As the commercial hub of the southern mines, Sonora enjoyed great prosperity and is still a busy town with the symbols of Californian suburbia – shopping malls and tract housing – encroaching on its old centre. Nonetheless, Sonora retains much of note from its past, not least several elegant mansions set along Washington Street and the strikingly red-coloured St. James Episcopal Church, built in 1860 on the corner of Washington and Snell Streets.

A leaflet describing the town’s historic houses can be picked up in what used to be the County Jail, 158 W. Bradford Avenue, which now holds the Tuolumne County Museum and History Centre (https://www.tchistory.org) and fills the one-time cells with exhibits and some highly-regarded cowboy paintings.