Mountain Ranch, California

Calaveras County ( ), officially the County of Calaveras, is a county in both the Gold Country and High Sierra regions of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 45,292. The county seat is San Andreas. Angels Camp is the county's only incorporated city. Calaveras is Spanish for "skulls"; the county was reportedly named for the remains of Native Americans discovered by the Spanish explorer Captain Gabriel Moraga. Calaveras Big Trees State Park, a preserve of giant sequoia trees, is in the county several miles east of the town of Arnold on State Highway 4. Credit for the discovery of giant sequoias there is given to Augustus T. Dowd, a trapper who made the discovery in 1852 while tracking a bear. When the bark from the "Discovery Tree" was removed and taken on tour around the world, the trees became a worldwide sensation and one of the county's first tourist attractions. The uncommon gold telluride mineral calaverite was discovered in the county in 1861 and is named for it. Mark Twain set his story "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" in the county. The county hosts an annual fair and Jumping Frog Jubilee, featuring a frog-jumping contest, to celebrate the association with Twain's story. Each year's winner is commemorated with a brass plaque mounted in the sidewalk of downtown Historic Angels Camp and this feature is known as the Frog Hop of Fame. In 2015, Calaveras County had the highest rate of suicide deaths in the United States, with 49.1 per 100,000 people.

California Cavern is a Limestone cave in the Sierra Nevada foothills, in Cave City, Calaveras County, California. The series of interconnected caverns are one of the earliest officially recorded caves in the Mother Lode region of California. Although one of numerous caves in the Mother Lode region, California Caverns claims the distinction of having the most extensive system of caverns and passageways.

Cave City is an unincorporated community in Calaveras County, California. It lies at an elevation of 1,617 feet (493 m) and is located at 38°12′09″N 120°30′31″W. The community is in ZIP code 95222 and area code 209. Like most communities in Calaveras County, Cave City began as a mining town. It was an important placer gold mining site in the 1850s, and at its peak had hundreds of residents, a hotel, a store, and one of the few schools in Calaveras County. The population quickly declined, and by the 1950s no structures remained. Today it is the location of the California Caverns, the most extensive system of caverns and passageways in the area.

Sheep Ranch (formerly, Sheepranch) is an unincorporated community in Calaveras County, California. It lies at an elevation of 2359 feet (719 m). Sheep Ranch was named after a sheep ranch. Officially listed as "Sheep Ranch", the official post office stamp did at one time read "Sheepranch" (Zip: 95250). One of the very few "free-range" areas in California, there are several hundred freely roaming sheep throughout the town. Sheep Ranch is located approximately halfway between O'Neal Creek and San Antonio Creek on Sheep Ranch Road in the center of Calaveras County.

Calaveritas ("little skulls" in Spanish; formerly, Upper Calaveritas) is an unincorporated community in Calaveras County, California. It sits on the banks of the Calaveritas Creek at an elevation of 1,109 feet (338 m) above sea level and is located at 38°09′29″N 120°36′36″W. The community is in ZIP code 95249 and area code 209. Founded by Mexicans in 1849, the mining camp was relatively successful and by 1853, Calaveritas was well established, with one livery stable, two butcher shops, several general stores, restaurants, saloons, gambling halls, and fandango houses. Notorious bandit Joaquin Murrieta was supposedly a frequent visitor to the latter two. The town reached its peak in 1857, with an estimated population of around 800, the majority being Mexican or Chinese, but on August 3, 1858, a fire destroyed some of the buildings. By this time, the gold production had declined and some of its inhabitants moved to other locales. The town today is registered as California Historical Landmark #255.Early on, the town was called Upper Calaveritas to distinguish it from another settlement Lower Calaveritas about 3.5 miles to the west. Lower Calaveritas has since become abandoned.

Mercer Caverns is a show cave located one mile north of Murphys in Calaveras County California. It is named after the gold prospector Walter J. Mercer who discovered the caves around 1885 and filed a claim. The caverns have a large number of speleothems, stalactites, and stalagmites. It is formed in a marble unit known as the Calaveras Formation. It also contains a large display of aragonite frostwork. The standard tour of the cave descends 160 feet, 208 steps down and 232 up in a traverse between the natural and an artificial entrance. The cave was mapped in 1986 to a length of 3389 feet and a total depth of 192 feet. The map can be viewed on the cave's web site.

