Biohazard and Crime Scene Remediation in Fiddletown, CA

Fiddletown is a Gold Rush-era census-designated place in Amador County, first settled in 1849, reportedly by settlers from Missouri.

Local lore says the name came from miners who could work only about half the time because Dry Creek ran dry in the summer, leaving them 'fiddling around,' though others say the Missouri settlers simply played fiddles for entertainment.

Fiddletown boomed after gold was discovered in the dry riverbeds nearby in 1852; a 22-mile canal completed in 1853 diverted the Cosumnes River to bring water to the diggings, and by 1854 the town reportedly had more than 2,000 residents.

At its height, about half of Fiddletown's population was Chinese, giving it one of the largest Chinese communities in Gold Rush California outside San Francisco.

The Chew Kee Store, built about 1850 with rammed-earth walls roughly 2.5 feet thick, was the herbal medicine shop of Dr. Yee Fan-Chung and was later run by Jimmy Chow, Fiddletown's last Chinese resident, who died in 1965; the building now houses the Fiddletown Museum.

A Chinese gambling hall built into the hillside around 1852, with stone side walls and a locally fired brick front, still stands across the street from the Chew Kee Store.

The Fiddletown Schoolhouse, built in 1863 on a hill above town, served as a one-room, one-teacher school for all eight grades until 1955.

A resident embarrassed to be known as the 'Man from Fiddletown' successfully lobbied to rename the town Oleta in 1878, after his daughter; the old name Fiddletown was restored in 1932.

Fiddletown is California Historical Landmark No. 35, and its historic district was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.

Today Fiddletown is a quiet village of 279 people (2020 census) living in 120 households, with about 81% of occupied homes owner-occupied and a median age of 57.1 years.