MENU 


Joe and Jill Biden hosted a 2023 state dinner for the President and Mrs Kim of South Korea, marking seven decades of relations. Chef Ed­ward Lee designed a Korean-spiced Ameri­can surf-and-turf meal that was braised, fer­ment­ed, and light­ly sugared.
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2023 Biden White House State Dinner for South Korea: Yellow-squash Soup; Crab Cakes w/ Slaw (cabbage, kohlrabi, fennel, cucumber) plus Vinaigrette (gochujang, red-chili paste); Braised Beef Short Ribs served with sorghum-glazed Carrots and Butter-bean Grits; Deconstructed Banana Split & Gingersnap-Mint Cookie w/ fermented bean-infused Caramel Sauce


The oldest Chinese diner in Central California is located in the university town of San Luis Obispo. Dishes are $10 without Protein, and served with Fresh Vegetables.
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2022 Menu for Heng Low Noodle House San Luis Obispo Calif.: Choose a protein, a noodle, a sauce. Choose a style: Chop Suey; Chow Mein; Low Mein; Soup Bowl; Salad Bowl


A no-reservations seafood diner with a countertop and 18 stools opend in 1903 San Francisco. Then rumors of a secret menu came to light.
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2016 Secret Menu for Swan Oyster Depot San Francisco: one pound Crabmeat w/ Crabfat & Dijon dressing; sliced raw Scallops dotted w/ Sriracha in a pool of Ponzu; Crabmeat, Prawns, Shrimps, Calamari dressed w/ Louie, served on sourdough or rye; steamed Maine Lobster w/ drawn Butter; sliced salmon, Tuna and Scallops, topped w/ Capers, drizzle of Olive Oil, freshly-cracked Black Pepper; lager w/ Oyster, Lemon Juice, cocktail sauce, Tabasco, Worcestershire, Black Pepper


Last of the Japanese restaurants serving old-world cuisine in San Francisco was located next to the Miyako Hotel. The main dining room had an alcove with shoji-screened booths for tatami-style dining. The fare included dishes found nowhere nearby at that time, like Clear Broths; Vinegared Fish; Beef Tripe; Prepared Monkfish Liver; Fermented Squid; Rice Porridge; Cold Noodle; Chilled Tofu.
c2001 Menu for Takara San Francisco: Clear Broths; Vinegared Fish and Marinaded Vegetables; Beef Steak; Tofu Steak; Grilled Salted Fish; Iron Pot Dinner; Grilled Yellowtail Collar; Savory Egg Custard w/ Chicken; Clams Steamed in Sake; Baked Oyster in Lemon Sauce


Wolfie’s was a 24-hour-a-day diner near the beach.
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c1968 Child Menu: Roast Beef sandwich; large Kosher Frankfurter; fried Shrimp platter; small chopped Steak; Roast Turkey sandwich; Beef Stew plate; junior Salad plate


