Lodi News Sentinel, Oct. 2, 2004

John and Daniel Murphy were adventurous brothers who pioneered the wagon trail over the Sierra Nevada in 1844, fought to bring California into the United States, struck it rich in Calaveras County and established the town that bears the family name.

The town of Murphys, about an hour's drive east of Lodi beside Highway 4, is a historic treat for tourists stopping on their way to the mountains or for those searching for wine tasting or shopping in the picturesque region dotted with a mixture of pine and oak trees. Although the Murphys were only there for a little more than a year, the town remains as a legacy to their pioneer spirit and enterprise.

The Murphy family was part of the 1844 Murphy-Stevens-Townsend Party, the first group to bring a train of wagons across the Sierra Nevada into the California frontier then controlled by Mexico. Like all the early California pioneers, the Murphys stopped in Sutter's Fort in Sacramento. Soon after their arrival, the Murphy family met Charles M. Weber and began their lifelong relationship.

In 1845, Weber invited John Murphy to assist him in his flourishing general store in San Jose. The Murphys established ranches southeast of San Jose. Weber courted John and Daniel's sister Helen, and they eventually married in late 1850.

By early 1848, the Murphy brothers and Weber had successfully fought to establish California as a United States territory, Weber had founded Stockton and gold was discovered in the American River.

Following news of the gold discovery in the Sierra, Weber acted quickly. He formed the Stockton Mining Company, the first mining company in California and possibly the territory's first corporation. He sent men and employed Native Americans to work his gold mining operations near Hangtown, today's Placerville. John and Daniel Murphy worked with Weber on this mining venture. But very soon, the brothers branched off on their own to seek gold along the creeks to the south.

In August or September 1848, John and Daniel and others started mining for gold up Coyote Creek and found nuggets. Following Weber's example of setting up a commercial operation to supply the flood of miners, John Murphy erected a big canvas tent and established a trading post. The area became known as "Murphy's Diggings."

The rich deposit of gold around Murphys led to the region being called "the Queen of the Sierra." Each miner was limited to a claim of land that was only eight feet square. Miners collected gold dust and nuggets from four to 10 feet underground, and Murphy's trading tent prospered in those first months.

In December 1849, just 15 months after discovering the gold deposit, John Murphy left the town of tents. He loaded six mules with gold dust and moved to Santa Clara County. A now prosperous and well-known man, Murphy immediately became an influential figure in San Jose. He held the offices of county sheriff, treasurer and recorder and mayor of San Jose all before 1858.

In the 1850s, the community of Murphys slowly evolved from a mining camp of canvas tents to a small town. Gold was harder to find by the mid-1850s, and settlers turned to farming and business in the thriving new state. Murphys began to capitalize on tourism.

In 1853, the first hotel was built in Murphys to accommodate tourists, who were making the stagecoach trip from Stockton to see the amazing grove of big redwood trees further up in Calaveras County. This grove is today's Calaveras Big Trees State Park on Highway 4.

The historic hotel, well known today as Murphys Hotel, opened for business on Aug. 20, 1856. James Sperry, a member of the prosperous Sperry Flour Company in Stockton, built the hotel with John Perry, his partner in Murphys. Two years later, Sperry and Perry bought the Big Trees property and built a new large hotel for 75 guests. This hotel was in use until 1943.

Disaster struck Murphys on the afternoon of Aug. 27, 1859. A fire started in the Magnolia Saloon. The blaze quickly spread and engulfed the entire business district. Sperry and Perry's hotel was thought to be fireproof, but the stone structure with folding iron doors burned. The owners listed their loss at $25,000. But Sperry and Perry immediately built a new hotel in time for the spring 1860 travel season to Big Trees.

Many famous people signed the register at the two-story hotel in the 1860s and 1870s. Among the celebrities were Mark Twain, Horatio Alger, Thomas J. Lipton, President U. S. Grant, John J. Astor, Henry Ward Beecher, M. A. Rothchild, the bandit Black Bart, and early California pioneer John Bidwell and his wife.

In 1881, Sperry sold the hotel to Henry Atwood. He operated it for a short time and then sold it to Harvey Blood. After a year, Blood sold the hotel to C. P. Mitchler. Mitchler's mother, Elizabeth, and brother, Frank Mitchler, became his partners. Eventually, after their mother's death, Frank bought out C. P.'s share and became the sole owner. After Frank Mitchler's death in 1905, his wife continued operating the hotel until her sons, Glen and Gene Mitchler, became the owners.

Today, the Murphys Hotel still stands proudly as a witness to the region's storied past and continues serving townspeople and travelers as it has for 148 years.

Vintage Lodi is a local history column that appears the first and third Saturday of the month