Ralph Gibson
Museums Administrator
On February 27th, we had the first Heritage Trail 2020 meeting. It was well attended and within days of that meeting the Heritage Trail calendar was set for the summer, something that usually happens by the first week of May.
But then the world changed.
Shelter in place orders from Placer County and the State quarantined us all at home, except for essential work and travel. Hopefully it won’t be long before some of the restrictions are lifted and people can go back to what they were doing before COVID-19, but it will be a long time before they can go back to how they were doing it. Until there is a vaccine, Social Distancing will likely continue which limits how many people can be in a given space at one time. Our focus is on the health and well-being of our patrons, our volunteers, our staff and the families of all.
Because of this, Heritage Trail 2020 is canceled. In the foreseeable future, museums around the county will remain closed, but their online presence will be much more important. We have completely refocused our interpretive projects from physical exhibits and programs to virtual exhibits and educational programming online. Please visit our website at www.placer.ca.gov/museums to experience the vast content we have produced and will continue to produce into the summer. If your museum has created special online content, please let us know and we’ll post links on our social media pages. Be safe and healthy everyone!
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Rod Moser, PA, PhD
Gold Country Medical History Museum
My Appalachian grandmother, mother of 13, was a self-taught healer of sorts. I can fondly recall her giving me doses of Castoria (a laxative) or Dewitt’s Worm medicine, because I seemed too skinny. Clearly, I needed purging. Constipation was believed to cause all kinds of maladies and derangements, such as delayed puberty, headaches, lung disease, drowsiness, stupor, irritability, and insanity. During the Gold Rush years, many Snake Oil salesman hawked their dubious nostrums and cures from the back of wagons in downtown Auburn. Many of these cure-alls were herbal laxatives, mixed with alcohol.
In the early 1980s, I entered the Most Bizarre Collection Contest sponsored by the Sacramento Bee. I took second prize with my sub-collection of 150 antique laxatives. I was disappointed but had bragging rights as being “number two”.
The Gold Country Medical History Museum is in the restored site of the first hospital in the Gold Country, 1855 at 219 Maple Street, below the Courthouse. The museum is currently closed due to COVID-19, but please call (530) 906-9822 for more information on when we will be re-opening.
Kelsey Monahan
Curator of Archives
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| Frank and Angie |
In the photograph collection of the Placer County Archives and Research Center, there is an image that never fails to grab my attention. It is photograph number A2014.54.2, of Frank Chase and his pet ocelot.
Chase was born in 1872 in Lincoln to Daniel and Mary Ann Chase, and was one of five children. Daniel Chase was a miner and was offered $300 a month, roughly $7,500 today, to take charge of a mine in Venezuela. Unfortunately, he died from a fever only four days after his arrival.
Frank and his siblings were forced to provide for the family, and he went to work in the mines in Nevada County. After finishing school, Frank enlisted with the Nevada County National Guard and fought in the Spanish American War. He rose to the rank of sergeant with Company I, 8th U.S. California Volunteers. During his service, Frank was stationed in Oakland, California; Vancouver, Washington; and the Philippines.
After being honorably discharged from the military in 1899, he returned to Placer County and continued his mining career. He didn’t stay very long, and in 1903 he, along with his brother Bert, went off to work as a Captain at the Darien Gold Mine in Panama. Frank did not enjoy the climate there and suffered from several attacks of “tropical fever.”
After briefly returning once again to Northern California, he was offered a position with the Oriental Consolidated Mining Company, in Japanese-occupied Korea. While aboard the ship on his way to Korea, he ran into old acquaintances from Placer County, George Ford and his daughter Azalea. Frank and Azalea decided to marry, and when the boat docked in Seoul, the U.S. Consul General officiated their wedding. Frank and Azalea would go on to live in Korea for 12 years and have their two children, Ovilla and Ford.
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| Frank's Passport Application |
The Chase family again returned to Placer County, and Frank tried his hand at different businesses, but nothing stuck. In 1929 he was officially appointed a night watchman for the City of Auburn where he served for almost 30 years. While on the police force, one of his most notable successes was when he apprehended a pair of thieves trying to rob the post office.
