OPHIR MEMORIES (From Ophir "Once Upon a Town"
The Board Walk, 1903 as remembered by Lloyd Geraldson.
Picture courtesty of Chris Vicencio.
Recollections of former Ophir Resident, and former Placer County Assessor, Lloyd Geraldson when he was a child living in Ophir. ( Interviewed in 1988)
"It remember I would hear the quitting time whistles start to blow at the Oro Fino Mine, then continue across the ridge to the Three Stars Mine to the west, lasting for 3 or 4 minutes. I guess each had a different time on their Ingersol watch.
I would go down to the Auburn Ravine to the Julian Vicencio corral to watch the cowboys break horses, near the corner of Bald Hill and Sunset, when I was 5 or 6, climbing up on the wooden railings.
The only big band Auburn had at the time was the Auburn Concert Band. Mostly Ophir men were in it. Two of the original band members and the most active in keeping the band going were Ernest and Asa Jones, clarinetists, George and Vic Johnson played alto horn and Amil Mundt played the trombone. I began playing drums when Vic Johnson left. . .and later I formed a group called "Sierra Serenaders with my brother Lawrence, George Smith and Bert Jull.
To the west of the Historical marker for Ophir and down stream, there used to be a suspension bridge and just below that a community hall used for meetings and dances, etc. This later became the Ophir Orchard Company. Beside the building was a tall iron post with a kind of cage enclosure on the top where a pitch pine knot was placed and lit to provide light outside. Us kids were kept busy looking for these pine knots.
. . .There was a lot of malaria from mosquitos breeding in the prospector holes when they filled with rain water. Around 1910, the SP brought a tank car of crude oil and the farmers took barrels and filled the holes with oil. . .
( In an unpublished part of his interview, Lloyd mentioned that there used to
be a board walk in the main area of Ophir.)
According to Daisy Folsom, a long time resident at 178 Tennis Way, the name Tennis Way was derived from the tennis court that was located on parcel 40, Block 154, Book 2. This parcel is located at the south-east corner of Hillmont Avenue and Tennis Way, and belonged to the Auburn Hotel.
Karen Locher, 155 Hillmont Avenue, who used to live on Tennis Way, advises that there used to be caves dug into the high dirt bank on the south side of the tennis courts, parcel 40. She doesn't know who dug the caves but she does remember that local resident used to go into the caves for sand.
When parcel 40 was widened, the caves were dug away. There are now 3 rental cabins on the Ludwig property, 102 Hillmont, on top of that high dirt bank.
Chinatown, Newcastle near where I80 is now.
The Chinese Tong war reached Placer County last Saturday night and two were killed and three wounded in the Newcastle Chinatown.
The two killed, Wong Hai and Wong Poo, were members of the Bing Kong tong and it is believed they were killed by members of the Hop Sing tong. The other three are at the County Hospital and it is said that they were not members of either tong. Their names are Wah Boy, Wong Eng, both shot in the back.
Bert Lyons was in the room at the time, sitting alone at a table playing solitaire, with his back towards the door. Wong Hai and Wong Poo and the three other Chinamen were at another table playing a domino game. According to Lyons the shooting occurred about 8:30pm. The Hop Sing men supposedly four in number, entered the door and began shooting at once. After the shooting they backed out of the door, and made their escape in an automobile, going in the direction of Lincoln and Marysville.
Coroner Hislop took charge of the bodies and Sheriff Gum and his deputies are on the trail of the murderers.