COLOMA, Calif. — Highway 49 runs through historic mining towns like Nevada City, Auburn, Placerville and Grass Valley.
Holly Thane is an interpreter at the Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park, located in Coloma along Highway 49.
"Highway 49 connects all these little gold rush towns through the ‘motherlode’ as we call it," said Thane.
According to Caltrans, SR-49 spans about 295 miles. It starts near Oakhurst at SR-41 and runs to Vinton at SR-70. It says the part of the highway going from Sonora to Auburn was officially designated as the “Mother Lode Highway” in Chapter 839 of the Statutes of 1921. The highway also goes by another name.
"It is also referred to as the Golden Chain Highway because it chains together all of these towns. It gets its name because even though gold was discovered in 1848, the mass amount of people didn't get here until 49 because news traveled so fast. So, in 1849, people from all over the world came rushing right here to find gold," said Thane.
Caltrans says in the early 1900s, state highways were named for their endpoints and sometimes local significance. When the department was asked about Highway 49 back in 1977, they said: "Very early references call the road ‘The Highway of the 49ers’, or something similar.”
Caltrans says before 1933, the California State Automobile Association in Northern California and the Automobile Club of Southern California were in charge of posting highway route signs.
The state took it over after that, but according to Caltrans, two separate sets of numbers existed. It says one was the common, posted numbers and the other was the legislative route number, which was used internally.
The two systems of numbering were combined in 1963 and that's when the Mother Lode Highway was called Route 49. Caltrans says the reason isn't clear, but it might be related to what was used by the public.
Thane says on January 24, 1848, James Marshall discovered the first piece of gold in the Coloma area, marking the beginning of the Gold Rush.
"So they were called the 49ers, hence why we have Highway 49 that goes right through this very historic spot. That’s also why we have the football team, the 49ers. It’s all relevant to the name the miners got when they came out here," said Thane.
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