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-|  November 2024  |-




  BIRTH OF THE CABLE CAR 

Prototype of the final design for San Francisco's cable car.
Beast of Burden
How San Fran­cis­co’s cable car came to be built will re­quire more than one stop on its tell­ing, wend­ing this way and that, and pass­ing land­marks of wealth and waste. 1869 ad for a horse-drawn carriage company.
Before the cable car, the task for get­ting to Nob Hill was rel­e­gated to pay­ing for a ride in a horse-drawn cab. On Octo­ber 11, 1869, this nec­es­sary yet wan­ton civic cruel­ty of us­ing ani­mals as beasts of bur­den changed for the good. The San Fran­cis­co Chron­i­cle had a front page arti­cle on the death of a wretch. It took place when a horse final­ly lost it on Cali­for­nia Street and, throt­tled, dragged down to its death.
Horse-drawn public transportation.
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When Andrew Hal­li­die read this, he paused and paced his in­ner office, re­flect­ing on what if any­thing he could learn from this. Hal­li­die was already pros­pe­rous, although not yet famous. He had in­heri­ted a com­pa­ny from his father. The sen­ior Hal­li­die had inv­ent­ed and then patent­ed a “steel cable”: strands of wire lined up and brai­ded into a rope that was super strong, and proved in­dis­pens­able in the gold fields and gold mines.
1848 ad for gold mining tools.
1872 ad for the Clay St Hill Ralway Co. Hallidie took on a failed con­cern: to build a con­vey­ance cap­a­ble of con­quer­ing the city‘s hills. He bought the Clay Street Hill Rail­way Co., and by May 1873 had built tracks and a cable as­sem­bly up Clay from Ports­mouth Square to Nob Hill, a ver­ti­cal climb of seven blocks.
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1873 cable car ticket.
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Early on August 2 1873, a proto­type was in place and, lantern-lit, Hal­li­die stepped on board. Acti­vat­ing a grip lever on­to a mov­ing cable, he as­cen­ded on that peril-prone mai­den voy­age. Few were awake to wit­ness, yet by open­ing day on Sep­tem­ber 1, the ser­vice was in de­mand. In 1880 over one mil­lion tic­kets were sold.
Locomotive Landmark
The first cable cars were tiny trams pow­ered by a patent­ed grip that alter­nate­ly holds, and releases, a con­tin­u­ous­ly mov­ing steel cable run­ning under the street. Power is sup­plied by huge drums housed at near­by power stations along the route. 1877 photo of dummy and trailer set-up.
The tram oper­a­tor is sta­tioned for­ward of the tram. He em­ploys the grip grabs and holds on to the mov­ing cable, the tram al­so moves. When grip is re­leased, tram stops, even on a hill, us­ing a gear inven­tion pre­vent­ing slip­page. Be­sides the tram oper­a­tor (grip­man) is the con­ductor.
The San Francisco cable car became a state registered landmark in 1877.
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Andrew Smith Halli­die was born on March 17, 1837 in Lon­don, to An­drew Smith (b.1798 Dum­frie­shire, Scot­land) and Julia John­stone (Locker­bie). He died April 24 1900, in San Fran­cis­co. Six years later his cable car system would survive the 1906 Earth­quake.
1880 postcard of a Naples cable car. Cable cars then sprouted world­wide, from New York to Hong Kong. Naples crowned its open­ing by com­mis­sion­ing a song, “Funiculi, Funi­cula.”
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1917 Hallidie Building.
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In 1917, Andrew Smith Hallidie had an inno­va­tive build­ing named for him. The Hal­li­die Build­ing (the architect is Wil­lis Polk) has a facade rising eight stories and sheathed in glass.
City of Cubes
When news of the dis­cov­ery of gold in Cali­for­nia trav­eled back east, the brawn and brains of a young nation came west­ward, where notions of Free­dom waltzed hand-in-glove with great­ness as well as greed. 1848 California Gold Rush.
Accord­ingly, access from the gold mines to San Fran­cisco were sur­veyed. Roads, bridges and tracks were built wher­ever gold was found, with way­sta­tions estab­lished for res­pite and re­cre­ation. The min­ing meth­ods these men brought with them quick­ly evolved to meet the chal­lenges posed by the Com­stock Lode and its trib­u­ta­ries.
Philipp and Mrs Deidesheimer.
 The Deidesheimers
1860 Deidesheimer Square Set drawing.
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The Indus­trial Rev­o­lu­tion cre­a­ted tools used in sci­en­tific pre­ci­sion­ing, al­low­ing in­no­va­ted mod­els to be test­ed and prof­it­ably man­u­fac­tured. Among these ideas was the in­ge­nuous “square set” cre­a­ted by ger­man en­gi­neer Philipp Deide­shei­mer. Grey Brechin picks up the um­bil­i­cal cord:
1860 Deidesheimer Square Set mdel.
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The Square Set intro­duced meth­ods of con­struc­tion. Deide­shei­mer’s gift went from con­struct­ing safe­ty zones to con­duct the back­break­ing busi­ness of min­ing into oth­er uses, in­clud­ing the abil­i­ty of a grid of steel beams and col­umns to al­low sup­port for more height.
1870 Equitable Life Assurance Building NYC. “Sky­scraper” came into usage in the 1880s; Amer­i­ca had fif­teen. These build­ings us­ual­ly came w/ mod­ern plumb­ing, elec­tri­cal out­lets in every room, a tele­phone line in every unit, cen­tral heat­ing, and an ele­vator.
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1870 Jayne Building Philadelphia and 1885 Home Insurance building Chicago. 1990 space elevator
❛ … NASA took a fresh look at the steel cable in light of a super ma­te­rial, car­bon nano­tube ... uber-strong, light and flex­i­ble. “Space Ele­vators: An Ad­vanced Earth-Space Infra­struc­ture for the New Mil­len­ium” is the feas­i­bil­i­ty paper of this new science, to erect a track run­ning on cables, from here to the Moon, a jour­ney of some 62,000 miles.❜ — Meghan Neal, February 28 2014.

