Michigan Bluff had Everything... wealth, hardships, commerce, color, flavor, ...everything, except for a going concern.

Thousands of prospectors flooded into California from 1849 to 1852. Explorations for easier and better routes to the goldfields lead the prospectors to push new trails and wagon roads through the Sierra Nevada. After the "placers" (pure gold nuggets) along the rivers and streams were panned out, the miners moved up the canyons and began drift and hydraulic mining.

Settlements of varied sizes developed in the major mining areas. These communities of tents were built overnight. If the mines in the area were rich, a more permanent settlement with wood buildings was built. But if the mines were poor, the miners literally "pulled up stakes" and moved on. Most of the mining towns were located in remote, mountainous terrain along the canyons of the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. The hundreds of mining communities were connected by a web of trails and wagon roads up and down the steep canyons.

High upon the brow of the Middle Fork and El Dorado Canyons, some two thousand feet above their respective rivers, clinging to its steep slopes is a quiet little ghost town with its great days behind it, Michigan Bluff. At one time its mines shipped out $100,000.00 in gold each month.

Blasting, washing, and sluicing for gold had devastating effect, as the face of the countryside changed. What might have taken centuries to accomplish by natural erosion was produced in a very few years. Soil to a depth of 150 feet was washed from acres of land, using high-pressure water, leaving only bedrock exposed. Slopes stripped of trees and chaparral then became subject to accererated erosion and landslides. The miners, as they continued to wash the ancient river channel, found their city above on the canyon edge beginning to move. Michigan City began to settle and slip, threatening to precipitate the town into the abyss. In 1859 the city was moved to its present site.

Between 1849 and 1850, mining camps located along the present-day Foresthill Divide were difficult to reach by foot, or by wagon. By 1851, the business communities of Michigan City (later Michigan Bluff), Deadwood, and Last Chance, were doing well, and the population was increasing, as was gold production. Many of the camps such as Deadwood and Last Chance could only be reached by foot, pack trains, or by horseback along a precipitous trail. Millions of dollars in value and several tons in weight of gold were packed out by mule trains over many years along the Michigan Bluff to Last Chance trail.

The Michigan Bluff to Last Chance section of the Western States Trail was built in 1850 and later became a maintained toll-trail, perhaps one of only a few toll-trails in the state. Toll price for people walking the trail was 25 cents.

While stages and mail service operated along the newly established roads, perhaps, of more importance were the freighters who supplied the camps with foodstuffs, clothing, mining tools, medicine, and many other supplies. During the early 1850's most camps were dependent upon the local freight companies, particularly during the winter months, when access in and out of the camps was more difficult. Supplies were brought in by large pack-trains of mules, rather than by wagons.

Miners along the Foresthill Divide were particularly dependent upon the mules and the muleteers, because of the rugged access to many of the camps. As early as 1850 pack-trains carried supplies over what later became known as the Michigan Bluff-Last Chance Trail, which connected the mining camps of Michigan Bluff, Deadwood, and Last Chance. Certainly by 1852-53 this trail was in full use and cut in half the time it took to reach Deadwood and Last Chance compared to the route along the Foresthill Divide and Placer County Emigrant Road to the North.

The late Bill Ellsworth, during his retirement years, told of leading a pack-train one summer for Alfred Dixon's General Store from Michigan Bluff to Last Chance six days a week to deliver supplies and mail when he was a healthy, robust lad of 16. He stated,

"I got up at 4 o'clock in the mornin', went over and harnessed up 8 or 10 mules and led them around to the loading dock. Then I went home for breakfast - - 'twas usually flapjacks. By time I'd eaten, the mules were loaded and we'd start down the trail (toward Deadwood). Usually had a few stops along the way. Left mail at Deadwood, and there were always things for the Red Star and the Home Ticket (mines). I'd leave the mule train by the Post Office in Last Chance and go across to the Hotel for dinner - - in those days the noon meal was called dinner, and it was generally about 1 o'clock.

