Coloma, CA

I love where we live! Coloma is a quaint little gold mining town that no longer resembles what it did in its hay day of the gold rush...

Coloma in the 1850s

It's right in the middle of Marshall Gold Discovery State Park & pretty quiet most days...

Many of the buildings have been relocated or replicated after the originals have burned down & some just collapsed because the funds aren't available to preserve them.

Like this building...

The old brick Bell Store collapsed late New Year's Eve 2016 & we noticed the bricks crumbled all the way into the middle of the street as we drove home that evening!  This is what it looked like the next day...unfortunately, it will probably stay this way for years to come. That's one less historical remnant left in the park. 

And the rains came down...

The main attraction for us is the river in our back yard. We literally live on the South Fork of the American River. This makes it convenient for our whitewater-loving family to literally launch our boats & kayaks from our backyard.

Our Riverhouse

People often ask us if we worry about flooding? No. We don't. We are quite a bit higher on our side of the river than the Coloma Resort across the river. The width & bend of the river will flood the entire campground completely before it even reaches our back lawn & then it would have to rise an additional 4 feet to reach our back patio. But there have been times that the winter rains give us cause to raise an eyebrow & do quite a bit of damage (debris & erosion) along the river! This was the case this year...

For perspective, here's a photo of the Sutter's Mill marker during normal flow...

...and flooding during the storm...

The sheer force of the water demolished our rock steps down to the water...

Coloma Bridge/Hwy 49

This doesn't happen every year, but it's happened about 3 times since we bought the property. The river really roars during these storms as it rushes by the house & I feel peace...

"Because the river don't talk, the river don't care where you've been, what you've done, why it is you're standing there. It just rolls on  by, whispering' to your soul it's gonna be alright, the river just knows."

Rodney Atkins - The River Just Knows