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Published: 2014-04-23

Total Pages: 244

ISBN-13: 9780988551534

Who among us hasn't treasured memories of yesteryear told to us by our 'elders'? Aleta Miller has gathered vignettes and woven them into a tapestry of life in a Sierra Gold Rush mining town exotically named Port Wine (near Whiskey Diggins and Poker Flat). She has captured the essence of California's pioneer spirit, mining nuggets of real life stories that lay buried under yesteryear's journalism: Two story deep snowdrifts compete with a mountain visitor in a Locomobile. Civil War politics blend in with birth pains of the new California statehood. Downhill ski races lift spirits of beleaguered residents of Port Wine and La Porte, also known as Rabbit Creek. Uncontrollable fires gut reconstructed towns with diabolical regularity. In addition, we meet colorful characters who have touched the hills including Black Bart, Dutch Kate, Bret Harte, the Blue Lake Monster and Sasquatch. There is something for everyone in this delightful read. Aleta Farren Miller, as a young girl, became enamored of California gold country history during occasional visits to the Davis Motor Mine. The mine tunneled into a mountainside within a mile of Port Wine, CA. It was operated by Aleta's cousins Fred and Durward Davis and produced a modest quantity of gold. Aleta was enchanted by the remoteness of the location as well as by the surroundings which have changed very little over the last 100 years. Passing encounters with "old timers" and whimsical poetry adorning grave sites in the Pioneer Cemetery stimulated a growing interest. Many of her relatives and even a pet parrot are buried there. With the help of her mother, Rilla Farren Cross, other family members, the archives of Bancroft Library at U.C. Berkeley, and The Mountain Messenger Newspaper at Downieville, CA, the interest culminated in Aleta investing almost a decade undertaking this collection of what now may be classified as journalistic memorabilia. We are indebted to her instinctive ability to sort out and preserve this remarkable collection of memories. Her own background and personal experiences make her uniquely capable of understanding and synthesizing the insight that she gained from that time in California history.