ADVENTURES CLOSE TO HOME: The Amador And Calaveras County Fairs

As we all know by now 2020 was the year that most of us would like to forget due in large part to the havoc that COVID-19 caused for everyone in one way or another. Thankfully when the calendar flipped to the year 2021 our daily living routine started to slowly but surely get back to normal. 

Since most people have now gotten the vaccine in one form or another, that means our lives can start to get back to a more normal way of living that existed before we even knew anything about the virus. For us that means being able to get out and about more often to explore new places and things to do in our local area and beyond. 

The first of what is hopefully many more fun adventures that made 2021 more fun than was the Calaveras County Fair in the town of Angels Camp, California. The 2021 Calaveras County Fair was held from May 13 through May 16. 

We went on the first day that the fair was held for a few hours of fun. One of the more interesting sights that we saw as we were driving into town on our way to the fairgrounds was the vast amount of what looked like freshly laundered clothes that were hung on a clothesline. We soon found out some time later that this is a Calaveras County tradition that takes place during the time when the county fair occurs.

After taking in the laundry scene in downtown Angels Camp, we finally arrived a short time after at the county fairgrounds site. After parking our car and buying our tickets, we spent most of the time there walking around checking out some of the fair exhibits and having some corn dogs to eat. We also came across a group of what looked like school kids who were part of a dancing group that we had to wait for to go by us each time we saw them.

While it was nice to experience the usual fun activities that are a part of any county fair, the main attraction of the Calaveras County Fair is seeing the annual jumping frog competition that has become a big part of Calaveras County's history ever since Mark Twain wrote about them in one of his books. 

The annual jumping frog competition is held in an outside open area of the fairgrounds where the participants gather on a stage with their fellow amphibian competitors to determine which frog can jump the farthest. When we were there we got to see a few of these competitors in action. The basic fundamentals of the competition include people placing a frog on the stage and then kneeling down on the ground and using their outdoor voices so to speak to get the frogs to do about 2 to 3 jumps or so. 

We stuck around for about an hour or so to watch the proceedings before we decided to call it a day and head back home from our first county fair experience in 2021.

Our next journey to a 2021 county fair was in July for the Amador County Fair in Plymouth. We had already been to the Amador County Fair a few times before we moved to where we live now so we had a pretty good idea of what there is to do there. After all we had been coming to the Amador County area off and on for many years before. 

The theme for the 2021 edition of the fair was Back In The Saddle Again. This was most likely to poke fun at the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown that forced many of us to stay home during 2020 for health and safety reasons. 

The list of things to do and see at the Amador County Fair include the usual suspects of carnival rides food booths and fair exhibits. A couple of our favorite exhibits in particular there are the outdoor tractor exhibit where you can see and hear a lot of neat old looking tractors and the animal livestock exhibit.

The 2021 fair was also a special one for us when it came to the exhibits area because my mom decided to enter one of her knitted shawls in the fair! After the competition was over we saw that the judges awarded her with a second place ribbon!

There is also a rodeo that takes place each year at the Amador County Fair each year but we didn't go to see it in 2021. When all was said and done the 2021 county fair season in our local area was very fun! We can't wait to see what's in store for the 2022 season!

Tim Musick
Copyright 2022-All Rights Reserved.

   

   

 

CALIFORNIA GOLD RUSH TOWNS: Angels Camp

Henry Angell set up a tent camp along the creek that sort of carries his name today back in 1848, selling supplies to miners along the creek. The placer deposits gave out in a few years but hard rock mining of the gold bearing quartz commenced after that.

The town was named for Henry but dropped the second "L" becoming Angels. It was incorporated in 1912 and eventually had the word "Camp" added to it.

Angels Camp is the only incorporated city in Calaveras County.

While nearby San Andreas is the official county seat, Angels Camp is the real hub of the county. It's arguably the most famous of the Gold Rush towns of California. It was here that a young Samuel Clemens...Mark Twain...heard a story of a frog trained to jump over drinks at a local tavern. Of course, that story became "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County," which was published in The New York Saturday Press in 1865 launching him onto a legendary writing career and starting a local legend of its own.

That tavern is gone but the building remains.

Each May, this is celebrated at the county fair with several days of frog jumping competition at the central stage of the Frogtown fairgrounds on the south end of town.

If you're there at the proper time, you can experience this small county fair in person. The grounds are not as crowded as you'd imagine but it is spread out over a lot of hilly acres. Paved paths will get you to wherever you want to go but there will be some climbing to do.

At the frog jumping stage itself, accessible spots for wheelchairs are down in the front row. There is precious little shade to sit under while watching so a hat or umbrella would come in handy. There are a couple of trees on the hillside, above, where you can watch in the shade but it would take some hard work to get your wheelchair over the grassy elevation to get there.

Other than the frog jumping, it's your typical county fair with exhibit halls, wildly unhealty food, animals, and carnival rides. Something we love to do and it's a nice, inexpensive day out.

During the fair, locals compete to see who can come up with the most interesting lines of laundry and hang them across Main Street as a display.

Outside of the fair, the small and quiet downtown makes for a nice stroll. Numerous trees provide welcome shade and, unlike many other old towns around here, wheelchairs have access to all parts of the sidewalk.

Vendors cater to tourists with many frog related items but most visitors bypass Angels Camp for the more geared-for-tourists Murphys up the road.

Plaques on the sidewalk honor frogs and their "jockeys" with a frog jump walk of fame. Posters in the windows of vacant shops tell the story of the history of the town.

One of our favorite places to eat, the Pickle Porch, slings out some of the best tri tip you'll find but in deli style sandwiches, not hot plates.

My Bar is a fine example of a Gold Country dive bar and a friendly place to get a drink.

The old movie theater has been turned into a multiplex and screens the latest films.

Beyond that, you'll find the usual assortment of antique shops and boutiques and Utica Park at the north end of downtown is a great place to have a picnic. On Fridays during the summer, you can find a farmer's market here.

Outside of the downtown section, you find more modern shopping conveniences like McDonalds, pizza parlors, supermarket, hardware stores and more. It's also a crossroads where you can turn off and cross the Sierras on Ebbetts Pass (highway 4) in the warmer months...the road closes during winter.

Spend a few hours or even overnight in one of the several motels here and you can get a glimpse of what life was like for those early miners and Mark Twain.

Darryl Musick
Copyright 2021 - All Rights Reserved