City of Auburn

It burned three times and kept the courthouse. Claude Chana found gold near here on 16 May 1848, and the camp was called North Fork, then Wood's Dry Diggings, then Auburn in the autumn of 1849. It was county seat of Sutter County in 1850 and of Placer County in 1851, and the bronze records fires in 1855, 1859 and 1863, using the word destroyed for all three. A smaller plaque below records the base being rebuilt.

What the plaque says

CITY OF AUBURN GOLD DISCOVERED NEAR HERE BY CLAUDE CHANA MAY 16, 1848. AREA FIRST KNOWN AS "NORTH FORK" OR "WOOD'S DRY DIGGINGS". SETTLEMENT GIVEN NAME OF AUBURN IN FALL OF 1849. SOON BECAME IMPORTANT MINING TOWN, TRADING POST AND STAGE TERMINAL. COUNTY SEAT OF SUTTER COUNTY 1850 AND PLACER COUNTY 1851. DESTROYED BY FIRE 1855, 1859 AND 1863. STATE REGISTERED LANDMARK NO. 404 TABLET PLACED BY CALIFORNIA CENTENNIALS COMMISSION. BASE FURNISHED BY PLACER COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY DEDICATED SEPTEMBER 23, 1950

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park — 13 mi
  The tailrace at Coloma where a carpenter found gold in January 1848 and the world came running.
• Empire Mine State Historic Park — 21 mi
  The oldest, deepest, richest hard-rock gold mine in California, with 367 miles of flooded tunnels underneath.
• Sacramento — 32 mi
  The Gold Rush river port that became the state capital, and jacked itself ten feet into the air to stop drowning.

More markers nearby

• First Transcontinental Railroad - Auburn — 0.8 mi
• Mountain Quarries Railroad Bridge — 2.4 mi
• Ophir — 2.5 mi
• First Transcontinental Railroad - Newcastle — 3.3 mi