Jamestown

The town is named for a man its own miners tried to erase. George James, a San Francisco lawyer, reached Woods Creek at the end of 1848, poured champagne until the camp took his name, paid his workers in scrip he could not cover, and left in the night. They voted to call the place American Camp, but Jimtown had stuck and the post office never changed. The bronze credits the first gold to James Woods, which most accounts give to Benjamin Wood. It was dedicated 8 August 1948, a hundred years to the day.

What the plaque says

MARK TWAIN BRET HARTE TRAIL JAMESTOWN (ALSO CALLED JIMTOWN) KNOWN AS GATEWAY OF MOTHER LODE AND TO SOUTHERN MINES. GOLD FIRST DISCOVERED IN TUOLUMNE COUNTY WEST OF THIS POINT ON WOODS CREEK BY JAMES WOODS SHORTLY BEFORE TOWN WAS FOUNDED BY COL. GEORGE JAMES, AUGUST 8, 1848. LARGE QUANTITIES OF GOLD RECOVERED FROM STREAM BEDS AND GULCHES DURING "GOLD RUSH." SURROUNDED BY FAMOUS MINES FROM WHICH MILLIONS WERE EXTRACTED IN LATER YEARS. FIRST MERCANTILE BUSINESS IN SOUTHERN MINES SAID TO HAVE BEEN IN BUTTERFIELD BUILDING, BUILT IN 1850, STILL STANDING (1948). TABLET PLACED BY CALIFORNIA CENTENNIALS COMMISSION AND BASE PROVIDED BY JAMESTOWN PROMOTION CLUB. AUGUST 8, 1948.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Columbia State Historic Park — 6.9 mi
  The Gem of the Southern Mines, still open for business on a car-free Gold Rush main street.

More markers nearby

• Sierra Railway Shops — 0.3 mi
• St. James Episcopal Church — 3.2 mi
• Montezuma — 3.3 mi
• Tuttletown — 3.4 mi