Frank Chase passed away in 1958 at the age of 85. He was a member of the Masonic Lodge in Seoul, Korea; the Scottish Rite in Sacramento; and the Tahoe Club.
But what about the ocelot?! In 1997 a descendant of Frank’s, Don Costello, remembered his mother’s stories of living with Frank and Azalea – and the ocelot. The ocelot’s name was Angie, and family lore said she lived with the Chase family in the early 1900s in Auburn until the local residents became concerned, and Angie was sent away. To where exactly it was not known.
Sometimes the most interesting photographs can have even more interesting stories behind them!
Kelsey Monahan
Curator of Archives
The caption on this photo in our collection reads: “AUBURN CELEBRATES ARMISTICE – FLU OR NO FLU. November 11, 1918 – CENTRAL SQUARE.”
This photograph in our collection depicts the day when Auburn, and the world, celebrated the end of the First World War on November 11, 1918. This gathering in the streets of Auburn was significant not only because of the occasion but also because of the invisible enemy that was being fought at home- Spanish influenza. This deadly flu killed an estimated 675,000 Americans and changed daily life in Placer County. Ordinances were passed that made wearing masks in public required, and social gatherings canceled.
While parts of this historic time in Placer County is documented through photographs and newspaper articles, we still don’t fully know what life was like then.
Amid the COVID-19 global pandemic, we have the unique opportunity to speak to the future, and document what life is like now in this historic moment.
At Placer County Museums, we value the feelings, experiences, and stories of our communities. We want to help preserve this moment for the future to learn from. Everyone’s life is different, and the way we get through this will be together but also as individuals whose unique experiences offer valuable insight.
Ways you can help:
Keep a journal - Write down your daily reflections. How is the world around you changing, and how does that make you feel? Are you learning a new talent? Are you busier than ever before? Did you have big plans canceled and are having to find a way to deal with that?
Write a letter to the future citizens of Placer County - “Dear Future Reader,” what should they know about your experience during this unprecedented time? With school children home for nearly a month now, I am sure there might be some feelings about how life is going?
Write your memoir - While this moment in time is a big one, this might be a good time to reflect upon your life as a whole and write down your experience. 2020 does not define us but is a part of a bigger picture. Consider putting your life experience into words. As long as you are old enough to read and write, you can make a memoir!
Take Photos - Did you or your family make a mask to wear? Was it out of some fabric you had on hand? Consider taking a selfie or photo and sending it our way!
Record an Interview – Use your phone to record a voice or video interview with a family member or friend. How has daily life changed? How have your experiences been different?
If you have anything you would like to submit for our collection, please fill out the form at the link below. Digital material (mp3s, PDFs, photos, or word documents) can be attached directly to the form. If you wish to donate a physical object, please choose that option on the form. We will be in touch to collect your donation as soon as it is safe to do so.
Click here to submit your material [airtable.com/shroiTm5cw4Eub5ky]
Sharing your stories with us will help us to better document the history of Placer County, and we appreciate your help in this vital work!
Bryanna Ryan
Supervising Curator
Thank you all for letting us bombard you with our emails and new projects as they come out. By now, you are probably pretty familiar with the direction we have been headed but I wanted to share a couple of details about ones that are more behind-the-scenes.
First, a note to say that Jason is our tech-savvy designer who is creating and formatting the pages so that they can look good and function well for viewers. If you like the way they look, the credit for that goes to Jason.
On an Archive side, Kelsey has been busily uploading records onto our data storage system “Preservica” and we are engaged in the slow process of getting the archival records ready for the public to search and download through our website. Deeds, mining claims, photos, and more! That will be a big day for our division.
On a related note, with exhibit projects on pause, Darryl has turned his attention to digitizing our oral history cassettes. There are over 400 oral history interviews in the collection and his work will allow us to get them online. They are already transcribed and indexed so it will be a nice complete set and fascinating record of the history of Placer County. A big thanks to the Placer County Historical Society for recording most of these over the past few decades!
