Georgetown Divide History Tour, Part 2

Our next stop on our tour of the Georgetown Divide is the 1855 Meyer's Dance Hall and Saloon, just up Beach Street from the site of the old bridge at Lotus. You can read about the old bridge crossing at our first post of the tour here. Following the map and turning around in the church parking lot, we head back towards Highway 49, where we find the ruins of the old hall on the left.

Before the town was named Lotus, it was known as Marshall, named for the discoverer of gold. In 1850 the name was changed to Uniontown in honor of California's entrance into statehood. The name of the town was changed again to Lotus in 1881. This road was the old route from Sacramento to the goldfields, and many would pass this business. Dancing was quite the entertainment back in the days before electricity, and this spot was known as a "miners delight."

Now we head back towards Highway 49 and turn left onto Highway 49, but the old road went straight, behind Marco's Restaurant and back out towards Highway 49. You can see the old route as a green line on our maps. It's good to know the old way as the descriptions of various features often relate to their location with "the road," which usually implies the historic route, not the road we travel on today.

The Georgetown Divide History tour

Just a short distance to the north we will arrive at the site of the long-gone town of Michigan Flat, the place where the Stanford Brothers, Leyland, and Thomas, laid the foundations for their great wealth as proprietors of a general merchandise store.

We’ll talk about that place with our next post.

The old Lotus Bridge site, and the Georgetown Divide history tour

Join us as we begin the Georgetown Divide History tour! The tour can start anywhere along the route, but we will use the crossing at the south fork of the American River in our example. This tour will eventually make a complete loop bringing us back to the starting point. Google powers the map we will be using and will allow you to use your cell phone device to follow and enjoy the various features we will learn. Once we have discussed a historical point of interest and "put it on the map," we will move on to the next spot. Eventually, we will have a "tour" you can use to explore our history-rich region. The map is located here on our webpage under "maps."

Close-up of the 1873 map of the Georgetown Divide. A link for this map is available in our map section here.

Our first stop along the tour is the old road route and bridge site across the south fork of The American River at Lotus. Looking at a close-up of the 1873 map of the Georgetown Divide above, you see two arrows. One shows the old Lotus crossing site near Hennigson Park, and the other shows the approximate route of the present-day bridge.

The old Lotus Bridge.

The old route used to cross the river at the present-day site of Henningson Park. Standing at the shore of the river, you can still see the concrete foundations for the old bridge sitting in the water. Once you crossed the bridge, the old road followed Beach Street towards the present-day Highway 49. We have drawn in the old route on our tour map so we can better visualize the way.

The Georgetown Divide History tour

The bridge was damaged by high waters in 1950 and ceased use when the present crossing, a bit upriver, was built in 1951. That bridge was replaced in 2019 by the bridge that stands today over the south fork of the American River. Join us as we continue our tour of the Georgetown Divide and visit the next site on our journey, the location, and ruins of the old Meyer's Dance Hall and Saloon.