Angels Camp, also known as City of Angels (formerly Angel's Camp, Angels, Angels City, Carson's Creek and Clearlake), is the only incorporated city in

Calaveras County, California Calaveras County (), officially the County of Calaveras, is a county in both the Gold Country and High Sierra regions of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 45,292. The county seat is San Andreas. Angels ...

, United States. The population was 3,667 at the 2020 census. It lies at an elevation of 1381 feet (421 m).

Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, and essayist. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced," with William Fau ...

based his short story "

The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" is an 1865 short story by Mark Twain. It was his first great success as a writer and brought him national attention. The story has also been published as "Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog" (its ori ...

" on a story he claimed to have heard at the Angels Hotel in 1865. The event is commemorated with a Jumping Frog Jubilee each May at the Calaveras County Fairgrounds, just east of the city. Because of this, Angels Camp is sometimes referred to as "Frogtown." The city is

California Historical Landmark A California Historical Landmark (CHL) is a building, structure, site, or place in the U.S. state of California that has been determined to have statewide historical landmark significance. Criteria Historical significance is determined by meetin ...

#287.

History

Henry Angell, a native of Rhode Island, set up a tent store on the banks of the creek. The placers around his camp were productive but gave out after a few years, and the population began to dwindle until gold-bearing

quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The Atom, atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen Tetrahedral molecular geometry, tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tet ...

veins were discovered in the town, which brought people back. Those mines operated for the next few decades, producing more than $20 million worth of gold, processed by

stamp mill A stamp mill (or stamp battery or stamping mill) is a type of Mill (grinding), mill machine that crushes material by pounding rather than Mill (grinding), grinding, either for further processing or for extraction of metallic ores. Breaking materia ...

s in town. It was said that when the last mill finally ceased operations, the townspeople couldn't sleep, the silence was so loud. The first post office was established in 1851 (and called Carson's Creek). It was renamed along with the town in 1853. The city was incorporated under the name of "Angels" in 1912.

Geography

Angels Camp is located at . According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

, the city has a total area of , all land. Angels Camp is about above sea level, with

Angels Creek Angels Creek is a -long tributary of the Stanislaus River in Calaveras County, California in the United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North ...

flowing through the middle of town.

Climate

According to the

Köppen Climate Classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

system, Angels Camp has a

hot-summer Mediterranean climate A Mediterranean climate ( ), also called a dry summer climate, described by Köppen and Trewartha as ''Cs'', is a temperate climate type that occurs in the lower mid-latitudes (normally 30 to 44 north and south latitude). Such climates typic ...

, abbreviated "Csa" on climate maps.

Demographics

The 2020 United States census reported that Angels Camp had a population of 3,667. The population density was . The racial makeup of Angels Camp was 81.1%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 0.7%

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 2.1%

Native American Native Americans or Native American usually refers to Native Americans in the United States. Related terms and peoples include: Ethnic groups * Indigenous peoples of the Americas, the pre-Columbian peoples of North, South, and Central America ...

, 1.3% Asian, 0.2%

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...

, 3.8% from

other races Other often refers to: * Other (philosophy), a concept in psychology and philosophy Other or The Other may also refer to: Film and television * ''The Other'' (1913 film), a German silent film directed by Max Mack * ''The Other'' (1930 film), ...

, and 10.8% from two or more races.

Hispanic or Latino ''Hispanic'' and '' Latino'' are ethnonyms used to refer collectively to the inhabitants of the United States who are of Spanish or Latin American ancestry (). While many use the terms interchangeably, for example, the United States Census Bureau ...

of any race were 12.5% of the population. The census reported that 98.4% of the population lived in households, 1.6% lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and no one was institutionalized. There were 1,635 households, out of which 24.5% included children under the age of 18, 46.5% were married-couple households, 7.3% were

cohabiting Cohabitation is an arrangement where people who are not legally married live together as a couple. They are often involved in a romantic or sexually intimate relationship on a long-term or permanent basis. Such arrangements have become incr ...

couple households, 30.0% had a female householder with no partner present, and 16.1% had a male householder with no partner present. 29.4% of households were one person, and 17.0% were one person aged 65 or older. The average household size was 2.21. There were 1,036

families Family (from ) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictability, structure, and safety as ...

(63.4% of all households). The age distribution was 18.2% under the age of 18, 5.5% aged 18 to 24, 19.6% aged 25 to 44, 26.1% aged 45 to 64, and 30.6% who were 65years of age or older. The median age was 51.6years. For every 100 females, there were 89.5 males. There were 1,907 housing units at an average density of , of which 1,635 (85.7%) were occupied. Of these, 68.2% were owner-occupied, and 31.8% were occupied by renters. The median household income was $60,353, and the

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

was $31,454. About 10.5% of families and 13.5% of the population were below the poverty line.

Government

In the

state legislature A state legislature is a Legislature, legislative branch or body of a State (country subdivision), political subdivision in a Federalism, federal system. Two federations literally use the term "state legislature": * The legislative branches of ...

, Angels Camp is in , and . Federally, Angels Camp is in .

Notable people

Sara Carter Sara Elizabeth Carter (née Dougherty, later Bayes; July 21, 1898 – January 8, 1979) was an American country music musician, singer, and songwriter. Remembered mostly for her deep, distinctive, mature singing voice, she was the lead singer on ...

— musician and entertainer,

Carter Family The Carter Family was an American folk music group that recorded and performed between 1927 and 1956. Regarded as one of the most important music acts of the early 20th century, they had a profound influence on the development of bluegrass, c ...

T.J. Dillashaw Tyler Jeffrey Dillashaw (born February 7, 1986) is an American former professional mixed martial artist who competed in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), where he is a former two-time UFC Bantamweight Champion. Dillashaw competed on th ...

— former UFC bantamweight champion *Amanda Folendorf — first deaf female mayor in the United States * Mike McCormick —

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

player * Catfish Metkovich — Major League Baseball player *

Tommy Orange Tommy Orange (born January 19, 1982) is an American novelist and writer from Oakland, California. His first book, '' There There'' (2018), was a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and received the 2019 American Book Award. Orange ...

— Native American writer and novelist *

Kyle Rasmussen Kyle A. Rasmussen (born June 20, 1968, in Sonora, California, Sonora, California) is a former FIS Alpine Ski World Cup, World Cup Alpine skiing, alpine ski racer from Angels Camp, California, Angels Camp, California. While competing with the Un ...

—

United States Ski Team The U.S. Ski Team, operating under the auspices of U.S. Ski & Snowboard, develops and supports men's and women's athletes in the sports of alpine skiing, freestyle skiing, cross-country, ski jumping, and Nordic combined. Since 1974 the team and ...

member and two-time

Alpine skiing World Cup The FIS Alpine Ski World Cup is the top international circuit of alpine skiing competitions, launched in 1966 by a group of ski racing friends and experts which included French journalist Serge Lang (skiing), Serge Lang and the alpine ski team d ...

Downhill champion *

Frank Elbridge Webb Colonel Frank Elbridge Webb (September 1, 1869 – June 15, 1949) was an American industrial engineer who served as the Farmer–Labor Party's presidential candidate in 1928 and was initially renominated in 1932 before being removed. He subseque ...

— Engineer and presidential candidate in 1928 and 1932

References

External links

* *
Angels Camp Mining History
at Western Mining History. Numerous historic images and a nice 1850 map of the camps & diggings then. {{authority control Cities in Calaveras County, California Mining communities of the California Gold Rush Populated places in the Sierra Nevada (United States) California Historical Landmarks Incorporated cities and towns in California Populated places established in 1848 1848 establishments in California 1912 establishments in California Historic American Buildings Survey in California