Family Gold in Jamestown California

With historic towns, caves, caverns and mines to explore, the rolling Sierra Nevada hills in California make a great weekend excursion. 

Jamestown California, our starting point for a weekend of exploring is an easy drive from Fresno, California on a road made gold by fall foliage this time of year. You can fly or drive the rolling hills to Fresno from San Francisco or Los Angeles. Jamestown is rich with colorful, quaint shops and small town hotels, located in old landmark buildings, many with spooky ghost legends. Older kids will love a spooky tale, while the young ones will just enjoy the warm carpeted Jamestown Hotel‘s hallways, a cozy spot that includes a delicious breakfast with choices like french toast or scrambled eggs in the nightly rate. The small historic establishment offers connecting rooms and small family suites; ours had a living area with sofa bed and plenty of crib room as well as bathroom, hallway, and canopied bed – plus a view of the wooden boardwalks of the town from a shared porch that wraps around the hotel. Another historic possibility is The National, also in Jamestown, which features a beautiful buffet; and like the Jamestown Hotel, serves dinner entrees ranging from fish and meat to vegetable dishes. Both hotels are authentic and kindly preserved without being stuffy. 

A different kind of gold in Amador County

In fact the entire town shares that friendly ambience and those historic facades. And just a walk up and down those wooden boardwalks are great fun and lead in and out of candy stores, old fashioned mercantiles, second hand shops, and establishments that allow you to plunk down some greenbacks and try your hand at finding gold with a sluice and pan in a creek or water filled trough. Kids of all ages enjoy a treasure hunt like that. 

They’ll also enjoy the Jamestown Railtown Historic Park, a very entertaining place to visit at the edge of town. When was the last time your family took to the rails? There’s something just plain exhilarating about that clickety-clack and a trip down the tracks. The Jamestown railroad carried passengers and freight from this station throughout gold country from its inception in 1897. Today, people can take the train on a pleasant one hour ride, on a line that features one of America’s last authentic, operating railroad roundhouses. Called “The Movie Railroad,” Railtown’s locomotives have appeared in scores of films and television programs, including Back to the Future 3, Petticoat Junction, and Little House on the Prairie. Operated by the California State Railroad Museum, Railtown offers steam powered excursion train rides every Saturday and Sunday. 

Railtown goes all out for the holidays too, with Halloween, Christmas, and Spring Celebrations held in decorated cars. On almost every trip you’ll often find an itinerant musician or balloon making magician offering sing-alongs, tricks and stunts on the ride. Now that’s pretty inclusive entertainment! 

Lunch time will lead you back to Jamestown proper. We enjoyed Azzo’s Italian fare, with pizzas, pastas and indoor/outdoor dining. It’s family friendly, hearty fare. 

Historic Columbia

Driving north of Jamestown you’ll find Columbia, another historic gold rush town. Here the preservation is complete, as its housed inside a State Historic Park. Featuring an old fashioned school house, shops, banks, and an operating general store, Columbia is exactly as it was in the 1800′s. Costumed employees lead tours and enhance the illusion that you’ve just traveled back in time.
If you want to see just what drew those miners to these towns and hills, you can also explore the caves and gold mines dotting the Sierra Nevadas. 

In Valecito, you’ll find the horizontal descent of Moaning Caverns. To explore you’ll have to climb a hundred and sixty five feet down, via narrow metal stairs. No strollers here, but we saw many parents carrying their little ones. Older kids want a real thrill? – you can rappel down to the bottom. 

Just past Sutter’s Creek, another charming historic town, you can take a tram tour into the Sutter’s mine. This is an easy tour appropriate for all ages. You’ll see veins of gold, get to wear a hard hat, and learn all about a miner’s life, mine safety, and the geology of the mine underground.
Murphy‘s is another fun town for browsing in stores and admiring the soft rolling hills of Amador County. Nearby, Mercer’s Caverns has been hosting cave tours since the eighteen hundreds. Today you’ll find an easy, fairly brief walking tour, but again, not stroller friendly. 

There’s more gold to be had in Mariposa, at a wonderful museum packed with information geared to kids. The California State Mining and Mineral Museum is located in the town which ran the first mill to crush ore and extract gold in California. It’s a great spot to explore California’s history and geology. The museum’s collection dates from 1880 and contains mining artifacts, gold exhibits, and beautiful gem and mineral specimens from California and around the world.

About the Author: Genie Davis is a multi-published fiction author, screen and TV writer, and travel writer. If it was possible, she'd like to spend every day traveling. www.geniedavis.com