gold treasure is much more exciting. Sacramento and the Gold Rush district are destinations where kids can enjoy all of the above, while their parents can sample quaint bed-and-breakfasts and small-town life.

When our daughter, Veronica, recently passed through the fourth grade, the three of us took a one-week spring-break excursion to Sacramento and the Mother Lode region of the nearby Sierra foothills. It’s the best place to learn about that pivotal period when California irrevocably changed from what was primarily a Mexican outpost to a vital part of the westward-spreading United States.

Our trip began auspiciously on our flight to Sacramento. Among our fellow passengers were a couple of high-profile politicians: Sen. Tom Hayden and Lt. Gov. Gray Davis. (Apparently Monday morning shuttles offer prime-time viewing of state government celebrities.) Veronica might have preferred spotting someone from “Seinfeld” or “Clueless,” but her parents enjoyed sitting among the powers that be and eavesdropping on one conversation across the aisle, in which a lobbyist earnestly plied his trade on an unidentified listener.

After arriving and renting a car, we quickly learned that our daughter was more interested in historical Sacramento than in present-day goings-on. She was mildly impressed by the requisite tour of the state Capitol, but it was in the rejuvenated Old Sacramento historical district that we all had the best time.

We spent two nights on board the Delta King, a beautifully restored 1920s riverboat now permanently hitched to the Old Sacramento dock. The 44 staterooms are small, but they’re bigger now than they were when the boat transported Prohibition-era gamblers and drinkers up and down the Sacramento River. Before we retired for the night, we got a kick out of gazing beyond our boat’s paddle wheel and watching Sacramento’s busy Tower Bridge rise to let the river traffic through.

During the day, Old Sacramento has a lot to offer a kid, including the proverbial candy stores--a couple of old-fashioned emporiums filled with bins containing thousands of colorful, wrapped candies.

On the more respectable side, our daughter enjoyed the Schoolhouse Museum, where she joined a class of fourth-graders on a field trip. Guided by a period-dressed docent, they pretended they were pupils at a one-room schoolhouse during the 1880s.

As we took a horse-drawn carriage ride around the streets, our affable guide regaled us with stories about the old days. Gold Rush miners would go to public baths, he said, where the bath water would be changed only after five people had washed. The good news: Whoever was last in line got to keep the gold dust that had fallen to the bottom of the tub. Of course our guide may not have been the most serious of historians--he also pointed out McDonald’s as a place where the miners would eat after a hard day of prospecting.

We noted the statue of a Pony Express rider that marks the western end of the nearly 2,000-mile trail that those adventurous young men rode in 1860-’61; our guide told us many of the riders were orphans, whose affairs wouldn’t be difficult to manage if they never came back. We took in the vintage trains at Old Sacramento’s largest single attraction, the California State Railroad Museum. And we ate well at the riverside Rio City Cafe and at Jazzmen’s Art of Pasta, where live musical acts entertain on the patio.

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Finally it was time to ascend into them thar hills. On the way out of town, before leaving the city limits, we stopped at the old log buildings (most of them actually replicas) of Sutter’s Fort, Sacramento’s original settlement. John Sutter settled here in 1839, naming his domain New Helvetia, after his Swiss homeland.

But for historical drama, Sutter’s Fort has nothing on Sutter’s Mill, the sawmill that Sutter built about 40 miles east of New Helvetia, in what is now Coloma.

It was at Sutter’s Mill, of course, that gold was discovered on Jan. 24, 1848. James W. Marshall, who was inspecting Sutter’s property on the South Fork of the American River, spotted a few glints in the water . . . and California was never the same. Within a few months, news of the gold strike attracted 2,000 miners and set off a chain reaction of other discoveries throughout the area that lured adventurers from around the world.

After seeing a short film about the momentous event at the little visitor center in Coloma’s Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park, we strolled through the bucolic grounds, examining the sawmill replica and the old mining equipment. Then we walked a few yards to the spot on the riverbank where the gold was found. Veronica eagerly examined the water and sand for any signs of gold. At the first sign of the tiniest golden-hued speck of sand, we pretended it was 1848.

About 35 miles away in Nevada City, the historical pretending continued at the Red Castle Historic Lodgings, a bed-and-breakfast inn where we spent the next two nights. Although a brochure stated the Red Castle was “not suitable for young children or pets,” innkeepers Conley and Mary Louise Weaver hadn’t objected to the idea of a well-behaved (or so we swore) 10-year-old when we made the reservation. It turned out to be a place where a girl could let her imagination run wild.

Built in 1860 as a family home by Judge (and mine owner) John Williams, the Red Castle is described as one of only a few Gothic Revival brick houses on the West Coast. It has four floors, and we splurged on renting the entire top-floor suite ($140). We got two bedrooms with a sitting room between, and a private veranda overlooking Nevada City and the Red Castle’s own neat gardens, complete with fountain.