Andrew Smith Hallidie 1837-1900
CABLE CAR NOTES
| Based on San Fran­cisco’s Golden Era by Lucius Beebe and Charles Clego (1060); Cable Car Days in San Fran­cisco by Edgar Myron Kahn (1940); The Head­light, March 1947, Western Pacific Club; Imperial San Fran­cisco: Urban Power, Earthly Ruin by Gray Brechin (1999); and on­line articles by Mary Bellis (“The History of Sky­scrapers”), Karen Barss (“Man­hat­tan’s Golden Age of Sky­scrapers”), and Meghan Neal (“Space Ele­vators Are Total­ly Pos­sible”) | A 1959 epi­sode of TV series Bonanza fea­tures a Phil­ipp Dei­de­shei­mer plot point. | Thank you Taryn Ed­wards, MLIS, Mechan­ics’ Institute. | Thank you Penelope Houston, SF Public Library.


 MENU 


Joe and Jill Biden hosted a 2023 state dinner for the President and Mrs Kim of South Korea, marking seven decades of relations. Chef Ed­ward Lee designed a Korean-spiced Ameri­can surf-and-turf meal that was braised, fer­ment­ed, and light­ly sugared.
+
2023 Biden White House State Dinner for South Korea: Yellow-squash Soup; Crab Cakes w/ Slaw (cabbage, kohlrabi, fennel, cucumber) plus Vinaigrette (gochujang, red-chili paste); Braised Beef Short Ribs served with sorghum-glazed Carrots and Butter-bean Grits; Deconstructed Banana Split & Gingersnap-Mint Cookie w/ fermented bean-infused Caramel Sauce


The oldest Chinese diner in Central California is located in the university town of San Luis Obispo. Dishes are $10 without Protein, and served with Fresh Vegetables.
+
2022 Menu for Heng Low Noodle House San Luis Obispo Calif.: Choose a protein, a noodle, a sauce. Choose a style: Chop Suey; Chow Mein; Low Mein; Soup Bowl; Salad Bowl


A no-reservations seafood diner with a countertop and 18 stools opend in 1903 San Francisco. Then rumors of a secret menu came to light.
+
2016 Secret Menu for Swan Oyster Depot San Francisco: one pound Crabmeat w/ Crabfat & Dijon dressing; sliced raw Scallops dotted w/ Sriracha in a pool of Ponzu; Crabmeat, Prawns, Shrimps, Calamari dressed w/ Louie, served on sourdough or rye; steamed Maine Lobster w/ drawn Butter; sliced salmon, Tuna and Scallops, topped w/ Capers, drizzle of Olive Oil, freshly-cracked Black Pepper; lager w/ Oyster, Lemon Juice, cocktail sauce, Tabasco, Worcestershire, Black Pepper


Last of the Japanese restaurants serving old-world cuisine in San Francisco was located next to the Miyako Hotel. The main dining room had an alcove with shoji-screened booths for tatami-style dining. The fare included dishes found nowhere nearby at that time, like Clear Broths; Vinegared Fish; Beef Tripe; Prepared Monkfish Liver; Fermented Squid; Rice Porridge; Cold Noodle; Chilled Tofu.
c2001 Menu for Takara San Francisco: Clear Broths; Vinegared Fish and Marinaded Vegetables; Beef Steak; Tofu Steak; Grilled Salted Fish; Iron Pot Dinner; Grilled Yellowtail Collar; Savory Egg Custard w/ Chicken; Clams Steamed in Sake; Baked Oyster in Lemon Sauce


