A turnoff in downtown Sutter Creek leads to the road to the isolated village of Volcano, about twelve miles to the east.

Volcano is nestled in the cup of a steep mountain valley. It reminded its earliest settlers of a volcano caldera, hence the city's name.

In the early 1850s, Volcano was a very rich hydraulic mining camp. And miners flocked to the area. A population of about 5000 once flourished here. Today a population of 100, uh, 101, calls the tiny town home.

The hydraulicking blasted some of the stone outcroppings into weird shapes and the combination of isolation, enclosing hillsides, heavy woods, and odd rock formations led one observer to dub Volcano a "veritable Sleepy Hollow of the West."

Remnants of the Gold Rush are still very evident in Volcano - the 1856 stone brewery; the two-story Gold Rush-era Masonic Hall; and the old wooden jail, whose first inhabitants are said to have been the men who constructed it.

Dominating the entrance into Volcano is the venerable St. George Hotel, built in 1867. A three-story structure with broad verandas and balconies, the hotel was in disrepair until recently. The St. George has been transformed into an upscale bed and breakfast and gourmet restaurant. How much in disrepair? Some local residents still remember the not-very-long-ago remembrance of pushing wandering cows out of the lobby. The adjoining saloon features dozens of dollar bills placed on the walls by visitors.

On display near the Masonic Hall is "Old Abe," a cannon used by the Volcano Blues, a Civil War regiment that is credited with saving California's gold for the Union. Most historians readily acknowledge that the Mother Lode's mineral wealth provided the financial underpinning for the successful Northern effort.