As you know from earlier posts, this was our copper anniversary. What you, and my husband, didn’t know, was that part of my gift to him this year was an overnight trip to historic Copperopolis, home of the copper rush in California, staying at the gorgeous Saddle Creek resort. Yes, there was a copper rush in California, and indeed it was extremely important. At one point in time, Copperopolis supplied a majority of the copper needed for the Civil War, in fact.

I’d booked us a bungalow at Saddle Creek – a golfing resort next door to Copperopolis. No, we don’t golf, but that doesn’t matter. Saddle Creek is absolutely amazing in its own right.

These were the views from the sitting area right outside our bungalow door:

And if those don’t convince you that we were just this side of heaven, check out these – taken just outside our door near sunset:

The public areas of Saddle Creek are amazing too! Here is the lodge:

Here’s a view of our room:

And this is Reid, the bungalow manager, bringing cookies to our room as part of our turndown service! How awesome is that?! In fact, Reid, and all of the staff at Saddle Creek, were just wonderful, and so helpful! They really made this such a wonderful experience from start to finish!:

I should also mention that the restaurant was excellent – and the prices very reasonable for what you get. Nice atmosphere, excellent food – decent prices. What more could you ask for?

Now, let’s turn our attention to Copperopolis proper. Copperopolis, as I mentioned, is where the copper rush started in California. As it turns out, the good citizens of Calaveras County, where Copperopolis was eventually founded, called all that red stuff in the ground “iron rust”. They had no idea that it was copper ore. It wasn’t until one Hiram Hughes happened by, and noticed the similarity to similar ore lodes in Nevada with which he was familiar, that the fact that the area was rich in copper became known. Hughes staked a claim (named the Napoleon claim, for his son, William Napoleon Bonaparte Hughes (yes, really), and the rush was on.

Copperopolis, originally called “Copper Canyon”, and then changed to Copperopolis a year or so later, went from a copper claim on a hill to a booming mining town. During the civil war Copperopolis supplied a majority of copper for the war effort.

All that is left now is a few of the original buildings – the church, the armory (now used as the Copperopolis community center), and the Copper Consolidated Mining Company Office (now home to an olive oil company and the Copperopolis Internet company).

The folks are really friendly – in fact they were having a town crab feed in the Armory when we happened by, and they came out and invited us in to join them!

Here are some pictures from historic Copperopolis:

There is an excellent page on the history of Copperopolis here.