BURSON, CA -- June 19, 2010 -- Thanks partly to the efforts of the Society for the Preservation of West Calaveras History (SPWCH), remnants of the county's first courthouse, erected in Double Springs in 1850, will remain in West Calaveras.

The SPWCH joined a handful of other groups and individuals dedicated to local history to protest the sale by the Calaveras County Historical Society on eBay and elsewhere of reported surplus wood from the building, a structure prefabricated in China of camphor wood and shipped across the Pacific at the height of the Gold Rush. The courthouse had been recently reconstructed in a significantly downsized version at the County Museum in San Andreas and the remaining wood was being offered as scrap. The protest, reported in the Stockton Record, prompted the county group to halt the sale and subsequently agree to donate the wood to various historic preservation groups, including the SPWCH, San Francisco Maritime Historic Park, Chinese American Historical Society and Mokelumne Hill History Society.

Last week, Sal Manna of the SPWCH selected 30 large pieces of the wood as well as a box of smaller pieces. While later identifying and cataloging the items, he discovered several Chinese letters painted onto one long plank. Manna believes the inscription may be significant and a translation is currently underway. He also noted that these relics of local history will hopefully become part of a display at a future museum in West Calaveras.