Our daughter had a great time, carefully picking up fragile knickknacks and books, admiring the old mannequin in the sitting room and the old telephone in the parlor, imagining herself as a Victorian lass.

From the Red Castle we walked five minutes down a hill into downtown Nevada City (1850 population 10,000; current population 3,000), with its historic buildings, small-town shops, cafes and horse-drawn carriage rides.

We drove a few miles south to Grass Valley, home of the Empire Mine State Historic Park, California’s richest hard-rock gold mine between 1850 and 1956. There we peered down the old mine shaft, looked at the exhibits in the aged structures and strolled through the seven-bedroom Empire Cottage (built 1897) and its formal gardens.

The next day, after gorging on the Red Castle’s rich breakfast (every day a different egg entree, homemade bread and muffins, cereal and yogurt), we headed south along the appropriately named California Highway 49 that winds through grassy hills and small towns, any of which could be worth investigating in greater depth. We read about some of the history in the Auto Club booklet, “The Mother Lode,” as we passed through, and we stretched our legs and grabbed a bite in Sutter Creek. But we didn’t pause for long, for our next two-night destination was Columbia State Historic Park--for many kids, the highlight of any Mother Lode trip.

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Columbia was founded soon after Dr. Thaddeus Hildreth found gold here in March 1850. Within four years, it was California’s second largest city. Now it’s a kind of Gold Rush version of Colonial Williamsburg. It is better preserved than any of the other Gold Rush towns (albeit cleaned up for modern day visitors--no brothels), thanks in part to being maintained as a state historic park over the last 50 years.

Columbia is particularly appealing to children because it is a living history exhibit, not a museum. Employees in the stores, cafes and exhibits wear period-style dress, and kids can buy their own outfits too. Our daughter picked out a calico skirt and matching bonnet with white lace trim.

Our most exciting adventure in Columbia was a stagecoach ride interrupted by gun-toting, horse-riding robbers as we passed through a secluded, rocky area away from the shops. The miscreants didn’t take any valuables but demanded that we sing a song. We complied with a spirited rendition of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.” Later, we took a guided horseback ride through the town’s outskirts.

Gold-panning is a big hit with most kids. In Columbia, we rented pans. A grizzled-looking fellow, decked out in 1850s miner fashion, demonstrated the proper technique at narrow sluice boxes--devices in which a narrow channel of rushing water is liberally sprinkled with gold-dust bits. We found a few glimmers of gold.

Our trip brought California history alive not just for our young student, but for my wife and me too--we didn’t attend elementary school in California. Now, if we can only arrange for the kid to study South Seas history next year. . . .

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GUIDEBOOK: Mother Lode Lessons

Getting there: United and Southwest fly nonstop between LAX and Sacramento. Advance-purchase, round-trip fares start at $98.

Where to stay: Best Western Sonora Oaks Motel, 19551 Hess Ave., Sonora (motel near Columbia with a heated pool); telephone (209) 533-4400. Rates: $80 to $130 for a double, children under 12 free.

City Hotel, Main Street, Columbia; tel. (209) 532-1479. Rates: $75 to $95 for a double, children under 4 free.

Delta King riverboat, docked at 1000 Front St., Old Sacramento; tel. (800) 825-5464. Rates: $120 to $140 for a double, $10 per extra person.

Holiday Inn, 300 J St., Sacramento (across the street from Old Sacramento and with a solar-heated pool); tel. (800) 465-4329. Rates: $120 to $140 for a double ($450 for a suite), children under 19 free.

Northern Queen Inn, 400 Railroad Ave., Nevada City (heated pool); tel. (916) 265-5824. Rates: $60 to $100 for a double, children under 6 free.

Red Castle Historic Lodgings, 109 Prospect St., Nevada City; tel. (800) 761-4766. Rates: $70 to $135 for a double.

Where to eat: Country Rose, 300 Commercial St., Nevada City; tel. (916) 265-6248. Entrees about $4.25 to $7.25.

Cousin Jack Pasties, 220 Broad St., Nevada City; tel. (916) 265-4260. Sample some of the snacks descended from the early Cornish settlers who were specialists in the hard-rock mining techniques used in the area. Entrees $3.25 to $5.

Jazzmen’s Art of Pasta, 1107 Front St., Old Sacramento; tel. (916) 441-6726. Entrees $9 to $16.

La Sierra Taqueria, 13759 Mono Way, Sonora (near Columbia); tel. (209) 532-1121. Entrees $2.25 to $6.

Rio City Cafe, 1110 Front St., Sacramento; tel. (916) 442-8226. Entrees $7 to $18.

What to read aloud: Sid Fleischman’s “By the Great Horn Spoon!” (Little, Brown, $16.95; $5.95, paperback) is a rousing Gold Rush yarn, at the right level for most fourth-graders. It’s difficult to find in bookstores but is probably available at a nearby library.

For more information: California Division of Tourism, 801 K St., Suite 16, Sacramento, CA 95814; (916) 322-2881.

--D.S.