This past weekend I visited a place that looms large in U.S. history and lies only a half-day’s car trip from my home, yet I’d never traveled there before. Attending a birthday celebration for a friend, my husband and I drove south on Interstate 5 and then east towards Sacramento on U.S. Highway 50. This is the route that San Francisco Bay Area residents take on their way to the recreation areas (and casinos) around Lake Tahoe in the Sierra Nevada, but we discovered there’s plenty to see and do in the foothills east of the state capital.

Our first stop was Placerville, the county seat for El Dorado County and once the third-largest city in the state. We found a charming little town with several historic buildings and beautifully maintained Victorian homes. Once an important service-provider to the thousands of gold miners who flooded the area, now Placerville hosts hikers and campers, history buffs and tourists. Our final destination was another 10 miles north along State Route 49 (appropo, considering it runs through the territory of the gold rush ’49ers) to the tiny community of Coloma, sitting on the banks of the American River. It was here, at Sutter’s Mill in 1848, that James Marshall spotted gold in the tailrace of the sawmill he was constructing, and the rush was on. At the height of the mining madness, this place was home to some 12,000 merchants and gold seekers, but today less than 200 residents live here year-round.

The area is very popular for summertime guests, who camp along the river, fish and whitewater raft its waters and hike and explore the valley and mountains nearby. Most of the town sits in the midst of the Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park, and one can visit a replica of the original sawmill and several historic buildings and even pan for gold. Our stay was too short to allow us to enjoy such pursuits, but the beauty of the area and a desire to explore more of it left us determined to return soon. And perhaps just a little of that original gold fever still lingers in the air there, for I’d like to try my hand at a little gold panning myself!

— Patty Vanikiotis, associate editor/copy editor