Ophir

Somebody stole the plaque for the copper in it. The state bronze went in 2012 and the residents put up a board cut to the same shape and lettered by hand, which counts the present population as seven hundred people, six hundred sheep, five hundred cows, two hundred chickens, five donkeys and four peacocks. It signs off by telling copper thieves the new one is worth twenty-nine cents. Ophir was the most populous town in the county in 1852.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park — 15 mi
  The tailrace at Coloma where a carpenter found gold in January 1848 and the world came running.
• Empire Mine State Historic Park — 22 mi
  The oldest, deepest, richest hard-rock gold mine in California, with 367 miles of flooded tunnels underneath.
• Sacramento — 30 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 - Newcastle — 1.2 mi
• City of Auburn — 2.5 mi
• First Transcontinental Railroad - Auburn — 3.2 mi
• Griffith Quarry — 3.5 mi