Coincidence or synchronicity may never be known but on a stormy January day, Lisa Redfern happened to be reading a book that came highly recommended from a friend, The Diary of a Forty-Niner. It’s an engaging account of a young gold miner who worked on Rock Creek [North Bloomfield area] between 1850-1852. At the time of the reading, part of the book’s allure, aside from many mentions of well-known Nevada County landmarks, was the unknown element if the book was fact or fiction.
JANUARY 12, 1851 “It’s been raining all the week and the creeks are running bank-full. Over on Deer Creek it drove all the miners out and filled their claims with rock and gravel.” – The Diary of a Forty-Niner by Chauncey L. Canfield
On JANUARY 10, 2017, Lisa hiked down to Deer Creek to capture the images in the video below.
Once Redfern finished reading the book, research commenced. The story behind it, involving the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire, is as interesting as the contents of the book!
