Plaque marks location of Colfax's first hotel

Just one street away from last week's find, my hunt for heavy metal led me to the most recently placed plaque in the city.Found in front of a house at 36 West Grass Valley Street, the bronze marker commemorates the location of the first hotel in Colfax. It was named, appropriately, the Pioneer House Hotel. In 1849 the Mendenhalls — Enos, Rachael and baby Elvira — were the first family to arrive in the region and also the first to construct a hotel and restaurant at the mining camp called Illinoistown. In 1865 the family moved the business to the new railroad town along with the rest of the trade community.Business flourished and the family grew to nine children. Enos and the boys saw to the orchards while Rachael and the girls took care of the hotel. End of story. Well, not really.Mendenhall descendants gathered at the Colfax Founders' Day Celebration in 2007 for a family reunion and to officially dedicate the plaque. They brought with them many photos and papers on the family history, notably the text of letters that Enos had written over the years. This, coupled with the research of our local supersleuth, Gertrude Paul, brought to light interesting aspects of the tale.While Rachael and her daughters took care of hotel operations throughout their business career, Enos was apparently the speculator.His first move, after searching for gold, was to return to Oregon in the fall of 1850. He brought back seedlings for the first orchards of the region. An Eden Valley sawmill was another of his entrepreneurial undertakings. He was also among the financial backers of the plans for the transcontinental railroad.However, alleged shady dealings over land sales and subscriptions by the railroad company caused Enos to speak very derogatorily about the Central Pacific. He evidently lost an undetermined, but seemingly great amount of money, as a result of the handling of his investments.This is the mystery that we are aware of, but still haven't sorted out. Title copies from the 1860's settling of Colfax are very sketchy. Theodore Judah also factors into this ambiguity. Placer Herald newspaper articles from this timeframe bear this out.The Mendenhalls opened the Pioneer House in September of 1865. Around that time Enos Mendenhall became acquainted with Alonzo Horton and Sam Striplin, who would become pioneer settlers of San Diego County. It was at the behest of Horton and Striplin that Mendenhall traveled to Southern California in 1869. By some accounts, he was on a secret mission as a lawman. At that time Palomar Mountain was referred to as a haven for horse and cattle rustlers. Beckler describes Mendenhall as having "already proved himself" in "secret service" work with "Vigilantes Committees" in Northern California. Mendenhall apparently established a pig ranch as a cover for gathering information on the illegal activities on the mountain. That pig ranch later became a lucrative and renowned cattle operation for Mendenhall and his sons. The valley in Southern California now bears his name.In the meantime, the hotel operation in northern California was expanded to Grass Valley, Sacramento and Napa. This gave Rachael financial security, especially since the Pioneer House was destroyed by fire in April of 1874.I've since discovered that Rachael and daughter Elvira are featured in a fiction novel, "Nobility in the Rough," which was written in 1938 by David Boring. Should be an interesting read.