"Well now, while I was eatin', someone would load up whatever was to go back, and home we'd go. When we got back to the barn (at Michigan Bluff) I'd have to unhitch them all and see to it they were fed and watered. Soon as I got home, I'd have some supper and fall into bed. Next mornin' I'd get up at 4 o'clock and do it all over again.

"Course, in those days, come late Saturday afternoon, someone would come walking down the street, ringing a bell and calling 'Come one, come all to a dance at the Phoenix Hall and by golly, don't recollect I ever missed a dance!"

Michigan Bluff's name and fame are preserved today largely because of Leland Stanford and the journey he made by foot along the divide route from Auburn through Foresthill. Stanford, poor as a parson, came to Michigan Bluff, then Michigan City, in 1852 to first mine in Poor Man's Canyon where his efforts found enough gold to cash in and buy building supplies and, later, opened a general merchandise store and began serving as a justice of the peace, when the camp boasted only half a dozen houses, a few tents, and perhaps forty or fifty inhabitants.

Stanford left town in the fall of 1855 to take over the store of Stanford Brothers in Sacramento, to become associated with the likes of Huntington, Crocker and Hopkins in building the first transcontinental railroad, to become the Governor and later a U.S. Senator, to found and endow the Leland Stanford Junior University, and to die in the so-called odor of sanctity.

Michigan Bluff had its troubles. Flumed water cost so much, and the supply was so uncertain, that mining profits were sadly depleted. Then in July of 1857, fire destroyed the town. One hundred and fifty buildings in the main section of town were burned to the ground.

Still there was gold. The fire damage did not stop the mining activities and the need to rebuild. Michigan Bluff was rebuilt upon its ashes. Homes and businesses were again built on the same site. Iron pipes superseded the flumes. The monitors tore at the bluff with force. Hydraulic mining and tunneling near the city began to undermine the buildings. By 1861 many of the businesses and homes were moved to the northern site where the town is presently located.

A Placer Herald correspondent once wrote,
"The town was well supplied with all of the comforts and luxuries of life. Lawyers and doctors are legion, and... good evidence of the prosperity of the town and its society, [is] the fact that some 30 or 40 respectable ladies reside there. Also, there is a very flourishing lodge of Oddfellows, and... the Masons will soon be represented with one."

Hydraulic mining continued and during the 1860's and 70's as the town was one of the most prosperous centers on the Foresthill Divide. By 1880 the numerous smaller claims had been bought up by the owners of the Big Gun Mine, and then, in 1883, came the Anti-Debris Act and the cessation of hydraulic activities. The town never got its life back again. As the mines dried up the population declined. The post office that had opened in February of 1854 was closed and moved to Foresthill in March of 1943.

The decline of Michigan Bluff followed quickly. Today little of its former prosperity is apparent. Shaded by old locust and fruit trees, the tiny hamlet of a few dozen people still clings to the mountainside. Some of the old frame houses are empty and rotting on their foundations, while others have been attractively renovated.

One such renovation is the Bonny Stone Cellar that served as a bar and restaurant in the early to mid 1900's in a sturdy structure built of native stone many years ago. Before then the building provided security and safety of miners' discoveries where gold dust was exchanged for dollars and gold was tested as it was a Wells Fargo & Co. assay building. Now days, the owner, Alice Hall, has restored, renovated and remodeled the building to a unique style home, with the big, wonderful iron shutters.

Besides the great old stories of gold seeking 49'ers, what does remain constant in Michigan Bluff is the beautiful unmatched panorama views of the surrounding snow-capped Sierra Nevada Mountains and distant slopes, the coarse lawns of dark-green trees of the American River and neighboring canyons. Beyond are the billowing foothills diminishing into a western skyline of their own. In fact, at just the right time of day you can see the Pacific Ocean out to the West when the sun hits it just right, just a shimmer.

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