Editing Downieville, California (section)

==History==
[[File:1850s Downieville.jpg|thumb|left|1850s Downieville]]
[[File:1890s Downieville.jpg|thumb|left|1890s Downieville]]Gold was discovered here by Francis Anderson on September 14, 1849. Anderson had joined Phil A. Haven that same year along the North Yuba River.<ref name="Gilbert">{{cite book|last1=Gilbert|first1=Frank|last2=Wells|first2=Harry|title=Illustrated History of Plumas, Lassen & Sierra Counties, with California from 1513 to 1850|date=1882|publisher=Fariss & Smith|location=San Francisco|pages=419–422}}</ref>

Downieville was founded in late 1849 during the [[California Gold Rush]], in the Northern Mines area. It was first known as "The Forks" for its geographical location at the [[confluence]] of the [[Downie River]] and North Fork of the [[Yuba River]].<ref name="Downie">{{cite book|last1=Downie|first1=William|title=Hunting for Gold|date=1971|publisher=American West Publishing Company|location=Palo Alto|isbn=0910118221|pages=83–84}}</ref>

It was soon renamed after Major [[William Downie]] (1820–1893), the town's founder. Downie was a [[Scotsman]] who had led an expedition of nine miners, seven of them [[African American]] men, up the North Fork of the Yuba River in the Autumn of 1849.<ref>[[Quintard Taylor]] (1998), In Search of the Racial Frontier, New York/London: W.W. Norton & Company p.85</ref> At the present site of the town they struck rich gold, built a log cabin, and settled in to wait out the winter.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/ca/downieville.html|title=Downieville - California Ghost Town|access-date=18 January 2017}}</ref> By 1850, Downieville had 15 hotels, 4 bakeries, 4 butcher shops, and numerous saloons.<ref name=explore>{{cite web|url=http://www.ghosttownexplorers.org/california/downieville/downieville.htm|title=Downieville, California|access-date=18 January 2017|archive-date=August 15, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140815204548/http://www.ghosttownexplorers.org/california/downieville/downieville.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>

[[File:Craycroft Building.jpg|thumb|left|Craycroft Building]]
In 1850 John Craycroft & Company constructed a log building, which had a 70 foot bar made from a rip-sawed board. The building was destroyed by fire on February 19, 1852, and was rebuilt by the current brick building that now houses the St. Charles Place in the old Craycroft building.<ref>{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Hvc8AAAAIAAJ|title= History of Sierra County: Downieville, gold town on the Yuba|publisher= Mid-Cal Publishers|date=1977|last=Sinnott |first=James |access-date=2024-10-29}}</ref>

[[Josefa Segovia]], a young ''[[Californio]]'' resident of the town, was lynched by a mob on July 5, 1851.{{r|LAT 2019-12-05}} The [[Lynching|lynch mob]] held a mock trial, and accused her of killing an American miner. The mock trial quickly led to hanging her from the [[Jersey Bridge (Downieville, California) |Jersey Bridge]] in town.<ref name=explore/> Segovia’s case was the only recorded [[hanging]] of a woman in the [[history of California]].<ref name="MankillerMink1999">{{cite book|author1=Wilma P. Mankiller|author2=Gwendolyn Mink|author3=[[Marysa Navarro]] |author4=Gloria Steinem |author5=Barbara Smith|title=The Reader's Companion to U.S. Women's History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d9lhBw8t410C&pg=PA84|date=October 1999|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-0-618-00182-8|pages=84–}}</ref>

In 1853 Downieville was vying to become the new state capital of California, along with fifteen other California communities to replace [[Vallejo, California|Vallejo]]. The capital was moved to [[Benicia Capitol State Historic Park|Benicia]] for a year, and then in 1854 to [[Sacramento, California|Sacramento]].

The Northern Mines area of the gold rush had a number of mining camps with colorful names, such as [[Brandy City, California|Brandy City]] (originally known as Strychnine City),<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ghosttownexplorers.org/california/brandy/brandy.htm|title=Brandy City|access-date=18 January 2017|archive-date=August 15, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140815204550/http://www.ghosttownexplorers.org/california/brandy/brandy.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> Whiskey Diggins, [[Poverty Hill, California|Poverty Hill]], Poker Flat, and [[Camptonville, California|Camptonville]]. Many of these camps disappeared after the gold rush or became [[ghost town]]s. Downieville had reached a peak population of over 5,000 people in 1851, but by 1865 had significantly declined.{{r|LAT 2019-12-05}} It survived due to its status as the [[county seat]] of government in Sierra County, and from its geographic location between [[Sacramento Valley]] and Tahoe region/Nevada destinations.