Travels with Stanley: Georgetown, California
Mom (a.k.a. Grams) told me two weeks ago that my nephew Cameron had sent something to me in the mail, but Stanley just arrived today. I believe Flat Stanley had something of an adventure just getting to me!
Before coming out to my place, Stanley spent several extra days in Georgetown, which is the closest town to my home, being about nine miles away and a thousand feet lower in altitude, where there is much less snow. There was an enormous snowstorm here, and Volcanoville, in El Dorado National Forest where my house is, was completely snowed in! I think Stanley enjoyed his sojourn in Georgetown, because he arrived at my place with great color and a very happy grin on his face. We may never know what kind of trouble he may have gotten himself into down in town!
Georgetown is an interesting little town of less than a thousand people. It was originally founded as “George’s Town” when gold was discovered in 1849.
Back then, the town was also commonly known by miners and locals as Growlersburg. Today people say that is because gold pans were said to “growl” with all the gold nuggets discovered in every pan of gold. That story appears to have been fabricated by a public relations person in 1948, though, because older miner stories say that a small cluster of miners’ canvas hovels a quarter mile or so beyond Georgetown is the source of the slang name for Georgetown. It was one of the least hospitable areas around, and was slightly separated from Georgetown itself by a gully. The miners who lived there griped so frequently and so vociferously about the area, that it came to be called “Growler’s Gulch” and the cluster of shacks was referred to as “Growlersburg.”
I’m told there is still gold to be found on my property, so maybe someday you can visit and go hunting for gold in my woods!
I’m sure Stanley saw some neat old photographs, like this one from 1910, in the bookstore showing how Georgetown looked way back when . . . it still looks pretty much the same except now there’s a stop sign and a gas station, and the houses are more fire-proof.
The entire town has actually burned to the ground, twice!
Stanley also probably had some great pizza and enjoyed the covered wooden sidewalk and old saloon (just like in an Old West movie) on his way to hang out at the firehouse.
Georgetown has a really cool firehouse with two great big fire trucks and two little ones, since there are forest fires every summer. Georgetown also has a classic 1940s fire truck (pictured here) that’s just a beaut of a vehicle, they keep it so clean.
Did you know we actually have firefighters come in from as far away as Colorado during fire season? Sometimes they even “jump” into the fire, leaping out of helicopters to get into areas that can’t be reached by truck or on foot. The land is very steep and wooded. I actually have ropes at certain points on my property for getting up and down the slopes!
I took a photo of Stanley soon after he arrived at my house this afternoon. Can you see him in the photo? He’s on the wall of the house, right next to the address number – 2640. Stanley wanted you to see how much snow there still is, even though it’s been melting for two days now and is about half as high as before he got here.
We’ll be going into town this week and maybe start on my next RV journey, so Stanley may stay with me a little longer than the one week requested.