An entire ghost town in Northern California located in the Sierra foothills has been wiped out by the massive and still blazing Dixie Fire.
Several adventurers from the west have been enticed by Rich Bar in Plumas County that was once a flourishing Gold Rush, with a lake of gold promises.
Last week, the long-abandoned historical landmark was taken over by the 250, 000-acre Dixie Fire. Reports from the San Francisco Chronicle said that the historic buildings in the site were turned into ashes.
The Kellogg House, which lived until the 1970s, was among the buildings devoured by the fire.
The property is positioned above a booming gold camp in the Feather River Canyon. It was established in 1852 with lumber sourced from Rich Bar’s sawmill.
Also among the casualties were the mining outpost, the historic cemetery, as well as the still-standing homesteads.
In the 1850s, the town drew massive success although the lake of gold told by miners is questionable. Like several gold towns in the state, criminality and evil have surrounded the town.
“Upon hearing of the new strike at Rich Bar those in the Middle Fork area packed up their shirts, trousers, pans and cups and struggled northwest across the mountains in search of a dream,” as written in the Feather River Bulletin about the happenings in the 1850s. “They swarmed over the Sierra mountains by the thousands, every color and nationality, and every sort of character, from low-down, thieving, conniving scallywags; to prim, proper, upstanding citizens.”
In its few decades, the local museum said the town got $23 million in gold from the river and ground, after it eventually declined, according to a report by SFGate.
The 1, 200-square foot Kellogg House was bought by Ivan Coffman and Kurt Brock last year with restoration and mining plans in mind. Due to the fire, the new owners are not only facing evacuation orders but an uncertain future as well, the Chronicle reported.