Wolfie’s was a 24-hour-a-day diner near the beach.
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c1968 Child Menu: Roast Beef sandwich; large Kosher Frankfurter; fried Shrimp platter; small chopped Steak; Roast Turkey sandwich; Beef Stew plate; junior Salad plate


-|  November 2024  |-




  WILD WILD WEST   Wild Wild West
Illustrated w/ collages, drawings, maps, paintings, photographs, prints and quotes

| |  Out west, when 1848 was on­ly twenty-four days old, mechan­ic James Marshall was mak­ing a rou­tine in­spec­tion on the grounds of a saw­mill he man­aged for his em­ploy­er. That was when the New Jer­sey native noticed some odd-look­ing ore in a water chan­nel of the South Fork of the Amer­i­can River. It was “... bright, yet mal­le­a­ble. I then tried it be­tween two rocks, and found that it could be beaten in­to a differ­ent shape, but not broken.”

Robert Frost: Such was  life in the Golden Gate  Gold dusted all we drank and ate And I was one of the children told We all must eat our peck of gold


 | |  Nine days after Marshall emerged from the waters w/ his find, the Treaty of Guada­lupe Hidal­go was signed, trans­fer­ring a large tract of Mex­ico to the United States.  | |  These concurrent events to­geth­er pre­cip­i­ta­ted the Cali­for­nia Gold Rush of 1849, when folks came from all over, bring­ing dreams while pray­ing to the god and god­dess of wealth for a show of “colour”  | |  The first came from Mon­te­rey, San Fran­cis­co, San Jose and So­no­ma: when clerks, doc­tors, labor­ers, law­yers, mechan­ics, ranch­eros left their jobs. Sail­ors de­ser­ted their ships. Soldiers de­ser­ted the Mex­i­can War. As word spread more came from Hawai‘i, Mex­ico and Ore­gon.  | |  Gold seekers showing up near the saw­mill of John August Sut­ter, where gold was first dis­cov­ered, had no need for milled lum­ber, and his busi­ness went into de­cline. All the while, a new settle­ment grew across the Amer­i­can Riv­er to be­come Colo­ma, the first gold rush town. Near­by stands a mon­u­ment, by the Native Sons of the Golden West, to mark the grave of James Wil­son Marshall, the “dis­cov­er­er of gold.”



Westward-Ho!

Panama 1849

One can cross Pan­a­ma to get to Cali­for­nia rather than sail around Cape Horn. Up Chagres riv­er to the town of Cule­bra; then don­keys to Gulf of Pan­a­ma, elev­en miles away.
Maps were consulted and what became the Cali­for­nia Trial be­gan w/ exis­ting routes. Emi­grants showed up along the Mis­sou­ri riv­er and towns in Illi­nois or Iowa. Wagon trains hitched, they head­ed out, cross­ing land­apes of grass­lands, prai­ries, steppes, val­leys and riv­ers to Wyo­ming and Fort Lara­mie. Fort Laramie 1834  | |  The only way to cross the Rock­ies was a cor­ri­dor be­yond Fort Lara­mie, lev­el and broad. South Pass af­ford­ed sev­er­al routes pas­sage to Cali­for­nia. At a fork in the road soon after, the Ore­gon Trail veers right while the Mor­mon Trail turns south to­ward Fort Bridger.

Fort Bridger 1842  | |  Overland travelers chose routes de­pen­dent on start­ing point and final des­ti­na­tion. Oth­er factors were the con­di­tion of their wagons, live­stock, and the avail­ability of water.

