VIDEO: The 6-5 Fire swept through Chinese Camp on Tuesday, a historic mining town in Tuolumne County, damaging many of its iconic buildings. The town emerged during the gold rush, attracting people from across the world to seek some of the $2.5 million in gold that would be extracted from the area. Chinese gold miners flocked to the Foothills, building stores, banks, and hotels. “People came in from all around the world,” Alex Vassar, communications manager with the California State Library, said. “It was very, very simple construction, but simple lasts. And so many of those buildings would have dated back to the early days of California statehood.โ
Many of those buildings stood the test of time until Tuesday. The historic post office and the Oddfellows Hall are still standing, but they are just shells, with everything inside destroyed. The Chinese Camp Science Academy, with its pagoda roof, is still there, as is the white St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church, but few homes remain. Shelly Davis-King, a longtime Tuolumne County resident and anthropologist, expressed her sorrow over the loss. She said she hadnโt been able to look at photos of the damage yet. “We have so precious few gold rush era places left in California that have any authenticity at all. So, to have this one go is just heartbreaking,” she said.
