Drytown’s history is
mostly unwritten
The public archives hold only 2 old photos of Drytown. The rest are in attics, shoeboxes and the historical society. Help start the collection.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗Drytown is the oldest community in Amador County, and the first in which gold was discovered. It took its name from Dry Creek, which runs dry during the summer. However, it was certainly not "dry", as stories tell of there being up to 26 saloons, of which just one remains, The Drytown Club.
The gold started to peter out by 1857 and when a fire destroyed most of the town that year, most of its inhabitants packed up and moved to more successful mines elsewhere in the county. The town was only saved by the construction of State Route 49, which went through it, in 1920. See the Drytown, CA website for additional history and current information.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Start Drytown’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Drytown’s history is told.
1 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🗓️Date a photo1 archive item has no date+2 🔁Retake an old viewDrytown Amador 2, 1998: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Drytown, decade by decade
unknown1 item
Nothing in Drytown is on the National Register yet
That’s true of most small towns. It doesn’t mean Drytown has no history, only that no one has written up a nomination. The closest listed place is Sutter Creek Grammar School in Sutter Creek, 4.6 miles away.
Drytown and the nearest listed places
How a place gets listed
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as Drytown Hall and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom Wikimedia Commons (2) and the Library of Congress (1). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.