1816

Previously Unknown Saloon token, Fremont House (#1), Fremont,

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money / Exonumia - Tokens Start Price:100.00 USD Estimated At:200.00 - 800.00 USD
Previously Unknown Saloon token, Fremont House (#1), Fremont,
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Fremont / House // GF 1 drink.

Fremont Hotel and Fremont Saloon Tokens

Fremont, Amador County, about one mile from Drytown.

These tokens are a new discovery. Approximately one each of these tokens have been known for several years, but the location of origin was unknown, other than perhaps the central Mother Lode region of California. Neither token states “California.”

The Fremont mine in Amador County was one of the most productive mines of the county, located centrally along the Mother Lode belt. The site was discovered in the 1850’s, but little is known of the early history (according to Root, 1927). The mine was also known under other names, such as Gover or Fremont Gover.

The mine produced rich pockets of gold along a black slate-diabase contact, where there were quartz veins up to 20 feet wide and 800 feet deep. The ore “contained considerable arsenopyrite.”

In the 1890’s, the mine saw a resurgence of production. Capital was raised for expansion, and soon a large mining camp grew on the site. The Fremont shaft was begun in 1900, and a mill was built in 1903. This is when the biggest boom on the property took place and when there appeared to be a height of activity. By September, 13 houses were erected, along with a 150-bed boarding house and other ancillary living quarters to house mine and mill workers. The Fremont mine site held more than 200 workers–(miners and millmen), and in some cases their wives/family, c 1902-1906. From records extant, it appears there were at least two saloons, both probably inside the boarding houses. One saloon was on the Fremont property, and the other on the Gover, though both mines were operated by Fremont Consolidated GMC. One of the saloon operators, F. Mollenelli, died by suicide when he blew himself up with dynamite in 1915.

The huge bunk house burned down about 1906. The mine operated smoothly until November, 1907, when a mine fire killed 11 people. This fire was one of the worst mine fires in Amador, until the tragic fire of 1922 at the Argonaut when 47 miners died.

See the original plat map showing all the buildings in the mining camp, of which there were about fifty or so. It was not an organized town site, but a typical mining camp, even though it was only a mile from Drytown.
[Fred Holabird]



City: FremontCounty: San FranciscoState: CADate: