Put's Bar, Amador County Ghost Town

The strike at Put's Bar was made by one Putnam, later for many years a resi­g dent of lone. Several hundred men worked here, of which it is chronicled that many of them were Chinese. The bar being immediately below the point at which China Gulch debouches into the Mokelumne, this cannot come as too much of a surprise.

When some of the miners turned to agricultural and horticultural pursuits, they found that the soil of California could be generous indeed. The melons, grapes, peaches, and apricots of the bar were a wonder for miles around.

Its claim to fame can rest upon its possession of the Butler Claim in entire security. In telling the story of the riches of this network of communities around Lancha Plana, the charge of exaggeration can easily be laid.

Of the Butler Claim let us let Mason tell it. Remember, at the time of his writing, many of the actors in the play were very much alive and he had the benefit of personal interviews with them. Here it is verbatim:

"The Butler claim was situated at the foot of the deep gorge, which came out of the mountains and was first owned by a party of Negroes; hence was called the igger Claim. The river was dammed and turned, as usual in river claims. The channel was straight and smooth and offered no holding place for the gold, and all of the party, except Butler, left the Claim. The following year Bultler borrowed five or six hundred dollars of Uncle Pompey, another colored man, and opened the claim a little lower down in a bend, It proved the richest piece of ground ever found in the vicinity, or even in the two counties, being a mass of gravel six or eight feet deep, literally lousy with gold. A day's work with a rocker would produce ten, twenty, thirty, and even fifty thousand dollars. Fred Westmoreland, a cool and sensible person, not liable to be excited, says he frequently saw a milk pan, the ordinary gold pan, heaping full for a day's work, so full that it could not be lifted by the rim without tearing in pieces. Some of the dust, not so rich, was washed in a long tom.

According to Tom Love a hundred dollars worth of dust could be seen following the dirt along the sluice box, the hands who were tending it stealing the dust by the handful. A face or breast was worked on the bed of gravel and the gold showed from the top to the bottom, a distance of six or eight feet. At the bottom, pure dust could be gathered with a spoon. When it was known how immeasurably rich it was a number of men were anxious to have a share. The former partners of Butler were hunted up and induced to sell interests in the claim.

A number of suits were commenced against Butler and some half-dozen or more lawyers engaged to share the proceeds if successful. A receiver was appointed to take charge of the claim, pending the suits. Robert Bennett, known as Bob Bennett, a well known citizen of Lancha Plana was once appointed custodian for a day. In a few pansful of dirt he obtained dust to the amount of two thousand, two hundred dollars, which he, "Damned fool that I was, turned it over to the court. Everybody was taking and keeping all that they could get." It was too much for the old man. He was taken sick with fever and shortly died. It was known by friends that he had some eight thousand dollars in deposit at Mokelumne Hill, as much or more at Sacramento, and also immense sums buried in unknown spots. The public administrator took possession of the property and there was not enough found to pay a few small outstanding debts."

Information, photographs courtesy of the Amador County Archives, The Historical Marker Database, The Chronicling America Database, and Larry Cenotto, Amador County's Historian