the haunted hotel léger

In about an hour and a half a good friend and I will take off to a cozy little "semi-ghost" town named Mokelumne Hill to stay the night. This little towns only place to lodge is called the Hotel Léger, and it is supposedly haunted. My first stay there was in a tiny back room where the proprietor used to live and where purportedly most of the "hauntings" have occured. You have to go through these little western swinging doors to access that part of the building. I'd have to say personally that the haunted feeling more than likely stems from the overwhelming pattern of the wallpaper more than anything else. You instantly feel like you're spinning when you walk in the door.

That day when I downloaded "Assassination Vacation", half of my reasoning was to have it for the little road trip required to reach this historic little town. I really needed to escape the modern trappings of this world and the hectic grind of city life, so I researched nearby ghost towns in Northern California and stumbled upon Mokelumne Hill:

"Settled by miners from Oregon after a gold strike in October of 1848 along the Mokelumne River, the town quickly developed a reputation of wildness not to be exceeded by most other mining camps. The site was called Mokelumne Hill. The first structures to be built were leveled by fire in 1854. Subsequent buildings were mostly of stone and many have survived. What sets Mokelumne Hill apart from many other mining towns is its cemetery. Set among a grove of Italian cypress, it tells a grim story of the town's early days."

I booked a room for my husband and I for the weekend. Sarah's voice talked us through the windy dark back roads and forested freeways. That was the day this Civil War obsession began for me, and to stay in this town which preserved the architecture and feel of the Civil War era only helped solidify it. No internet café's, no email or web addresses on signs, no neon lights, just hand painted signs, wood flanked raised sidewalks, dusty little streets...I was transported back in time. At the close of this little weekend getaway and upon returning back to San Francisco I was kind of overwhelmed with culture shock, especially as we wound closer and closer to our little congested neighborhood. Alas the weekend was a success, who'd of thought that a 2 1/2 hour car drive could take one seamlessly back 150 years.

So anyway, I will take off soon and I'm charging my iPod as I write, with Vowell's book all queued up for the road trip...in the hopes to transport my friend to the 1800's right along with me.