When they found gold flakes and nuggets at Sutters Mill, along California’s American River, it triggered a stampede West as gold fever swept America.  Those days are still celebrated in California’s Motherlode — where small towns sprang up as each new discovery was made. The miners are gone, but the towns are still there — all connected by Highway 49 – what they call the “Golden Chain Highway.” Just off Highway 49,  in one of the smallest of these historic communities, you will find a wonderful link to the past. In Fiddletown, it’s all about the music.

As the story goes, a group of miners from Missouri raced to California with just the clothes on their back — and their fiddles. On days they could not work their claims, they would play music. And in Fiddletown, the music of the gold rush never stops and it comes alive with the annual Fiddletown Fiddlers’ Jam.