Virtual Tour of Fiddletown

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.

01. State Historical Marker	02. Chew Kee Store	03. Chinese Gambling Hall	04. Chinese General Store	05. Mining Water Ditch
06. The Forge	07. Community Club	08. General Store	09. Schallhorns Wagon Works	10. Cooper House
11. Oleta Schoolhouse	12. Fiddletown Cemetery	13. Purinton House	14. Head House	15. Post Office Lobby
16. Chinese Adobe