The FORT JIM COMMUNITY, also called "Jim's Diggins" was a stage coach and freight wagon stop on the original old road between Placerville and Newtown. It was a mining camp noted for it's rich hydraulic mines and the deep mines of Tennessee Hill.
Three of the log houses in the village were the Pardi, the Sparks and the "Hi" Little homes. Also there was the Stone and Log house.
The village offered it's inhabitants one general store, one hotel, one blacksmith shop and one tiny cemetery.
|
 |
| STONE & LOG HOUSE AT FORT JIM |
|
|
|
 |
| THE FORT JIM MINE |
|
|
The Fort Jim stone and log house site is located on the south side of Fort Jim Road at the most significant bend in the road at the center of section 24. The stone and log house was built by Hugh White Poorman and his wife Rebecca sometime in the 1860's. It was hopefully capable of withstanding an attack by troublesome and transient miners on Saturday nights. Indians never were a problem by comparison.
The stone foundation for the house was built by Kasper Fausel.
Hugh Poorman was a wealthy farmer, a native of Pennsylvania. Rebecca was a native of Indiana. Hugh was 56 years old when he registered in 1867. Hugh served as a member of the 1868 County Grand Jury. In time the property was owned by the Vosburgh family.
The historical marker shown on the Camino Quadrangle Topographical Map, has been removed and not replaced.
On 4/20/1965 the Fort Jim stone and log house burned. The cause of the fire is unknown.
|
Mountain Democrat, Thursday, October 16, 1941: (Author unknown)
Some of our towns-that-used-to-be are distinguishable today only by a few foundation stones, by some gnarled fruit trees or by a lone chimney.
At Fort Jim, it is a solitary house that marks the spot where a little village once stood in the 1850’s and 1860’s on the Newtown road at what is known as the Cola place, a road that turns to the south passes by Fort Jim.
The terrain is typical of El Dorado county scenery, wild yet gentle. The place chosen for settlement was a little pastoral-like meadow with pine and cedar woods rising above the quiet valley.
The early files of our paper tell of the rich diggings found here, how every creek and ravine was rich with gold. The chief mine, Flori Raffetto who remembers the declining days of the “Fort” tells me, was the Tennessee Hill operated by J. J. Crawford.
Truth and legend intertwine in the story of Fort Jim. Was there really a fort here? Some say that a fort was built to protect workers of a flourishing broom-handle factory from the hostile Diggers. Charles Raffetto, of Pleasant Valley, says that the fort received its name in the following way ----The first settler was a miner named Jim Ford who always signed his name Ford “Jim”. The place was known as Ford Jim’s Place, as time went on, the “place” was dropped.
Another story that belongs to county folk lore tells how a Franciscan friar left the coastal missions and came here in the days before the discovery of gold. Along a stream further up the canyon, that was shown on old maps but which has long disappeared, the friar built his mission to which he welcomed the Indians. It is possible that a Franciscan may have come here in later times not* to make Fort Jim his headquarters. Will O. Upton in his “Churches of El Dorado County” says that Father Woulfe who came to St. Patrick’s in 1852 was a Franciscan. *(doesn’t make sense, but this is how the article is printed)
The old house and garden enclosed by a picket fence is both curious and interesting. Mr. Fiori Raffetto, my authority on Fort Jim, tells me that it was built by a man named Poorman in 1861 or thereabouts, and that Poorman was the first man to raise hay in the county. The house is in three sections. The stone part, overrun with ivy and now used as a celler, is connected to the second section by a “dog trot”. The logs which make up this part of the house are hand hewn. The principal room which is 28 by 18 feet has candle-smoked rafters that have the real patina of age upon them. The western addition of logs also, is of recent date. The Vosburgh family lived here after the Poormans. Log houses were popular at Fort Jim. Hi Little and Sam Sparks and the Pardis all lived in log houses.
One of the early picturesque characters of Fort Jim was Cherubino Laurenzi—doesn’t his name make you want to burst forth into grand opera? Laurenzi, a man of some learning, was a Florentine. When a priest or minister was not available, he could always be counted upon to conduct funeral services. Mrs. Laurenzi who could be both tart and kind with the miners always helped him run the general shore. She had worked in the household of the Italian liberator, Garibaldi.
|
 |
| THE CURRENT SITE OF THE STONE & LOG HOUSE |
|
|
|
The Reestablished "Fort Jim" is home to a Blacksmith Shop an Art Studio and The Short Branch Saloon, where we gather with our friends to reminisce about times of old.
|
IF YOU HAVE OLD PHOTO'S OR ARTICLES RE: "FORT JIM" LET US KNOW.
CONTACT lucky@fortjim.com
|
|