Sonora to Mark Twain Cabin to Frogtown RV Park

Frogtown RV Park

    After getting what I would call an "idiot message" instead of mileage and other data on my Ford F250 I had it serviced at Hammond Ford on Mono Way in Sonora. The good news was that it didn't cost me anything; the bad news is that it was part of the 5-year warranty for which I paid big bucks when I bought it.
    After returning to Carters Cemetery in Tuolumne to make sure the drops on the road near my grandparents plot were water and not oil (it was the former), I drove to the Sonora Fairgrounds planning on staying in their RV Park. But a 9/11 memorial had packed the place so I ended up parking on Hammond's lot right next to the junction of Mono Way and SR108, one of the noisier intersections in and around Sonora. (It helped that I parked next to another truck camper on a F350 since no one bugged me in the morning after they opened for business.)
    After lunch at a shady spot on the Fairgrounds I headed for the Tuttletown Recreation Area on New Melones Reservoir.

    While I hadn't intended to visit Mark Twain's Cabin, which my grandmother had taken us kids to in the late 40s or early 50s, I veered right & headed up the narrow road toward the cabin. What you see to the right is not the original cabin from the mid 1860s but rather a replica built some time after and last restored in 2005.

 

 

    Here's a back view of the cabin. Judging from the moss on the fireplace, it was restored previous to 2005.

 

 

 

 

    While I took the photos there were a couple of curious onlookers. A sign in their field said "In Memory of Molly, 1980 - Jul 2010." [Don't know how many how many horse years are equivalent to 1 year for a human bean, but 30 seems quite a bit in equine years.]

 

 

 

 

    A view toward the NW corner of the cabin. Note the granite with a bronze plaque.

 

 

    Note that Twain stayed at the cabin on Jackass Hill from 4 Dec 1864 to circa 25 February 1865. During his stay with the Gillis Brothers (Jim & Bill) and Dick Stoker he heard the now-famous tale of the Jumping Frog at a saloon in Angeles Camp, less than ten miles to the north. That tale was the catalyst for Twain's switch from reporting to writing fiction, travel tales, and commentary on the human condition.

 

 

    No doubt the original fireplace was much blacker on the inside than is this replica -- even though Jackass Hill, which is roughly the same elevation as Jamestown to the south, rarely gets snow during the winters. [Click 1 or 2 times to enlarge.]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    Wish I had stood up 5-7 minutes earlier, for here is what was left of the sunset from the door of my camper at Frogtown RV Park at 7:33 p.m.
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Links:

• More photos of Mark Twain Cabin
• Long biography of Twain; search for Gillis with your browser

M 12 Sep Actual Route: Sonora - New Melones Dam CG - Frogtown RV Park

T 13 Sep Actual Route: Frogtown RV Pk - Angels Camp - Sonora - Sugar Pine - Mi-Wuk Village - Three Links Camp

W 14 Sep Actual Route: 3-Link Camp - Mi-Wuk Village - Tuolumne - Sonora - Long Barn

Th 15 Sep Actual Route: Long Barn - Sonora - Long Barn

F 16 Sep Actual Route: Long Barn - Tuolumne - Sonora - Long Barn

Sa 17 Sep Actual Route: Long Barn - Tuolumne City Memorial Museum - Long Barn

Su 18 Sep Actual Route: Long Barn - Sonora - Long Barn
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Finding Campgrounds:

• RV Campgrounds from TrailerLifeDirectory.com
• Family Camping Directories from Woodalls.com

N.B. I receive nothing from Trailer Life or Woodalls for including links to their free campground lookups.