The Murphys Hotel in Murphys, California, is one of the oldest hotels still operating in California.First called the Sperry and Perry Hotel, it was opened by James L. Sperry and John Perry on August 20, 1856. The town of Murphys was a popular stopping point along the stagecoach route from Milton to the Calaveras Big Trees. Thought to be fireproof due to its stone construction and iron shutters, the hotel was damaged in the fire of 1859 that destroyed most of the downtown area. However, it was quickly restored and reopened by spring of 1860. The new Sperry and Perry Hotel was considered one of the finest hotels outside of San Francisco, and was host to many famous people over the years. Copies of the original register show such signatures as Mark Twain, John Jacob Astor, Ulysses S. Grant, John Bidwell, Charles Bolles (alias Black Bart), Henry Ward Beecher, Horatio Alger, J.P. Morgan and Thomas Lipton. Renamed the Mitchler Hotel in 1882, and the Murphys Hotel in 1945 by the McKimins family, it has since had several owners. The hotel is registered as California Historical Landmark #267 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NPS-1971000134). Gordon Ramsay's Hotel Hell covered the hotel in an episode of the series, broadcast on September 9, 2014, on the U.S. Fox television network. It also appeared in the public television series Road Trip with Huell Howser episode on the Mother Lode.

Peter L. Traver Building is a historical building in Murphys, California in Calaveras County. The building was built by Peter L. Traver in 1856. The building is the oldest stone building in Murphys. Being made of stone, built with iron shutters and Peter L. Traver Building placing sand on the roof protected the building from the town's many fires. Fire swept through the town in 1859, 1874, and 1893. Peter L. Traver was a gold Rush miner who opened a general store in the building. Traver sold the building to the Manuel Estate Company in 1883. Over the years the building has been a general store, warehouse, a Wells Fargo office, and auto repair garage. From age and lack of repairs, the building was set to be taken down in 1949. Dr. Coke Wood and his wife Ethelyn after hearing this, purchased and restored the building. The descendants of the Woods family have turned the Peter L. Traver Building into the Murphys Old Timers Museum. In 2016 the Museum became a community museum, run by volunteers and supported by donations and gift shop sales. Many in the community have donated artifacts to the Museum about Murphys' gold-rush history. The Peter L. Traver Building is a California Historical Landmark No. 266.

Rail Road Flat (formerly Independence Flat and Railroad Flat) is a census-designated place (CDP) in Calaveras County, California, United States. The population was 475 at the 2010 census, down from 549 at the 2000 census.

Murphys, originally Murphys New Diggings then Murphy's Camp, is an unincorporated village located in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains in Calaveras County, California, United States. The population was 2,213 at the 2010 census, up from 2,061 at the 2000 census. A former gold mining settlement, the main street today is lined with over two dozen wine tasting rooms and surrounded by local vineyards. Nearby attractions include Calaveras Big Trees State Park, Bear Valley Ski Resort and historic Mercer Caverns. The world's largest crystalline gold leaf is displayed just south of town at Ironstone Vineyards. The town also hosts an annual Irish Days parade and street fair every March on Main Street, with some years seeing over 35,000 people in attendance.

Murphys Grammar School is a historic school building in Murphys, California. Built in 1860, the school was the first public school in Murphys. The school was designed in a vernacular Greek Revival style, which was popular at the time of its construction; its design includes a cornice held up by square pilasters, a pedimented gable, and a cupola over the entrance with its own cornice and square pilasters. The school operated continuously from its opening until it closed in 1973; at the time of its closing, it was the longest continuously running school west of the Mississippi River.Albert Abraham Michelson, the first American to win the Nobel Prize in Physics, attended the school.Murphys Grammar School was added to the National Register of Historic Places on June 8, 1973.

Willow Creek is a stream in Calaveras County, California. It was the site of an arson fire in 2016.