Colton's Block - West Miner Street-Third Street Historic District - Yreka, CA
N 41° 43.910 W 122° 38.230
10T E 530174 N 4620066
This historical marker resides in front of the Colton/Lauer/Wetzel Building on W. Miner St. in historic downtown Yreka, CA.
Waymark Code: WMHA5D
Location: California, United States
Date Posted: 06/13/2013
Views: 2
This building is one of many contributing buildings that make up the West Miner Street-Third Street Historic District. There is a historical marker that hangs in front of the Colton/Lauer/Wetzel Building on W. Miner St. There are numerous older buildings along Miner Street that contain historical markers that relate the history of each building, a few mentioning the great fire of 1871 that swept through downtown Miner St. This historic building's marker reads:
Colton's Block
(Colton/Lauer/Wetzel Building)
225, 227, 229 W. Miner St. David D. Colton arrived in Yreka in 1851, mined for a time, established the Mountain News Herald, and at age 21 became the second Siskiyou County sheriff. His original 1853 hewed-log house on this site was replaced the same year by a brick structure known as the D.D. Colton Building. Although considerably altered in front, it stands today having survived the 1871 fire. E. Lauer and A. Wetzel were subsequent owners who operated clothing and general merchandise stores at different times. While under the ownership of Lauer, the second floor was occupied by the Union Printing Comapany, the new name for Colton's newspaper.
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I located a great article from Ancestry.com that relates the history of David Douty Colton here. He was a prominent businessman and former Brigadier General of the California State Militia prior to the Civil War. Colton, California is named after him.
Yreka has a few websites devoted to preserving its rich history. Siskiyouhistory.org is a good place to start and breaks up the town's history into groups of years. Yrekapreservation.org contains some nice pictures of original homes and commercial buildings from yesteryear. Finally, Yrekahistory.blogspot.com is a good blog website which contains great stories and events of Yreka's past and all their articles have been archived.