Wineries of the Gold Country
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Sarah Lunsford
Sarah Lunsford has been an instructor of global studies for Liberty University Online since 2010. She studied at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (MA, MDiv, ThM) and at Columbia International University (PhD) and served as an international church planter with the IMB. Sarah and her four children (Abigail, Elysa, Zachary, and Emilia) live in the metro-Atlanta area.
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Wineries of the Gold Country - Sarah Lunsford
Lord.
INTRODUCTION
When James W. Marshall discovered gold in 1848, he changed the face of the area that would become the state of California forever. The cry of gold!
was heard around the world, and people from all over flooded in looking to make their fortunes. They came from Europe, South America, and Asia to find the pathway to a better life. What they found was hard work slogging away in the mud or in the mines, their dreams of finding gold evaporating in the face of the cold reality that many of them were not going to find the riches they craved.
In the early years of the Gold Rush, those who decided that mining was not for them turned to other endeavors to make a living. Some of them, particularly French and Italian immigrants, brought their dry-farming techniques with them and found that the volcanic and granite-rich soil, similar to that in their homelands, was perfect for growing all sorts of produce, including grapes. As is evidenced throughout human history, where there are grapes, there is wine, and they took those grapes and made wine for both the local and far-flung markets.
Those who mined for gold would mine anywhere they thought they could find the elusive sparkling ore. In Columbia, they even asked the Catholic priest to move the church’s location, including the cemetery, when gold was found on its border. The priest did so, moving up to a nearby hill where St. Anne’s Catholic Church still stands, but he put his foot down when gold was found on that hill and the miners again asked if the church and cemetery could be moved. Recently, when renovations were done on the foundation of the church, a tunnel was discovered that had been dug from outside the church grounds, presumably by miners who were trying to get around the priest’s decision. This disregard by miners for others and their property led to a confrontation with not only the clergy and merchants, but farmers as well. Those who made their living from the land were tired of miners coming and destroying their crops. In 1863, their battle was taken to the courts in Woodruff v. North Bloomfield Mining and Gravel Co., in which the judge ruled that miners were not allowed to dig for gold underneath property that was already planted.
The ruling directly affected the farming community, including those who had already discovered that the area was perfect for growing vineyards and making wine. One Swiss immigrant, Adam Uhlinger, planted his first vines in order to keep miners from tearing up his land in the Pigeon Creek area of what would become the Shenandoah Valley. It is hard to imagine that others did not do the same.
The Gold Rush produced a transient society of sorts, with miners traveling from one area to another, setting up mining camps that were wild and raucous, and then moving on when the diggings proved to be spent. It was the merchants and those who provided lodging and food to miners and travelers alike who truly made a fortune.
Many miners saw the opportunity to make another kind of gold in business, setting up hotels on well-traveled roads where the weary could rest for the night and refresh themselves with a meal and good glass of wine. Not all of them were worth the price paid to stay in them, but there were clean, well-run establishments that provided fond memories for those who visited. After all we mainly consider the value of an inn by the quality of the food, drink and goodness of beds that it affords,
wrote an unknown traveler who frequented the Sierra Nevada region and its inns. But thank heavens there are exceptions to the variety of houses above last mentioned. Exceptions which after being enjoyed, memory loves to cherish.
Other business-minded individuals found opportunity elsewhere, and nurseries began to open to provide those who wanted to garden for their own household and/or commercially with the rootstock and plants for their agricultural endeavors. Louis Miller, who opened a nursery near Auburn, brought wine grape rootstock from America and Europe to the foothills and his own red and white table wines for sale. Nurseries were also located around Stockton and Sacramento.
When the gold ran out, the population dwindled, and those who chose to stay began to look for other ways to make a living in earnest. The area quickly went from an economy based on mining to one based on agriculture, which included wine making. By the 1870s, the area was becoming well noted as a wine district. By the late 1800s, El Dorado and Calaveras Counties ranked third and fourth in wine production in the state of California. This mountain belt has now about 6,000,000 vines, and at this rate of increase will soon become the chief wine district of California,
the San Francisco–based Daily Alta California reported in January 1870.
The report proved to be premature. By the early 1900s, the area declined because of a poor local economy and dwindling population. This coupled with Prohibition would effectively decimate the wine industry