Atlantic Ocean 1852
Gold Country 1850  | |  From California, one can get to Ore­gon on the Apple­gate Trail (1846), an alter­native to the haz­ard­ous last leg of the Ore­gon Trail.

 | |  The Oregon Trail be­gins in Mis­sou­ri and leaves ei­ther Fort Leav­en­worth, Inde­pen­dence or Saint Jo­seph for a two thou­sand mile trek to the Ore­gon Ter­ri­tory. Past the Great Plains, then the Rock­ies, head­ing west north­west to the Snake river, Fort Boise, Wit­man Mis­sion, The Dales, Fort Van­cou­ver, the Colum­bia river, and the coast.

The Santa Fe Trail starts off in Mis­sou­ri, rolls through Kan­sas and a cor­ner of Colo­rado. Cross­ing the Arkan­sas river be­fore drop­ping to New Mex­ico, the trail loses its iden­tity some­what in San­ta Fe, where it is braid­ed to the Gila Trail, a local 16th-c. com­merce and trav­el high road, bring­ing trade from in­land to the coast.
 | |  The Mormon Trail, gathers in Illi­nois and wends by Iowa and Nebras­ka be­fore join­ing estab­lished trails in Wyo­ming. To­geth­er they cross the Rock­ies, then the Mor­mon Trail con­tin­ues south south­west to Utah Ter­ri­tory to end up in Los Angeles. Be­sides the over­land­ers there were al­so sea­farers.

O Pioneers! 1849 Cape Horn 1849  | |  An eight-month sea route from New York to San Fran­cis­co would in­volve a haz­ard­ous round­ing of Cape Horn.

Gold Fever


A 49er carries pick­axe, shov­el and pan. Can add a rock­er and a hop­per; some also con­duct hy­draul­ic ex­pe­ri­ments. A water wheel would be jim-dan­dy, to pick up indi­vid­ual quan­ti­ties of gold-bear­ing grav­el and sand.

Gold Mining 1949
49er 1848 Personal gear: pair of blan­kets, fry­ing-pan, flour, salt pork, bran­dy (or other sanc­ti­fy­ing spirit). Field gear must-haves: pick­axe, shovel and pan. Some pro­cure a mule. toolbox  | |  Gold miners w/ no finan­cial back­ing learn to con­gre­gate along moun­tain roads and wait for sup­ply wagons pass­ing through, bring­ing food and tools and carry­ing out gold dust. Satur­day nights were for saloon­ing and carous­ing. Sun­day is a holi­day – laun­dry, tool re­pair, swap­ping stories, writ­ing let­ters, nap­ping.

49ers 1854
gold pan  | |  A twelve inch shal­low sheet-iron pan to rinse soil w/ water and lo­cate the gold. rocker  | |  A rock­er is a rec­tan­gu­lar wood­en box mount­ed on two rock­ers and set at a down­ward angle.
hopper  | |  The hop­per is a box sit­ting on top of the rock­er, lined w/ a sheet of per­for­a­ted iron. Be­neath is an area called the “riddle-box.”
long tom  | |  The long tom is an im­proved rock­er plus hop­per, reach­ing to twen­ty feet in length. A long sheet of per­for­a­ted iron lines the bot­tom and be­neath that iw the riddle-box.
 | |  Women too had gold fev­er, com­ing from Mex­ico, Chile, Peru, Eng­land, France, New York and New Orleans. James Marshall tests his discovery’s quality in Mrs Wimmer’s kettle of boiling soap  | |  Depicted in history as adven­turess, courte­san, har­lot, pick­pocket, pros­ti­tute and the demi­monde, these women were al­so book­keep­ers, cooks, laun­dress­es, shop-keep­ers, maids, wives. When moun­tain roads im­proved suffi­cient­ly to make trav­el be­tween towns feas­i­ble, they set forth as per­form­ers. Golden Girls 1849  | |  Mrs Clappe came west in 1851 w/ her hus­band. In her let­ters home she gives an ac­count of the era, about geol­ogy and a vis­it to a rural doctor’s rude of­fice of pine shin­gles and cot­ton cloth.

City of Gold
saloon chandelier
Sydney Duck “Eng­lish Jim” Stuart was hanged for rob­bery and mur­der on July 11 1851.

