Montezuma

The plaque calls it excitement. What it means is the Foreign Miners Tax of April 1850, twenty dollars a month from anyone who was not a citizen, aimed squarely at Mexicans and Chileans. Two months later the partners running the Montezuma Tent were attacked here and Peter Aurand was killed. Tuolumne merchants watched the camps empty and lobbied the tax away by March 1851. The rest of the panel is bookkeeping: gravel at three and a half cents a pan, and a nugget of eighteen pounds eight ounces.

What the plaque says

MONTEZUMA FIRST RECORD OF MONTEZUMA WAS JUNE, 1850 WHEN PARTNERS SOLOMON MILLER AND PETER K. AURAND, PROPRIETORS OF THE "MONTEZUMA TENT" WERE ATTACKED, AND AURAND KILLED, BY A GROUP OF MEXICANS, DURING THE FOREIGN MINERS TAX EXCITEMENT OF THAT PERIOD. DUE TO THE LACK OF WATER LITTLE MINING OCCURRED HERE UNTIL 1852 WHEN A DITCH AND FLUME WERE COMPLETED BRINGING WATER FOR PLACER MINING. TWO TYPES OF MINING WERE CARRIED ON. PLACER OPERATIONS ON THE FLATS AND TUNNELS EXTENDING UNDER TABLE MOUNTAIN. THE GRAVEL PRODUCED 3 1/2 C PER PAN IN THE MID 50s. THE YIELD WAS FROM $5 TO $10 PER DAY. ONE PLACER NUGGET FOUND IN 1853 WEIGHED 18 LBS. 8 OZ. BY LATE 1852 THE POPULATION WAS ABOUT 800. AT ITS ZENITH MONTEZUMA CITY HAD 4 SALOONS, 2 HOTELS, ADAMS EXPRESS CO., POSTOFFICE, CHURCH, SOME HOMES AND MANY TENTS AND CABINS. THE TOWN WAS NEARLY DESTROYED BY AN INCENDIARY FIRE WHICH STARTED IN CLARK'S HOTEL ON JUNE 29, 1866. REDEDICATION OF 1981 MONUMENT CREDO QUIA ABSURDUM APRIL 12, 1986 MATUCA CHAPTER No 1849 E CLAMPUS VITUS

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Columbia State Historic Park — 10 mi
  The Gem of the Southern Mines, still open for business on a car-free Gold Rush main street.

More markers nearby

• Wells Fargo Express Company Building — 2.9 mi
• Chinese Camp — 2.9 mi
• Jamestown — 3.3 mi
• Sierra Railway Shops — 3.4 mi