Up in rural, northern California, you can find a lot of small cities but none is smaller than Amador City, the smallest (by land size) incorporated city in California at less than a third of a square mile. It's also the second smallest by population at 167, only behind very industrial Vernon in southern California, which has 112 people living there. Of course, Amador City is a gold rush city so that population is down from around 4,000 in those rowdy days.
Here in the Motherlode, the Gold Rush era...from 1849 through 1942...defines the history and character of the towns. Amador City is no exception.
The town's namesake, Jose Maria Amador a rancher from San Ramon, panned for gold a few hundred yards northeast of the current downtown. After the easy gold was mined, Amador went back to his ranch but his name lived on in the town and county named after him.
Near where Amador mined, the Little Amador Mine became the county's first hard-rock mine. On the other side of town, a few smaller mines consolidated into the Keystone Mine. There's a parking lot on the south end of town right up against the ruins of the Keystone. Alas, it's private property so you can't explore it.
The Keystone reached a depth of over half a mile (below sea level) and pulled out over $24,000,000 worth of gold before shutting down in 1942. It's value, now, is an easy place to park to explore this tiny town.
While we can get to most of this town in a wheelchair, we do have to plan it out as not every sidewalk ends in a ramp and some parts are inaccessible.
We'll start across the street from the lot where a large brick building looms on the hill. This is the former administration building for the mine, now an apartment building. In front of that is a more modern and smaller building.
This is the former home of Andrae's Bakery, a legendary place that is former because the owners decided to retire. Now, it is being repurposed as the brewery for Break Even Brewing, Amador County's second brewery (after Amador Brewing Company in Plymouth). While the beer will be made here, it is already being served in their tavern across the street...which we'll get to at the end of this tour.
Going behind the brewery/former bakery (where there are a couple of handicapped parking spots, by the way), look across the way to where the community trash dumpster is for the rusted out street sign letting you know you're on Pig Turd Alley.
Back up front, on the main street, you'll find a smattering of antique shops and...at the end of accessibility on this sidewalk...Small Town Food and Wine. This little restaurant serves small bites and treats for breakfast and a single, rotating dinner special at night. It's very good.
You'll need to backtrack and continue in the street to get to the rest of the block. Traffic is generally very light but do be careful.
Back where you can go back on the sidewalk, you'll see the tiny old fire station with the small siren/bell tower on top. Built in the early 1900's, it was the home of the city's volunteer fire department until 1989 when it merged with next door neighbor Sutter Creek's fire department. It is now a museum.
Now we move across the street where the Imperial Hotel, circa 1878, sits. It also houses a fine dining establishment and bar and is still in business as an inn.
Behind the hotel is the city's cemetery, you can get to it but it's a steep little street to get there.
Past the hotel is a garden center and the town's post office. The building it sits in was the Chichizola Store, the town's general store built in 1877.
Well, it's been 10 minutes and we've reached the end of town on this side, time to cross over.
An accessible crossing will get you to a small paved area over the creek where The End of Nowhere winery cooks up burgers and pizza (depending on the day of the week) along with wine tasting. To get to the tasting room, it's back on the street to the other end of the building where you can access the sidewalk and backtrack to the tasting room entrance.
Back outside, you'll find a couple of more antique shops and boutiques before you go back into the street to continue. We need to go all the way back to the parking lot (about another 100 feet) before we can access the walk with a wheelchair again.
A ramp will take you past the Break Even brewery to the Amador Whitney Museum, which is dedicated to the women of the Gold Rush.
At last, we'll come back to Break Even Brewing to sit on their comfortable patio and try a couple of their brews. You can also order through their Dutch door and sip on your beer at the rail overlooking the street.
We've now had a tour of California's smallest city...all within a block or so of our parking spot.
Darry Musick
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