Ghost Town, 1941

G. Ezra Dane

G. Ezra Dane (1904–1941) was a San Francisco lawyer and a leader in E Clampus Vitus (or “the Clampers”), a social and civic organization dating back to the California Gold Rush. In the early 1940s, Dane took the initiative to commemorate the centennial of the gold rush, publishing articles and editing reprints from the era. Dane’s work often romanticized the period, but his efforts nevertheless provided a significant and useful body of literature.

In 1941, Dane interviewed several older residents of the gold fields and compiled their reminiscences in his book Ghost Town. The setting is Columbia, a historic mining camp in the heart of Gold Country, just north of Sonora. Columbia is now a California State Historic Park.

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Read by Gary Noy, Director, Center for Sierra Nevada Studies, Sierra College