1865 Angels Camp's Frogs Become Famous

On November 18, 1865, a young, aspiring journalist published a short story in the New York Saturday Press. The newspaper was short lived, but the fame of the author wasn't. It turned out that this story was his first important work in a long line of celebrated stories that made him world-famous. The story: "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County"; the author: Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known as Mark Twain.

The story is about Jim Smiley, a local gambler who would bet on anything from the death of Parson Walker's wife to fights between his bulldog pup, Andrew Jackson, and other dogs. One day a stranger to the town agreed to bet on a frog jumping higher than Jim's frog,Daniel Webster. When Jim wasn't looking, the stranger poured quail shot into Daniel Webster's mouth making it impossible for him to jump at all. The stranger won the $40 bet and escaped before Jim realized the con.

It isn't clear if Angels Hotel (current home of Calaveras Coin & Pawm) was the place where the infamous jumping contest happened, but this hotel is certified as the place where Mark Twain first heard the story that later made him famous. Not only Mark Twain gained fame through the story. It also put the tiny mining town Angels Camp on the world's map, and since the late 1800s, the town celebrates the famous writer and its very own frog jumping history with an annualFrog Jumping Jubilee.

Come visit us at Calaveras Coin & Pawn the home of the Mark Twain Story