Ballots and blazes determined Ophir's historic fate

If votes had been cast a different way more than 150 years ago, the faded Gold Rush community of Ophir might be Placer County's seat of government today.It's hard to imagine this quiet, rural residential hamlet a few miles west of Auburn being a bustling city, but for a few years Ophir was a boom town built on the riches hidden in its hills and streams. Now dominated by old ranches and contemporary country homes, the hills west of Auburn hold a quick, quirky piece of Placer's history.Long before gold was discovered in Coloma in 1848, mountaineers, trappers and military scouts were exploring the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. The territory known today as Ophir had been an encampment called Spanish Corral. But after gold was spotted in the creek cascading through the territory, it became a village of prospectors. When a Mr. Fry became part owner of the camp's general store, the settlement became known as Frytown. Frytown started as a few rough cabins perched on the banks of the Auburn Ravine creek. But the abundance of gold in the clear stream and rounded hills quickly turned Frytown into a wealthy burg. Mining companies were formed, miles of tunnels were cut into the low mountains, and the sound of industry echoed across the countryside.In the fall of 1850, the collection of miners and merchants living in the vicinity decided to give their burgeoning community a formal name. One of them suggested Ophir, in reference to the biblical story of a land of gold, and the moniker stuck.About 500 people were living in the area when the first legislature divided the newly formed state of California into 27 counties, placing Ophir and Auburn within Sutter County. Both communities vied for the honor of serving as the county seat. Amid protests of ballot stuffing and other illegal acts, Ophir reportedly lost to Auburn by one vote.When the state was re-apportioned the following year to add Placer, Nevada, Klamath and Trinity counties, Ophir and Auburn fell within Placer's newly drawn boundaries.By then, Ophir was one of the richest gold-mining precincts in the state, with each linear foot of streambed yielding about 100 ounces of gold, according to "There Lived in the Land of Ophir," a booklet of local history, family stories and vintage photographs compiled by local volunteers.Short rail lines were constructed to transport harvested chunks of quartz ore in carts that were rolled to stamp mills where the rocks were crushed and gold extracted. The ledges of gold-rich ore running beneath Chili, Crater, Gold and Bald hills helped ensure Ophir's success, with the population constantly ebbing and flowing as prospectors followed the weather. They headed for claims in the high country when the weather was warm, and returned to the lower elevations when winter snow storms chased them back down the hills.Residences joined the rows of commercial buildings that turned Ophir from a rowdy camp town to a real little city. But fires repeatedly destroyed what men had built. In 1853, a devastating conflagration razed most of the town. Although mining activity continued well into the 20th century, the business district and residential tracts never revived.Today, Ophir remains an unincorporated hamlet, with an elementary school anchoring its fleet of rustic abodes. A home-based nursery, a few service businesses, small herds of livestock and several fruit farms can be found along its undulating roadways.A wealthy, booming city for a few brief years, Ophir now is just a small community with a big piece of hidden history. The gravel then was washed with mercury, which clung to the tiniest flakes of gold and facilitated its extraction. Most of the towering stamp mills were erected on hillsides to let gravity assist in the operation. Chunks of raw ore were dropped onto a platform where massive, rotating wooden sledge hammers rhythmically rose and fell, shattering the cobbles into smaller pieces that dropped through slots in the floor to bins below. The pebbles then were bathed in quicksilver to capture the bits of loosened gold. The gleaned rubble left lofty piles of rock throughout the hills.The Three Star mine near Chili Hill, the Gold Blossom on Crater Hill, and the Hathaway mine near Bald Hill had the largest stamp mills in the region, boasting 20 mallets each. The Oro Fino, a mill on the east side of Bald Hill, was one of the richest mines in the area, bringing in more than $1,280,000 in gold between 1850 and 1900, according to the local history book.