April McDonald-Loomis
President, Placer County Historical Society
“What a long, strange trip it’s been.” The Gratefully Dead certainly said it well, but we are not done with it yet! Because of the pandemic, just about everything has been put on “pause” both for the Historical Society and for most of us personally. About the only excitement for the Society was a contribution we received from a member, who wishes to remain anonymous, for $10,000! We are brain storming (online) about the best way to use this incredible gift. We wish we could publicly thank the person but respect their wishes to remain out of sight, nonetheless, we are so very grateful! If you have any ideas for a big project that we might participate in, please let one of the board members know. We would like to do something significant with this gift.
On the personal level, I have been reading a lot, doing a few jigsaw puzzles, and doing some put-off household chores. We have had some family game nights via “google meet,” that have given us all some laughs especially the trivia game that, unbeknownst to us, originated in New Zealand with lots of New Zealand trivia which, of course, we all failed miserably to answer.
I do hope everyone is keeping busy and staying safe. The museum staff have been doing a great job of reaching out with fun stuff which we all appreciate.
It is membership time for the Society, so if you haven’t sent in your dues, now is the time. The address is P. O. Box 5643, Auburn 95604. Checks might not be cashed right away as I am avoiding the post office as much as possible and the Treasurer is trying to make very few trips to the bank.
We do have a general dinner meeting on the books for June 4th, but it remains to be seen if it will take place. Will be in touch via email, a notice on our website and in the local paper if we can follow through with a large group gathering. We shall see. In the meantime, stay inside, stay safe!
Calendar of Events
Please note that due to COVID-19, many meetings are cancelled or postponed. If you have a question about meetings for a specific historical organization going into May or June, please contact them directly.
Historical Organizations
Colfax Area Historical SocietyJay MacIntyre, President
(530) 346-8599
colfaxhistory.org
Donner Summit Historical Society
Bill Oudegeest
(209) 606-6859
donnersummithistoricalsociety.org
Foresthill Divide Historical Society
Troy Simester
(530) 367-3535
foresthillhistory.org
Fruitvale School Hall Community Association
Mark Fowler
Gold Country Medical History Museum
Lynn Carpenter
(530) 885-1252
Golden Drift Historical Society
Sarah Fugate
(530) 389-2121
Historical Advisory Board
Glenn Vineyard
(916) 747-1961
Joss House Museum and Chinese History Center
Larry Finney
(530) 305-9380
Lincoln Area Archives Museum
Elizabeth Jansen
(916) 645-3800
laamca.org
Loomis Basin Historical Society
Karen Clifford
(916) 663-3871
ppgn.com/loomishistorical.html
Maidu Museum & Historic Site
Kaitlin Kincade
(916) 774-5934
roseville.ca.us/indianmuseum
The Museum of Sierra Ski History and 1960 Winter Olympics
David C. Antonucci
(775) 722-3502
Sierraskimuseum.com
Native Sons of the Golden West Parlor #59
Dave Allen
(530) 878-2878
dsallen59@sbcglobal.net
Newcastle Portuguese Hall Association
Mario Farinha
(530) 269-2412
North Lake Tahoe Historical Society
(530) 583-1762
northtahoemuseums.org
Old Town Auburn Preservation Society
Lynn Carpenter
(530) 885-1252
Placer County Genealogical Society
Toni Rosasco
(530) 888-8036
pcgenes.com
Placer County Historical Society
April McDonald-Loomis
(530) 823-2128
placercountyhistoricalsociety.org
Placer County Museums Docent Guild
Fran Hanson
(530) 878-6990
Rocklin Historical Society
Hank Lohse
(916) 624-3464
rocklinhistory.org
Roseville Fire Museum
Jim Giblin
(916) 538-1809
rosevillefiremueum@gmail.org
Roseville Historical Society
Denise Fiddyment
(916) 773-3003
rosevillehistorical.org
