Fiddletown Traditional Cache
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The small gold rush community of Fiddletown is located six miles east of Plymouth in historic Amador County, California. The town was first settled by Missourians in 1849. In the 1850's Fiddletown became a trading center for a number of rich mining camps such as American Flat, American Hill, Loafer and French Flat among others. Fiddletown had one of the larger Chinese communities in the state, with over 2000 Chinese residents (about a third of the total population) in the 1860 census. Today, less than 200 people (no Chinese) live in Fiddletown proper.
The early mines in Fiddletown used the "Placer" mining technique, which is very dependent on water. Since the local water supply, "Dry Creek", lived up to it's name during the summer months, the miners are said to have spent that time "fiddlin around", hence the name. A prominent local citizen, "Judge" Purinton, was embarassed when traveling to San Francisco and Sacramento by being known as the "Man from Fiddletown". Using his influencial friends at the state capitol, he had the town renamed after his daughter. Thus on May 24, 1878 Fiddletown became known as Oleta. After his death, local citizens petitioned the U.S. Post Office and on July 1, 1932 the name was restored to Fiddletown.
Make sure you look for the historical markers since the town is a National and California Historical place. Also the information about the historical buildings in town is completely interesting in itself. Fiddletown has a website that gives alot more information (Fiddletown.org.) Make sure you visit the Chew Kee Store ("chew kee" is a Chinese rammed earth structure located next to Fiddletown Park) which historically documents the once thriving Chinese community that existed in Fiddletown. The store/museum is only open on Saturdays from noon to 4 p.m. April through October.
In mid-September the town comes alive with the Annual Fiddletown "Fiddler's Jam".
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