Dive Deeper into The Gold Coin's History
-
-
-
April 25th, 1863
Abiles sells the Fremont Adobe to Louis Feibush for the amount of $1,000. Feibush has maintained a jewelry and watch repair shop in the building since 1862.
A year later on May 5th, 1864, Louis Feibush sells to the Stahl Brothers for an amount of $1,500. The Stahls open a bakery and coffee saloon and later change to a dry goods store.
-
-
September 1st, 1866.Fire destroys most of the buildings in Mariposa. The Fremont Adobe survives and the damaged portions are rebuilt with fireproof brick.
-
-
-
-
-
From the Mariposa Gazette, February 22nd, 1896:
“There’s a story told about Pete Gordon’s affability to strangers. A Methodist Parson came up to Mariposa some years ago and Pete Gordon scared up a congregation for him. The Parson was grateful and asked Pete what he could do in return. ‘Bring them all down to the saloon after service’ said Pete.”
From the Mariposa Gazette, February 29th, 1896:
“Pete Gordon is having his saloon walls covered with painting in oil. As Pete cannot now get into the mountains as he used to do he is surrounding himself with the counterfeit presentments of mountains, valleys, waterfalls, big trees, etc. indoors. The artist is Cornelius J. Vejer.”
From the Mariposa Gazette, September 5th, 1896:
“Gordon’s Birthday Anniversary
On last Monday evening the sounds of revelry and mirth could be heard coming from the direction of Gordon’s hotel. A peep into the house disclosed a goodly number of convivial souls of the male persuasion indulging in pleasant amusements. Upon investigation the cause we found that sixty-three years ago on the banks of the Hudson River in New York there was borne to the wife of Peter Gordon a son. · These good people having the good of their infant child at heart and desiring to arm him again all temptations took down the old bible from its place of the shelf and after coning in pages in search of a name for the infant fixed upon the name of the great Apostle and called the child Peter.
As years rolled on this boy grew up and the spirit of adventure being apparent he drifted towards California and in the early ’50’s settled in Mariposa, where he has ever since remained. His friends who comprise the entire population of town, hearing (not from Pete, he’s too modest) that Monday way the anniversary of his birthday determined upon celebrating it in a becoming manner and about nine o’clock that evening they invaded his premises and proceed to make merry. Peter was never known to be taken by surprise and proved himself equal to the occasion and ordered champagne for the crowd. A very pleasant couple of hours was spent and at the conclusion all separated wishing Pete many years of happiness and prosperity. ” -
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
After the Gold Coin sits idle and abandoned for over 20 years, Winfred VonDerAhe sells the Gold Coin to Helen Kwalwasser.With a significant investment of time and resources just to make the original structure habitable, Mrs. Kwalwasser begins a complete restoration of the building including retaining Marsha Crawford to restore the three surviving murals on the north and west walls.
During restoration, Mrs. Kwalwasser meets with Linda Halverson and the idea of Bett’s Gold Coin takes root. Linda and and her sister Betty, had long held a dream of opening a “sports tavern.” Betty was lost in a motorcycle accident several years prior but Linda pursues the dream.
Antique Art Direction
A unique and endearing feature of the Gold Coin to the Mariposa community has always been the three surviving murals that are purported to date to 1896, painted during the building’s time as the Gordon Hotel. It is likely that all the murals were painted by one artist as they all exhibit a very similar style and are acknowledged to be created at one time, not incrementally; locally, they are credited to artist Cornelious Vejer, also known as “Con Vega,” who is said to be responsible for other murals around Mariposa during the 1890s.
Largest mural, pre-restoration.
