COLOMA: WHERE THE '49ERS' STAMPEDE FOR RICHES BEGAN.

Byline: Susanne Hopkins Daily News Travel Editor

I saw the smoke billowing over the mountains miles before I reached Coloma.

Panic set in as I sped on Highway 49 toward the tiny town nestled against the south fork of the American River in central California. Was this historic town, where gold was discovered in 1848, burning down? Was gold discoverer James Marshall's cabin going up in flames? How about the replica of Sutter's Mill?

My anxiety was not diminished by the sight of several fire trucks parked in the parking lot near the huge, bronze monument to James Marshall that was erected over his gravesite in 1889. The gray smoke clouded the sky, swelling up from the 1-1/2-mile Monument Loop Hike, a trail that winds down from the hilltop to the village, past Marshall's cabin, a Catholic cemetery and St. John's Catholic Church.

I jumped back in the car and followed Highway 49 to the Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park Visitors Center.

``Is James Marshall's cabin burning down?'' I anxiously asked the park ranger at the desk.

He smiled. ``Not yet. We're just having a prescribed burn.''

I sighed in relief. California would lose a vital part of its history were Coloma to be ravaged by fire. This is, after all, where it all started. On a January day in 1848, James Marshall knelt by the American River, peering at two small specks - smaller than a pea - of gold glittering in the water. ``Hey, boys!'' he called out to the other workers at John Sutter's sawmill. ``I think I've found a gold mine!''

It was a shout heard 'round the world. Before the year was out, thousands of people had come to California, lured by hopes of easy fortune. Between 1848 and 1850, California's population - not including the original American Indian inhabitants - ballooned from 2,000 to more than 100,000. And the flood of people to the Golden State has not abated since.

Coloma, however, swiftly declined in popularity as other, richer gold strikes were made. By 1851, it was dubbed ``the dullest mining town in the whole country.''

Now, almost three-quarters of the small village that lies between Auburn and Placerville on Highway 49 is within the boundaries of Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park. And, while not as complete a town as its sister state park of Columbia to the south, Coloma still has the power to transport visitors back to the era of the Gold Rush.

It sits on the banks of the American River, a peaceful place these days even though Highway 49 (Main Street here) slices right through the park. Original and reconstructed structures of stone and wood flank the road, some standing in the shade of locust and catalpa trees. Sites of others, such as the Toll House, Express Office and Coloma Breweries, are noted by markers.

Visitors have a choice of four self-guided walking tours. The one-third-mile Discovery Tour takes about 45 minutes and winds around an area that includes Sutter's Sawmill, a reconstruction based on Marshall's own sketches; the lagoon where gold was discovered; the stone Wah Hop Store that dates to 1858 and now mirrors a typical Chinese general store of the day with its altar for paying respects to ancestors, its herb drawers and display of such things as letters, mining tools, Chinese coins, shoes and hats; and the Gold Discovery Museum at the visitors center.

The Monument Loop Hike is a little more strenuous, since it marches 1-1/2 miles up the hill to the Marshall Monument, past the stone ruins of the El Dorado County Jail, Marshall's Cabin, where he lived after the gold discovery, and the Noteware-Thomas House, which has been restored and is periodically open for tours.

The Town Tour is just a half-mile along Main Street, past the buildings and the markers, while the Cemetery & Winery tour leads one just an eighth of a mile to the old Pioneer Cemetery where the remains of more than 600 pioneers are buried, and the ruins of the Coloma Winery, from which wine started flowing in the 1870s.

I started my tour - a blend of the Discovery and Town tours - at the visitors center. Exhibits at the museum here detail the discovery of gold, complete with a room dedicated to the original sawmill timbers found in 1921. A short, engrossing film on Coloma set the stage for my wanderings. I roamed through the parklike setting to a cabin that once housed a contingent of Mormons who worked at the mill; the crude table and benches bespeak a plain, uncomfortable lifestyle.

I peered into the Wah Hop Store and its neighboring Man Lee Co. stone building, which now houses an exhibit showing the techniques of gold-mining. But it's the timbered replica of the sawmill that captured my imagination. Today, the American River rolls placidly by and a gentle breeze rustles the trees, but 148 years ago, there must have been a cacophony of noise as workers tended to business, trying to finish construction on the partially done mill. And even though the current reconstructed mill had to be situated away from the original mill's location because the American River has since changed its course, the sense of history remains.

An open carriage pulled by a placid, easy-striding horse carried a few smiling visitors along the road. They appeared oblivious to the smoky atmosphere; not so the woman attired in period dress standing on the porch of the small gunsmith's shop.

``I'm looking at how far down that prescribed burn came,'' she said, staring across the street to the picnic area at the base of Monroe Ridge where grimy firefighters relaxed.

I followed her gaze. Just where the slope evened out, the blackened earth ended - a little too close for comfort when you work in an old, wooden structure - particularly a historic one. The gunsmith shop opened in 1849, stocked with a collection of Colt and Allen revolvers brought from New York by a man named Bekeart. Gunsmithing is still practiced here, though mostly for tourists now.

Across from the gunsmith shop, I wandered into the tinsmith's. Bright punched copper and shiny tin candleholders, tin cups, lamp shades and recipe card holders rested on tables and hung on the walls and from the ceiling of the snug shop.

Jerrie V. Shannon runs the small shop. She is, she believes, California's only woman tinsmith. ``It's the modern version of tinsmithing,'' said Shannon, who started out as a sheet-metal worker. ``It's one of the last trades that fabricates everything (from start to finish).''

Shannon has run the store for more than five years now, and while it doesn't bring in riches (she supplements her income by demonstrating tinsmithing at county and state fairs), she loves it. She works in a minuscule space at the rear of the shop outfitted with a variety of well-used tools.

As I watched, apprentice Diana Wood demonstrated fluting. She took a small sheet of tin, slid it into a crimping machine and swiftly spun out a fluted plate that one day might form the base of a candleholder or become its reflector plate.

It's a peek into a trade that once was commonplace (all those gold pans had to come from somewhere) and is now obscure.

And that is, I thought, the value of places such as Coloma. We can't lose sight of where we were as a state and a nation as long as we can visit places where the past is brought into the present.

On Location

Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park is on Highway 49 in Coloma, eight miles north of Placerville and 20 miles south of Auburn.

Day use of the park costs $5; the visitors center is open daily from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. during fall and winter months, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. the rest of the year; the park is open until dusk.

Demonstrations are featured periodically at the blacksmith shop, which dates to the turn of the century, the tinsmith shop and even the schoolhouse (a replica of one in use in the 1920s). At 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, there's a sawmill demonstration.

Visitors can take advantage of hiking trails and picnic facilities in the 275-acre park. And they can even try their hand at gold panning, either in a sluice box on Main Street or in the Pleasant Flat area across Mount Murphy bridge. Picks and shovels are not allowed, just hands and gold pans. People can supply their own pans and gold vials, which can also be purchased within the park.

The visitors center has a pamphlet available on panning for gold, as well as brochures on other sites and activities in the park.

Information: [phone].

CAPTION(S):

3 Photos, Box

Photo: (1--Color) Visitors to Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park can peer into the cabin where gold discoverer James Marshall lived in Coloma.

Roger Vargo/Daily News

(2--Color) A replica of Sutter's Mill is the hallmark of Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park in Coloma.

(3) Tinsmith apprentice Diana Wood works in the Coloma shop, learning to flute tin and turn the thin metal into candleholders and lamp shades.

Susanne Hopkins/Daily News

Box: On Location (See Text)