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The information Plaque
Angels Hotel
Plaque on Angels Hotel
Street corner in Angels CampAngels Camp - Home of the Jumping Frog
Angels Camp, officially the City of Angels, is an old gold mining town and retains much of its old atmosphere with a small but tightly built, lively downtown. It is also the location of Mark Twain's story The Jumping Frog of Calaveras County. Although not the county seat (that is San Andreas), Angels Camp is the only "real" town in the county in every sense: it is the only incorporated city, it has a real town feel, and it has an actual functioning downtown, etc. It also is the primary commercial centre of the county. Arnold, up highway 4, is not incorporated, lacks a downtown, and lacks any sort of urban cohesion. San Andreas is similar and although it has a downtown, it is miniscule and essentially a place of hsitorical interest, being too small to function as a downtown these days.
Angels Camp is also one of the two primary tourist towns in the county, along with nearby Murphy's. Murphy's has a higher concentration of tourist spots such as restaurants and art galleries, but Angels Camp is otherwise the primary town and has more old buildings to see.
"Altaville"
The City of Angels actually consists of two older communities now incorporated as the City of Angels. The primary one is old Angels Camp, which the city is still normally called. This is the real core of the town.
The other part is an old community named Altaville, just west of downtown Angels Camp. The primary attraction of this part of the city, aside from shopping centres, auto dealerships, etc., is the old Altaville School, now a museum. However, one can still see a few old buildings like this stone commercial building.