July 4, 2019 - Flight West - Day Nine Part II
Approaching the Lake which sits in a crater. Could it be that's why they named it "Crater Lake"? The lake's elevation is 6,178 and the crater rim averages around 8,000 ft.
A little big further counter-clockwise around the crater was the Visitor's Center.
Big Klamath Lake.
Definately farm country.
A good look at Malin Airport (4S7) with a very nice-looking runway. And check out that little radio-controlled airplane runway.
The airport was unattended and there was no FBO. But they did have a self-service fuel pump at a decent price and that was all I needed. In case you are wondering, that little shack with door at left is not a restroom but houses the fuel-pump payment terminal, I guess to keep it out of the weather.
Malin is in Oregon but it is practically on the Oregon-California border.
Departing Malin. The railway tracks are straight as an arrow.
Out to the east is Lassen Peak (10,040 ft).
And the town of Chico. I mention it because my sister went to college here at the California State College and I visited a couple of times.
Passing by Lake Oroville. The huge earthen dam is easily visible from the air.
My destination was Cameron Park, east of Sacramento, but first I wanted to check out one of my favorite places: the Gold Discovery site in Coloma. By air, it's only six miles from Cameron Park.
I found the South Fork of the American River easily enough and followed it east. Having been to the Gold Discovery site at least three times, I knew what I was looking for -- the replica of Sutter's Mill.
It's hard to see but there is a little private grass strip down there, parallel to that road.
And there it is! In the center is the replica of Sutter's Mill. The actually discovery site is 100 feet to the left.
The California Gold Rush began at Sutter's Mill, near Coloma. On January 24, 1848, James W. Marshall, a foreman working for Sacramento pioneer John Sutter, found shiny metal in the tailrace of a lumber mill Marshall was building for Sutter on the American River.
The discovery of gold here was one of the most momentous events in United States history. From the great British historian Paul Johnson:
"Considering the benevolence of its climate, the fertility of its soil, its vast range of obvious natural resources, and San Francisco Bay, 'the most convenient, capacious and safe [harbor] in the world', it is astonishing that the Spanish, then the Mexicans, did so little to make use of them. The Russians had nosed around, though nothing came of it."
"But nothing could beat the original Forty-nine Rush for glamour and riches. In the years 1851-5, California produced over 45 percent of the world's entire output of gold. Until California's gold came on the market, there had been a chronic shortage of specie, especially gold bullion, from which the United States, in particular, had suffered. Until the 1850s in fact there was no true gold standard simply because there was not enough gold to maintain it. Once California gold began to circulate, the development of American capital markets accelerated and the huge expansion of the second half of the century became financially possible."
"The great California gold rush of 1849, attracting as it did adventurers from all over the world, was the first intimation to people everywhere that there was growing up, in the form of the United States, a materialistic phenomenon unique in history, a Promised Land which actually existed."
After the Gold Discovery site, it was a brief hop over to Cameron Park Airport (O61) which is an airport community. I would be staying with a friend, Rob, who lives here. I landed around 7PM.
After landing, I pulled off on the north end and pulled up to a gate which opened automatically. Rob drove up in his truck and I followed him through the community in my plane. Not something I have done before!
Parked in front of Rob's house.
A better look at Rob's house. Not bad, huh?
