Posted by: thepinetree on 08/16/2013 06:30 PM
Updated by: thepinetree on 08/28/2013 01:19 AM
Expires: 01/01/2018 12:00 AM
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Gold Rush Day in Angels Camp Set For August 31st
Angels Camp, CA,...The main event of the historic Gold Rush town of Angels Camp’s year-long celebration of 165 years since its founding by Henry Angel is set for August 31st, the Saturday of Labor Day weekend, when the Gold Rush Day street fair, scheduled from 11 am to 4 pm, will close Main Street (State Highway 49) in the historic downtown. Gold Rush Day will be the largest event held on Main Street since the frog jumps were held there in the 1920s and ‘30s....
Gold Rush Day will include western gun fights, a frog jump, a miners encampment, a working replica of the Angel Brothers Trading Post tent, vendors of all descriptions, street performers, lots of food and drink concessions, and a variety of music stretched from the historic downtown to Utica Park. See event website.
Mark Twain, who figures prominently in the City’s history and is played by the famous impersonator Pat Kaunert, will be the master of ceremonies for the day. After the opening ceremony that starts at 11:15 am in front of the Calaveras Visitors Center, Mark Twain will lead people to Utica Park for a photo session in front of ‘his’ statue that was used in the Warner Brothers 1944 film “The Adventures of Mark Twain” and presented to the City. He will also join award-winning fiddler David Rainwater for a special session of yarn telling and fiddle playing. Rainwater is a member of the Sierra Mountain Band of Jamestown who are playing in the park.
A variety of regional musical talent will entertain on four stages throughout the historic downtown. On the main stage at the lower end of Main Street by the historic Utica Hotel Big Earl and the Cryin’ Shame will play every musical style from rockabilly to jazz and rap. Big Earl was the major attraction at the 2012 Street Fair that celebrated the centennial of Angels Camp’s incorporation as a city. Leading off on the main stage will be local musicians Plan B whose sets start at 11:00 am.
In front of the Visitors Center, stage 3 will feature Music With Maria. From Valley Springs, Maria sings hits from the 40s, 50s and 60s including songs sung by Patsy Cline, Brenda Lee and Connie Francis.
And on Stage 4 in Utica Park, Sierra Mountain Band will start at noon playing music from the era of the great cowboy to honky-tonk, followed at 2:30 pm by Sequoia, a musical trio who specialize in Celtic and American music. Both of these groups will engage the audience in their music and encourage people to dance.
Returning this year are last-year’s crowd pleasers Sierra Nevada Guns for Hire, an Amador County-based Old West gun show whose big saloon stage will be across from the Visitors Center. Their shows begin at noon, 1:30, and 3:30 with each one featuring a different scenario. In between acts, the cast will circulate with the crowd along Main Street. Across Main Street beside Claussen’s Corner, an old-time saloon and beer garden will fill the side street of Hardscrabble.
New this year are a miners encampment and a re-creation of the Angel Brothers Trading Post, a big authentic canvas tent like the one Henry set up near what became known as Angels Creek to sell supplies to miners throughout the area. The Trading Post will be in Utica Park together with an authentic prospector’s camp set up by long-time gold prospector Charley Chatfield of Mokelumne Hill. Chatfield is a fifth generation gold miner and worked for years as a guide at the Sutter Mine in Jackson. Chatfield has assembled authentic tents and equipment and will talk about what it was like to be a gold prospector during the Gold Rush era.
The Calaveras Visitors Center parking lot will be the site for the Frog Jump arena with frog jump heats running all day and organized by the Frog Jump committee of the Calaveras County Fair and Jumping Frog Jubilee. Also in this area is the ‘food court’ with a variety of vendors. Food and drinks will also be available at Utica Park and throughout the street fair, including wine booths with a variety of Calaveras County wines run by the Angels Camp Business Association. The Murphys-Angels Lions Club will have a food booth at Utica Park and a beer booth in front of the Main Stage.
Utica Park will also provide a myriad of family activities including music, balloon art, jugglers, face-painting, vendors and food, wine and beer vendors.
The historic Gold Rush town of Angels Camp was founded in 1848 by Henry Angels, who had arrived in California with his brother George as soldiers in the Mexican War. After the war’s end, they heard about the fabulous finds in the gold fields and joined the Carson-Robinson Party of prospectors to set out for the gold. The brothers set up on the creek now know as Angels Creek and began prospecting.
Gold mining was very hard work and Henry soon realized that it would easier to make a living supplying the miners than being a miner. He set up a canvas tent trading post near the creek in what is today a parking lot at the south end of historic Main Street, and sold clothing and miners equipment to the miners pouring into the area. First known as Angels Trading Post, the settlement was later shortened to Angels Camp.
Angels Camp was made world famous by author Mark Twain who stayed in the area in 1865 and wrote his first internationally acclaimed tale “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” after hearing the tale during a visit to the bar in the old Angels Hotel. The main stage for the street fair will be in front of the Angels Hotel, now the location of Calaveras Coin and Pawn featuring Mark Twain coins and memorabilia.
Located at the intersection of California highways 4 and 49, Angels Camp’s Main Street is a busy section of north-south Highway 49, known as the Golden Chain Highway. The Mother Lode seam of gold that attracted thousands from all over the world runs right alongside Main Street and under the Angels Camp Museum.
Today, Angels Camp is a base camp for outdoor activities and mountain sports with its proximity to the Sierra Nevada Mountains, Yosemite National Park and Lake Tahoe, as well as its many near-by golf courses, caverns, lakes, trails, camping areas, wineries, and lodging and restaurant offerings.
The Angels Camp Commemorative Committee of the Angels Camp Business Association was set up in 2011 to organize the celebrations for the City’s 100 years as an incorporated city in 2012, and this year’s 165th anniversary of its founding, as well as celebrations in 2014 of the 165th anniversary of the 1849 Gold Rush, and in 2015 of the 150th anniversary of Mark Twain’s visit to Angels Camp.
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