The Junction House was a huge frame structure, a solidly built hotel and residential landmark two miles east of Auburn, designating the spot where the stagecoach road forked to either the mining communities of Illinoistown and the Gold Run, Dutch Flat area or to Yankee Jim’s and other settlements on the Forest Hill Divide. Much of the original hotel was destroyed by fire in the late 1800's. After the front portion of the building was reconstructed, it served as a residence until December 1966, when the Gordon Hamilton family was forced to move out to make way for the freeway expansion. When the huge bulldozer smashed through the sides of the Junction House on that sad day in January 1967, an important part of local history was lost.
The old section of the stage-stop-hotel was constructed more than one hundred and thirty years ago. The kitchen, back porch, and large stone cellar with walls of native rock more than a foot thick, all were part of the original hotel. . . .A very reliable well supplied water to the house. It was located beneath a high tank tower in the back yard. In the early days there was also a small shed covering the crystal clear spring in the south-west corner of the front yard, where many stagecoach passengers and passing miners stopped to refresh themselves with a cold drink. This spring was also the source of water for the Freeman Hotel in Auburn until 1967 when the freeway was constructed. . . .this was all demolished–pushed into the basement and burned. Gone but not forgotten were the memories of the old stage stop, the confusion created by the Placer Pirate, Rattlesnake Dick, who died on the grounds of the Junction House, or the memories of the soft-spoken Mary Fee Shannon, known as “Eulalie”, California’s first published women poet.
Eulalie moved into the Junction House upon arriving from Ohio in March of 1854. There, on the ridge of the American River Canyon, she composed her poetry, talked to the miners, and then died there nine months later during childbirth. Years later, the house passed into the hands of the Burtscher family. It then became the hub of the fruit industry around Bowman.
An article in the Auburn Journal of April 20, 1934 tells that Eulalie gave a copy of her book, “Buds, Blossoms and Leaves”, to a good friend. . .the book was published in Cincinnati, Ohio, . . there was no publishing house available in California at the time. . . .
The Placer County Historical Society’s Landmark Committee, dedicated a maker at the approximate spot of the Junction House to commemorate that place and “Eulalie”. It is located in the southwest corner of the Raley’s parking lot off East LincolnWay.