The largest mural is thought to depict the nautical disaster of the HMS Birkenhead which foundered in Danger Point off the coast of South Africa near Gansbaai, Western Cape in 1852, and the origin of the phrase “women and children first.” No direct evidence has been found to confirm both depicted scene and the identity of the artist who painted the mural— if it is a depiction of the HMS Birkenhead sinking, the event had happened forty-some years before and would have been rich artistic fodder for a set of nautically themed murals. Nevertheless, it has been theorized that the work might be attributed to British artist and author Thomas Marie Madawaska Hemy (1852-1937). Hemy was a marine and coastal painter who was actually born on a passenger ship, and in his youth spent several years at sea and survived a shipwreck. Most popular in Hemy’s repertoire was the depiction of the HMS Birkenhead in its final moments titled “Wreck of the Birkenhead.” If a connection to Hemy does exist, it may lie in the inspiration for the mural as a copy or interpretation of Mr. Hemy’s work.
Of the three surviving murals, at least one scene is easily identified; a civil war nautical battle depicts a Union fleet commanded by Rear Admiral David G. Farragut engaged with a Confederate fleet led by Admiral Franklin Buchanan on August 5th, 1864 known as The Battle of Mobile Bay. The mural itself, however, is a reproduction of “An August morning with Farragut; the Battle of Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864.” by artist William Heysham Overend. The battle is said to be the source of Farragut’s now-famous order (in paraphrase), “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!”
-
- An August morning with Farragut; the Battle of Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. by William Heysham Overend
-
- Gold Coin’s mural
After Helen Kwalwasser purchased the Gold Coin in 2007 she undertook the restoration not only of the original structure but also retained artist, restorer, and preservationist Marsha Crawford to bring back the surviving murals. Damage to the murals ranged from a shotgun blast and bullets fired from revolvers during the building’s time as the old saloon, nicks from pool cues and billiard balls, and other associated transgressions over the years.
-
- Marsha Crawford and Helen Kwalwasser after mural restoration.
-
- Post-restoration.
-
- Clipper Ship.
Over time, restoration attempts by laypersons had also been applied over sections of the murals using various paints including household paints applied with wide brushes. Using a process of gently removing layers of these newer paints Ms. Crawford eventually uncovered sections of the original paintings. Portions of the murals that were too far destroyed had to be repainted and all three murals were protectively sealed from the environment.
Mariposa History
Southern Miwok Indians were the first people to call the Mariposa townsite area home; they had lived in the Central California area for untold generations before any Europeans arrived in the Americas. The Mariposa area was said to have been named by a Spanish priest under the direction of explorer, Gabriel Moraga. Moraga was the leader of a 25-man troop that explored central California in 1806. When he and his expedition came upon a creek laced with thousands of yellow butterflies found in the region of Chowchilla, they named the area “Mariposa”— the Spanish word for butterfly.
Juan Bautista Alvarado
In 1844 Juan Bautista Valentín Alvarado y Vallejo was awarded the “Rancho Las Mariposas” Mexican Land Grant by his successor to the Governorship of Alta California Joseph Manuel María Joaquin Micheltorena y Llano. The “Las Mariposas Grant” was a ten square league grant described as being located generally along Mariposa Creek, between the San Joaquin River, Chowchilla River, Merced River, and the Sierra Nevada.
Joseph Manuel María Joaquin Micheltorena y Llano
This is a much bigger area than ten square leagues, and the intent was that Alvarado would select the particular ten square leagues within these boundaries—what has been called a “floating grant.” Alvarado never complied with the usual requirements for a grant due to the Miwok Indians being hostile to the invasion of their longstanding homelands.
John C. Fremont.
From the National Portrait Gallery.
After playing his part in the Bear Flag Revolt in 1846, John C. Fremont, soldier, explorer, and (later) presidential candidate, decided to settle down in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 1847 he sent $3,280 to the U.S. consul to the Territory of California, Thomas O. Larkin, to buy the “Santa Cruz Ranch” near Mission San José. Despite clear instructions, Larkin purchased Rancho Las Mariposas in the southern Sierra Nevada foothills from Juan B. Alvarado— a desolate old land grant in the middle of Miwok territory. To Fremont this was worthless land, over one hundred miles from the nearest settlement, had no farms or ranch lands, and was already inhabited by hostile Indians. Fremont demanded the ranch near Mission San Jose or his money back. Larkin did not act, and from 1847 to 1848 Fremont was in Washington defending himself at a court-martial.