San Francisco 1851
Yerba Buena 1847 1848 Yerba Buena was a ham­let on the San Fran­cis­co penin­sula w/ an ex­cel­lent har­bor. The Span­iards es­tab­lished a mari­time trad­ing post and built the Mis­sion of San Fran­cis­co de Asis. Ships dock­ing in its cove dis­charged sea­far­ers to a Span­ish-style pla­za known as Ports­mouth Square. Eureka! 1848
 | |  On arrival gold seek­ers rent­ed lodg­ings in shan­ties and tent towns, and stayed long enough to buy tools and pro­vi­sions be­fore head­ing out.

Sydney Ducks 1848  | |  Brought over from Aus­tra­lia to perform labor, Eng­lish con­victs de­ser­ted en masse and in­stead formed a gang. Soon a fron­tier patch of law­less­ness, Sydney Town, sprout­ed at the base of Tele­graph Hill. The Sydney Ducks preyed on peo­ple and prop­er­ty, aug­men­ted by a gang of lady pick­poc­kets, and wil­ling­ly com­mit­ted mur­der to survive.
Post Office  | |  The embers of Syd­ney Town re­kin­dled and gave birth to the Bar­bary Coast, chock-a-block w/ bars, saloons, broth­els, con­cert halls, dance halls; where “get­ting shang­haied” was first re­hearsed. Sur­vived the 1906 Earth­quake and Fire, by 1917 the red-light dis­trict was no more.

San Francisco 1848 1849 19850 1851 Mint of San Francisco

Gold Mountain
Coloma Valley 1849
Sutter’s Mill on the South Fork of the Amer­i­can River.
Sutters Mill 1848 Coloma, next to Sut­ter’s Mill, was the first gold min­ing town. A post of­fice and jail were add­ed in 1852 – both proved pop­ular. Gold min­ing also took place north at Bid­well’s Bar, Cut Eye Fos­ter’s Bar, Down­ie­ville, Dutch Flat, Good­year’s Bar, Grass Val­ley, Hell­town, Illinois­town, Iowa Hill, Kana­ka Flat, Lousy Level, Marys­ville, Mur­der­ers Bar, Neva­da City, Plu­mas City, Poker Flat, Rough and Ready, Wash­ing­ton, Whis­key Flat, Wis­con­sin Hill, and You Bet.

 | |  Coloma is now a ghost town in­side Marsh­all Gold Dis­cov­ery State His­toric Park.  | |  South at Angels Camp, Chi­nese Camp, Dog­town, Fair Play, Hor­ni­tos, Jack­son, Moke­lum­me Hill, Mor­mon Bar, Raw­hide, Rich Gulch, Shaw’s Flat, Sonora, Vol­cano.
 | |  Gold was found along trib­u­ta­ries to the San Joa­quin and Sac­ra­men­to riv­ers. At Au­burn, Dia­mond Springs, Grizz­ly Flats, Mis­sou­ri Flat, Placer­ville.

Miwok 1851  | |  Home to Native Amer­i­cans incl. the Miwok, the Sier­ra Neva­da was rude­ly af­fect­ed by the Gold Rush. In 1849 an incident oc­curred along the Mid­dle Fork of the Amer­i­can River when some 49ers died and some indi­genes killed. An un­easy truce ob­tained when Native Amer­i­cans were hired on as labor­ers and paid in tin, but by 1900 their pop­u­la­tion had de­clined to only ±16,000.

Hollywood 1935  | |  Be­fore James Cag­ney was the Fris­co Kid and Ed­ward G. Robin­son drama­tized life in the Bar­bary Coast era, there was a 1913 fea­ture, The Last Night of the Bar­bary Coast, now a lost film.
pair of jeans The 1849 state cen­sus count­ed 42,000 over­land­ers and 35,000 sea­far­ers caught up by gold fev­er; to­geth­er w/ 3,000 sail­ors who had deser­ted ships.

Chinatown 1852 Like all who seek a bet­ter to­mor­row, the Chi­nese too came to the Cali­for­nia Gold Rush, formed a fra­tern­i­ty in Colo­ma, squat­ted spent claims and worked as a team over the “tail­ings” left be­hind. In 1880 this gold-min­ing China­town was lost to fire.