Adventure 051, Site 129 – Angel's Hotel

Capture California, the Game-2012

Adventure: 051, Site 129 – Angel's Hotel

California Landmark Number: 734

National Registry ID: 72000220

Team: Thing One, Thing Two

Date:  September 27, 2012

Location:

Latitude: 38° 4.117′ N

Longitude: 120° 32.358′ W.

Address: NE corner of Main St and Bird Way, Angels Camp

Description:

Date Built: 1856

As with the Leger Hotel in Molelume Hill, you want to stop and lounge around. But home we go and can only enjoy the whiff of air which Samuel Clemens had 150 years ago.

NO. 734 ANGELS HOTEL - The canvas hotel that C. C. Lake erected here in 1851 was replaced by a one-story wooden structure, and then in 1855 by one of stone - a second story was added in 1857. It was here that Samuel Clemens first heard the yarn that was later to bring him fame as Mark Twain, author of The Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.
Location:  NE corner of Main St and Bird Way, Angels Camp
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places:  NPS-72000220 






From Waymarking:

In 1863, a young aspiring journalist named Samuel Langhorne Clemens stayed in this hotel on his way from San Francisco, CA to Virginia City, NV. Here he heard a yarn about a notorious gambler who lost $40 to a con artist in a frog jumping competition. The story, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County was first published in New York in 1865.

Not only the young journalist who later changed his name to Mark Twain gained fame through the story. It also put the tiny mining town Angels Camp on the world's map, and and since the late 1800s, the town celebrates the famous writer and its very own frog jumping history with an annual Frog Jumping Jubilee.

From NRHP:

The Angels Hotel was erected b£ C. C. Lake in 1851 at the northeast corner of Main Street and Chinatown Road (Bird Way). At first it was a huge canvas structure that was quickly replaced by a one story wooden building.... In 1855 Lake had the frame hotel torn down and on the site began the construction of a one story stone building, to which a second story was added in 1856.

Lake's commodious hotel was dedicated January 1, 1856 at which time a grand ball was given. It was during these early days that Mark Twain, who lived for a time with his friend Steve Gillis at Jackass Hill in Tuolumne County made visits to Angel's Camp (1860's)and stopped at the Angels Hotel. On one of his visits, Ross Coon, a bartender and part owner at the hotel, told him of the frog jump which had taken place on Main Street between Scribner's store and the Hotel. Mark Twain, thinking this a humorous event, on his return to Jackass Hill, wrote the story "The Jumping Frog of Calaveras County". Annual festivities at Angels Camp make use of this legend as the central theme of the celebration.

References:

• National Registry of Historical Places-Documents and Photos
  
• Noehill (State and National)
  
• Historical Marker Database (HMDB.org)
  
• Waymarking
  

Overall Landmark References:

• David Schmitt's California State Historical Landmark (Schmitt)
  
• Wikipedia: California's National Landmarks (WCNL)
  
• State of California's California Historical Landmarks (CHL)
  
• Wikipedia: California State Landmarks (WCSL)
  
• State of California Historical Resources (CHR)
  
• National Registry of Historical Places (NRHP)
  
• Noehill (NOE)
  
• Historical Marker Database (HMDB)
  
• WayMarking (WAY)