Angels Camp

• Entrance Page

• Getting Around

• Brief History

• Enjoy a photo Tour

• Living History Days 2000

• Living History Days 1999

  • Final Touches
    
  • Gosh, it's early
    
  • Fabulous Day
    
  • Continues
    

  • The Winners
    

  • The schedule

Business Directory

Kindness

6AM came earlier than usual. I am an early riser and I hit the deck running, I'm usually at work by 6AM. It didn't happen that way on this morning though. I guess that tent construction job was bigger than I thought, I was really dragging. It was also a very important morning for me.

I was raised in a suburb of Los Angeles and I've lived here, in the country atmosphere of the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains since 1982. Until I was an adult I wasn't able to conceive of a town as small as 50,000. Forget having any concept of a town as wonderful as Angels Camp with fewer than 4,000 people.

I worked on a ranch outside of Paso Robles for about 8 months when I was 20 years old. We raised cattle and grew wheat and barley but I've never seen a cattle drive down main street before. The idea of seeing that spurred me on. I knew that my latest schedule said the cattle drive was going to be at 7AM. I had heard a rumor that it was postponed to 7:30AM, so I gave myself a little leeway.

I pulled my car into the parking space at 7:30AM on the dot! There was no sign of cattle but there were a lot of people. I saw a crowd and went to see what was happening. It was the gunfighters posing for pictures. A waitress from Sue's Angels Creek Cafe was taking pictures for the Ledger Dispatch. There was also a photographer from the Sonora Newspaper.

I thoroughly enjoyed the picture taking. I handed my card to several people who were taking pictures and asked them to share if the mood strikes them. I'd like to have pictures of the event but alas as you've read elsewhere here, I'm not a photographer. Hopefully, someone will share and your experience here will be enhanced. If you have pictures that will enhance the story please send an email to the webguy.

Just before 8:30AM the cattle arrived. The cattle started at Perko's Cafe, and came the 2 or 3 miles through the historic district. It was worth getting up and racing into town. If you missed it this year, you'll have to hope that Whittles Ranch wants to do it again. If they do I'll be there, it was fun.

Rick Shackley and I made one last tour of the celebration to be sure that there was enough help at each of the events. That done it was time to enjoy!

Go on to read about a fabulous day Click here