Vallecito

Fire took almost all of it on 28 August 1859, and what stands at Vallecito now belongs to a different landmark. The camp worked from the early 1850s on ground the Murphy brothers opened in 1849, when it was called Murphys Old Diggings; the name it kept is Spanish for little valley. Moaning Cave is nearby, and Miwok people used it as a burial place. Nothing marks the camp itself, and the one plaque in the village commemorates the bell that hung in an oak.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Columbia State Historic Park — 4.8 mi
  The Gem of the Southern Mines, still open for business on a car-free Gold Rush main street.

More markers nearby

• Vallecito Bell Monument — steps away
• Douglas Flat — 2.3 mi
• Parrott's Ferry — 3.4 mi
• Site of Brownsville — 3.4 mi