California: On Gold Miners’ Trails

In January 1848, a man inspecting a sawmill under construction in Coloma, CA, picked up something shiny from a stream bed. It was gold.

Within a year, dozens of small towns sprang up on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada. Soon each had its own banks, bars, boarding houses, and bordellos.

Tales of wild riches brought hordes of prospectors and chroniclers like Mark Twain and Bret Harte. But the grim reality that struck most gold seekers brought forth California’s first home-grown benevolent society. The Ancient and Honorable Order of E Clampus Vitus was established in Mokelumne Hill in 1851.

Too rough and ragged to qualify for membership in the Masons, Elks, or Odd Fellows, the early Clampers dedicated themselves to drinking and tomfoolery. But they also took care of the widows and orphans of prospectors who had lost all.

In time, they added the preservation of Western history to their mandate and began mounting brass plaques at places of colorful historical significance. They might commemorate a bar room shooting, a stagecoach robbery, or an important military skirmish.

As their numbers grew, so did their mythology and merrymaking. The Clampers now insist their brotherhood was born in 4005 BCE and call their leader the Sublime Noble Grand Humbug. 

Motorcycle & Gear

2025 BMW R 1200 GS

Helmet: Bell MX-9
Jacket & Pants: REV’IT! Sand 5 H2O
Boots: REV’IT! Expedition GTX
Gloves: REV’IT! Sand 5

They meet at annual “clampouts,” for which they dress in red and black outfits festooned with all manner of honorary medallions (which are often bottle caps, safety pins, or tin sheriff’s badges) and reportedly engage in heroic drinking. Their motto, “Credo Quia Absurdum,” translates from Latin to, “I believe it because it is absurd.”

Today, the Clampers boast 51 chapters in 11 Western states and more than 1,600 plaques. They are concentrated in Gold Country, along SR 49, the mother road of the mother lode.

I decided to explore Clamper history as a way of seeing some of California’s most beautiful scenery and riding.