The Hotel Léger, in

Mokelumne Hill, California Mokelumne Hill (''Mokelumne'', Miwok for "People of the Fish Net") is a census-designated place (CDP) in Calaveras County, California, Calaveras County, California, United States. The population was 646 at the 2010 census, down from 774 at the 2000 ...

is one of the oldest

hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a ref ...

s still operating in

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. The hotel and courthouse building are registered as

California Historical Landmark A California Historical Landmark (CHL) is a building, structure, site, or place in California that has been determined to have statewide historical landmark significance. Criteria Historical significance is determined by meeting at least one of ...

#663, and located in present-day

Calaveras County, California Calaveras County (), officially the County of Calaveras, is a county in both the Gold Country and High Sierra regions of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2010 census, the population was 45,292. The county seat is San Andreas. Angels C ...

History

George Léger, a

Frenchman The French people (french: Français) are an ethnic group and nation primarily located in Western Europe that share a common French culture, history, and language, identified with the country of France. The French people, especially the nati ...

who came during the

California Gold Rush The California Gold Rush (1848–1855) was a gold rush that began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California fro ...

, opened his Hotel de France in 1851, as a wood-framed tent. Next door was the Calaveras County Courthouse, as Mokulemne Hill was the

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US st ...

at the time. When the county seat was moved to San Andreas in 1866, Léger bought the court building and incorporated into his hotel. One reason was that it was made of stone and thus had survived two fires that had ravaged the town previously. After restoration following another fire in 1874, the hotel became known as the Hotel Léger, and it has been in operation ever since. The bar, which features a stained-glass back bar with the date 1851 in it, reportedly came around Cape Horn and has been in continuous use. The former courthouse building was also the location of the

county jail A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, correct ...

, and remnants of the jail cells can still be seen in the building's cellar.

In popular culture

The hotel was refurbished by local volunteers in September 2012 for an episode of

Travel Channel Travel Channel (stylized as Trvl Channel since 2018) is an American pay television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, which had previously owned the channel from 1997 to 2007. The channel is headquartered in New York, New York, United S ...

's ''

Hotel Impossible ''Hotel Impossible'' is a reality television program from Travel Channel in which struggling non-chain hotels receive an extensive makeover by veteran hotel operator and hospitality expert Anthony Melchiorri and his team. The show premiered on A ...

'' series. The episode featuring the hotel aired on January 7, 2013. It was also featured on an episode of

Ghost Adventures ''Ghost Adventures'' is an American paranormal and reality television series that premiered on October 17, 2008, on the Travel Channel before moving to Discovery+ in 2021. An independent film of the same name originally aired on the Sci-Fi Chann ...

on June 16, 2018.

References

External links

Hotel Léger
official website {{DEFAULTSORT:Hotel Leger History of Calaveras County, California Companies based in Calaveras County, California California Historical Landmarks Leger Leger Buildings and structures in Calaveras County, California Leger Leger 1851 establishments in California