Georgetown Divide Gold Rush Days September 10th and 11th 2016

Divide Gold Rush Days is coming to Georgetown, Ca 

September 10th and 11th 

from 10:00am to 5:00pm 

The world will come to El Dorado County September 2016 for The 2016 World Gold Panning Championships and Georgetown will host Divide Gold Rush Days September 10 and 11. 

This exciting family friendly event is the kick off to the week’s highlights!  Most Main Street Georgetown events are FREE events.   Georgetown, California was a key player in the Gold Rush.   What an opportunity to step back in time as you find historic Main Street with its rich, historical past and characters as they come to life.   Characters from the 1800’s will stroll along with you, telling their stories, and you can ask them about what life was like during this historic era.

All Nature Area events are FREE events.  Enter the Nature
Area to find the land transformed to have eyes into our past as you see various historical encampments populated with living figures from history consisting of a school house, a miner’s encampment, a Gold Rush tent town, and to top it all off a Maidu Indian Village reflecting the time before the Gold Rush.
 Returning to Georgetown, buy a ticket for a wagon ride shuttle.  What a family memory!  Buffalo  Hill Center will host a wonderful array of historic mining equipment at the outdoor museum.  A truly great photo opportunity for Gold Rush era enthusiasts.

Stamp Mill at Rotary Park Georgetown, CA

                                                                                                            Saturday, September 17th, Rome Valley Vineyards will host a Harvest Moon Dinner, which will be a ticketed event.  www.romevalleyvineyard.com

Bus tours of the new American River Wine and Ag Trail consisting of 2 stops with 4 wineries participating (ticketed event)

Main Street businesses will be hosting events such as book signings with authors who have written historical works detailing our community’s past.   Step into Art on the Divide Gallery and view the rich offerings of its many artists.  The Gallery will have an invitational art exhibit reflecting the Gold Rush, which will culminate during DGRD.   Georgetown Park will host a crafts fair, where you can see fabulous and tasteful arts and crafts, and see the work of our locals (and maybe an alpaca or two!).   Georgetown’s historical stamp mill, at the corner near Georgetown Park, will be providing an exciting display as you view the rock crushing machinery.

What an opportunity as well to see two historical inns located one block apart!  The Georgetown Hotel and the American River Inn are locales where you can stay in the same place where Gold Rush characters bedded down.  Take a drive up Main Street (that turns into Wentworth Springs Road) to the Georgetown Nature Area to find a magical setting of acres of forest, open areas, paths, a real mine, and an amphitheater where you are free to explore and create your own magic. Check it out!     

Stroll the many acres and catch the lyrical tones from the Maidu Village of flutes, drumming and children’s laughter.    Or take another fork in the road that leads to the Amphitheater.  Follow the magical tones of music by Lisa Bond, Thom Bentley, Wesley Murphy, Rough Rider, Keith Little and more!   Along the way you will be treated to Native American dancing and flute by Marion Cole.  Imagine yourself carried away on the back of an eagle as Cliff Habig tells his poetic stories.  Chuck Carroll and Michael Smith will transform the surroundings with their words as they tell poems and stories of the past. 

Local historians Guy Nixon and Ken Deibert will tell you what life was once like during the Gold Rush.  Have a question about the past?  They may have an answer.   Artists and crafters will present their period appropriate wares at the Nature Area.  Check them out and you may find something to add to your collection of memorabilia.  There will be food booths at both Georgetown Park and the Nature Area. 

The Divide Restaurant at Buffalo Hill Center is creating exciting décor to reflect Gold Rush Days, including a water wheel in front of the restaurant.  They will also have some period menu items, and will be serving their meals in gold pans!

What would a Gold Rush celebration be without gold panning?  Of course gold panning will be found at Buffalo Hill Center and for a nominal fee everyone will have an opportunity to try their hand at panning for gold.  You can also take home souvenir gold with the pan you found it in!   How many communities can boast that they have residents whose Gold Rush ancestors were founders of the community?  We do!

At the Buffalo Hill Center you will find Divide families whose history dates back to the Gold Rush.  These families will share their photos and stories.

September 10th:  To top it all off the IOOF Hall will be the locale for a dinner and dancing to the Americana style music of the Random Strangers, where you just can’t sit still.  And the icing on the cake is a special guest appearance by Sourdough Slim, “the last of the Vaudeville Cowboys” with his accordion playing, yodeling and storytelling, he leaves his audiences hooting.  The dinner/show requires purchasing tickets in advance $35/person. Tickets can be purchased at www.DividGoldRushDays.com Divide Gold Rush Days

Last but not least:  During the week of September 11-18th the Georgetown Divide will host additional events.  Use handouts provided to take self-guided walking historical tours around Georgetown and the area.  Take your time as you imagine these buildings and homes in the 1800’s.