Springfield

Everywhere else the water was brought to the dirt. Here the dirt came to the water: 150 miners carts on the road at the height of it, hauling gold-bearing ground into town to be washed at the springs that gushed from limestone boulders and gave the place its name. The town was built around a plaza and once held two thousand people. The bronze credits the founding to a Mexican woman of means, Josefa Valmesada, and names nobody else. It casts Donna for Dona.

What the plaque says

MARK TWAIN BRET HARTE TRAIL SPRINGFIELD SPRINGFIELD RECEIVED NAME FROM ABUNDANT SPRINGS GUSHING FROM LIMESTONE BOULDERS. TOWN, WITH ITS STORES, SHOPS AND HOTEL, BUILT AROUND PLAZA. ONCE BOASTED 2,000 INHABITANTS. BELIEVED FOUNDED BY DONNA JOSEFA VALMESADA, MEXICAN WOMAN OF MEANS WITH REPUTATION FOR AIDING AMERICANS IN WAR WITH MEXICO. DURING HEYDAY, 150 MINERS' CARTS COULD BE SEEN ON ROAD, HAULING GOLD-BEARING DIRT TO SPRINGFIELD SPRINGS FOR WASHING. TABLET PLACED BY HISTORIC LANDMARKS COMMITTEE AND COLUMBIA PARLOR NO. 258, NATIVE SONS OF THE GOLDEN WEST, JULY 25, 1948.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Columbia State Historic Park — 2.1 mi
  The Gem of the Southern Mines, still open for business on a car-free Gold Rush main street.

More markers nearby

• Columbia — 0.9 mi
• Shaw's Flat — 1.4 mi
• Sawmill Flat — 1.8 mi
• Parrott's Ferry — 2.7 mi