Karen and I saw this town on an Episode of "California's Gold" with the legend Huell Howser. Since it was so close to the cabin where we stay in Railroad Flats we had to visit. We took off early in the morning and headed North to beautiful Hwy 88. We arrived in town about 10:30 or so on a Sunday, the town was very quiet. We strolled around looking at the historic buildings and monuments.
The town is named for its setting in a bowl-shaped valley which early miners thought was caused by a volcano. The area was first known designated by Colonel Stevenson's men, who mined Soldiers Gulch in 1849. In 1851 a post office was established and by April 1852 there were 300 houses.
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| Hydraulic mining operations, begun in 1855 |
Volcano's gold served the Union and the Volcano Blues, a federal unit, smuggled the cannon "Old Abe" to intimidate rebel sympathizers to insure that was the case. The cannon was cast by Cyrus Alger & Co. in Boston in 1837 and is the first of two 6-pounders made on the same day to be stamped with serial number 4. The cannon was never fired during the war. The other cannon still survives at Shiloh Battlefield and is called "Shiloh Sam". Abe is the only cannon of that age in the U.S. still on a nineteenth century wooden carriage. The gun was fired for Fourth of July celebrations for many years but now rests in a dusty garage in town.
The historic St George Hotel is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The hotel is a center piece in the quaint village of Volcano, California, the gem of the Motherlode.
The first two hotels that stood on this site, Eureka (1853), Empire (1859) were destroyed by fire. The current Hotel was built in 1862. It is a 3-story brick building with 14-inch thick walls to make it more fireproof than the 2 previous structures. The Hotel was built by B.F. George and named the St. George to “thwart the demonic Fire Dragon”. The Hotel was known in the late 1800’s as the best Hotel in the County.
The main structure has 12 guestrooms on two floors, 10 with shared bathrooms.and two ( Jimtown and Dogtown ) with private bathrooms. The slight slant in the floors add to the character of the beautiful old building. The main floor of the Hotel has three sections. The charming Parlor, with 10-foot ceilings and a grand fireplace; The dining room, home to some of the finest food in the County; The Whiskey Flat Saloon was added to the main structure in the 1930’s. It is a fun and unique place to have a drink and meet the locals.
The Clute Building was also built in 1855 by the brothers Frye. John, George, and Reuben Frye arrived in Volcano during the early 1850's, and by 1855 had done quite well for themselves. Their income came from mining, and selling water from their ditch to the miners working the placers in Soldiers Gulch. They also speculated in real estate, owning several pieces of property on Main Street, upon which they erected buildings to meet the growing demand for stores. Standing on the west side of Main Street, with Soldiers Gulch behind, this building was constructed on two lots, each twenty feet wide by sixty feet deep. From the outside, the building appeared to be a single store; actually it was two, divided down the middle by a common wall. When the building was finished, the brothers sold the north lot and north half of the building on it to E. M. Strange in November of 1855. Four days later, they sold the south lot and south half of the building to John LaRoy and James A. Robbins. LaRoy and Robbins sold out the following year to Charles Crocker (later one of the Big Four), who sold it to Franklin W. Clute in August of that same year. Franklin ran a general merchandise store here, later selling out to his brother Peter. All in all, the Clutes operated from this site for nearly four decades, from 1856 to 1905, with the two buildings trading hands several times between different parties, at one time being repurchased by the Frye brothers. The structure eventually came into the possession of the Volcano Pioneers community theatre group who reinforced and converted the building into their new theatre.
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