Before Fremont could rectify the mistake he learned that gold had been discovered at Coloma along the American River. Fremont immediately sent a group of Mexican miners, under the direction of Alex Godey, to his newly acquired grant area and shortly thereafter also discovered gold in the Mariposa region by tracing a large vein, a mile long, which they called the “Mother Lode.”
Fremont however, could not solidify his grant boundaries and establish them through the legal means of the day before thousands of miners arrived on the scene; few of the miners acknowledged Fremont’s claim and he was embroiled in a legal battle that would take until 1856 to settle, and 1859 to finalize. Using the vague description of the original Alvarado grant, Fremont “floated” his ten square league rancho from the original claim to cover mineral lands including properties already in the possession of miners. Rancho Las Mariposas took shape along a wide vein that stretched from Mariposa Creek to the Merced River— when the boundaries were surveyed, the grant included Mariposa, Bear Valley, and the Pine Tree and Josephine mine complex.
Fremont never worked the mines himself but preferred to lease the mines to different entities and in 1850 he hired Palmer, Cook & Co., San Francisco bankers, to organize the Mariposa Mining Company.
The town of Mariposa was originally founded as a mining camp on the banks of a seasonal stream known as Agua Fría— this site is located about 6.0 miles to the west of present-day Mariposa. Due to better terrain and the presence of the Mariposa creek (a large producer of placer gold) and after the winter flood of 1849–50, and fires, the town was moved to its present location.
A little local “color.”
During Fremont’s time the basement of the Gold Coin was said to have contained a tunnel that led to the Mariposa Mine and a private jail. Though bars can be seen under the main Structure from the rear, it is unlikely that Fremont ever tried to use it as a jail, even though Fremont was not very popular with many of the residents of the area because of his claim to much of the prime mining area.
Jessie Benton Fremont
From the National Portrait Gallery.
A tunnel between the mine and the office, though not impossible to construct, would have run so deep that it would not have been practical to raise gold from the tunnel to the basement for storage. There are even stories of the building being used as a bordello, but with Jesse Benton Fremont’s background and John C. Fremont’s desire to be elected President of the United States, it is unlikely that they would have been connected to such an operation.
References
The creation of this page and the impact of research on our own appreciation of the building that houses our businesses would not be possible without the writings and collections of others. We humbly acknowledge both unintentional chroniclers and the purposeful historians who made this small presentation of California Gold-rush history, and the history of Mariposa, possible.
A very special thanks to:
Tom Phillips
The Leroy Radanovich Collection
Mariposa Gazette
Sierra Sun Times
Radanovich, Leroy. Mariposa County. Arcadia Publishing, 2005. Google Books, https://books.google.com/books?id=ipkU6j2mLp0C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false
Ogden Hoffman, 1862, Reports of Land Cases Determined in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, Numa Hubert, San Francisco
Hoover, Mildred B.; Rensch, Hero; Rensch, Ethel; Abeloe, William N. (1966). Historic Spots in California. Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-4482-9.
Dale L. Walker, 2003, Eldorado: The California Gold Rush, pp. 256–260. Forge Books, ISBN 978-0-312-87832-0
Newell D. Chamberlain, 1936,The Call of Gold: True Tales on the Gold Road to Yosemite, Gazette Press, Mariposa, California
“José Manuel Micheltorena”. Omnibiography. Retrieved 6 May 2013.
“Governor Juan Alvarado”. City of San Pablo. Archived from the original on 2017-02-01. Retrieved October 18, 2017.
Juan Alvarado, Governor of California, 1836-1842
Turner, Malcolm (1988). Shipwrecks and Salvage in South Africa. C. Struik. p. 72. ISBN 978-0-86977-387-1.
Michener, James A. (21 December 1962). “Adventures of Men and Their Ships”. Life. Vol. 53, no. 25. pp. 96–98.
Mayhew, Athol (1884). “Battle-Painters of the 19th Century: III. W. H. Overend.” The Illustrated Naval and Military Magazine. 1 (3): 189–192.
