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The first settlement in the area was called Pokerville, and was
located about a mile or so downstream of the present town on Little
Indian Creek. The camp was established around 1852, and as water was
scarce and the placers stingy, the camp kind of faded away as the
miners drifted upstream to a new site, a site which became known as
Puckerville in 1855. This new camp proved to be more prosperous than
the old, but not by much. A number of claims, with names such as the
Southerland, the Aden, and the Simpson, were located about a mile east
of town and as the years went by they helped the camp hold its own,
neither booming nor busting, but surviving.Nothing of much excitement occurred in Puckerville or the
surrounding area until 1871, when Alvinza Hayward purchased an interest
in the Aden-Simpson, or "Plymouth Mine." Hayward was a sharp mining
man, having made a fortune in his mines in Sutter Creek and the
Comstock Lode. He must have seen something worthwhile in the Plymouth.Mining gold takes money, and Hayward certainly had that. He
authorized construction of a new stamp mill and began more work on the
claim itself, extensive exploration and deeper mining. One of the
results of this capital outlay was an increase in jobs. More jobs
needed more men, and more men needed more places to spend their wages.
Hotels, saloons, stores, and other places were men like to spend money
were quickly constructed.Puckerville grew, expanding to take care of these needs. And when
the post office was established in September of 1871, with John J. Ekel
as the postmaster, the place was known as Plymouth. When did the name
change and for what reason? No one knows the answers to these and other
questions, although they’re probably out there somewhere, in a diary
lost or a forgotten copy of one of Plymouth’s early newspapers, the
Independent or the Reporter. The name "Plymouth" appeared perhaps for
the first time in 1856. It was applied to a quartz mill located on the
north bank of Dry Creek, about a mile or so from the town of
Puckerville. Maybe this is where the name came from.Meanwhile, Hayward kept buying up ground and claims and by 1878 the
Phoenix Mine—formerly the Plymouth—was producing $30,000 to $50,000 a
month in gold. They sold the Phoenix that year, including its mill and
a few of its ditches, to a New York corporation for $2 million. Renamed
the Empire Mine, it was consolidated with a number of other claims in
1883, becoming the Plymouth Consolidated Mining Company, which operated
until 1947.
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