Buena Vista, Amador County

Buena Vista Store

The Buena Vista Store once stood in Lancha Plana, which is now under water at Lake Camanche. Lancha Plana, about six miles away on the right bank of the Mokelumne river. That when the town's fortunes ebbed, merchant William Cook looked elsewhere for property and business fortune. That he purchased a site at the historic Buena Vista corners. And that to the site the Chinese of Lancha Plana carried or hauled, stone by stone, Cook's building, and helped him reassemble it.

And that to the site the Chinese of Lancha Plana carried or hauled, stone by stone, Cook's building, and helped him reassemble it. Why did the Chinese undergo such herculean labor? In a bargain struck with Cook, the celestials agreed to move the building if they could mine the ground beneath it. That, in sum, is the legend of the Buena Vista Store.

Early Blacksmith Shop still standing today. Those who owned the business and work as the local Blacksmith included a man named Tull, Richard Russell, partners McFadden and Horton, and the Norris brothers.

The Blacksmith Shop

Information, photographs courtesy of the Amador County Archives, The Historical Marker Database, and the Chronicling America Database