Early mining at James Bar produced such large amounts of gold, 30 to 50 ounce nuggets were not uncommon. The area was originally called Lower Bar (or Sonorian Town because of the many Mexican miners) and in 1848 James Bar was a thriving regularly-arranged town with a population of about 300. However, their homes were only sapling houses, made without walls, and roofed with just loose oak boughs.
The book, Love Letters to Missouri – A Kept Promise, is a series of letters from a man to his wife as he traveling across the US to the California Goldfields. He dies at James Bar.
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