Of the many colorful characters Auburn's early history, none have attracted more interest than Richard Barter, who gained fame as the outlaw, Rattlesnake Dick, although he is purported to have preferred the more romantic pseudonym of "Pirate of the Placers". He was not known to have killed anyone, but he terrorized the Sierra foothills over three years from 1856 to 1859. The following sketch of this "Pirate of the Placers" is from several publications Thompson & West 1882 History of Placer Co.; a publication issued shortly after his death; Placer Herald article, May 27, 1944 by Harry Furlong; information from Bob Elder from his book about Rattlesnake Dick; and article "Unanswered Questions-Rattlesnake Dick's Death, by Norman McLeod in the Sunday Magazine section of the Auburn Journal, May 4, 1986; and the Placer Gold, May 30, 1973 article, "Who Really Killed Rattlesnake Dick?"
"Rattlesnake Dick", was the son of an English Colonel and was born in Quebec about the year 1833, but very little is know of his early history. Dick was a roving, reckless sort of a boy, not exactly bad, but decidedly "wild". He was caught in the great maelstrom that whirled around California after the discovery of gold and came to the State during 1850, accompanied by an elder brother and an old man supposed to have been a relation. They settled at Rattlesnake Bar, a small mining camp in Placer County, on the North Fork of the American River. Later his brother and the old man returned to Canada. Dick stayed on at Rattlesnake Bar, working for other men and doing a little prospecting on his own when rumors began arriving from Nevada City to the effect that rich quartz deposits had been found in the mountains. Many of the American River miners packed their gear and left. But not Dick Barter. Going from saloon to saloon, be bragged that his river bar was the best settlement in the placers. The older miners looked on Dick with amusement "There goes Rattlesnake Dick", they would say. This was the turning point in his life. Thrown as he was, among scenes and men so different from any of his previous associations, he fell into the evil courses that eventually ended in his tragic death. The rest of his story can be found in the Placer County Historical Society booklet, "Infamous Crimes and Criminals in Placer County." The 1904 Adolph Weber murder case is also detailed. (See books for further information.) There is also a plaque at the corner of Foresthill Road and East Lincoln Way commemorating the poetress "Eulalie" and the Junction House, which was near where Rattlesnake Dick's body was found. Dick is buried in the Old Auburn District Cemetery off of Fulweiler Ave. in Auburn.
The walls of Bootleggers Tavern, on Washington Street in Old Town Auburn, hold a secret.
. . .May 29, 1891, local citizens held a meeting. They wanted to erect a new brick building at the site of the old Music Hall, a two-story edifice with a hall, theater or assembly room, and rental.
The Music Hall was to be demolished. The site was no stranger to construction - by that date it had already seen three buildings. The first was the log-cabin Empire Hotel in 1849, owned by pioneer H. M. House and supported in part by mortgages of Elliza Elliot, one of Auburn’s earliest businesswomen.. . It burned down in 1855. . .the Auburn Greys, a civil war military group resembling today’s National Guard, built a new wooden armory in it’s place in 1867. The group disbanded. . .in 1867. . . .the Auburn Band practices were held in the building and it was renamed “Music Hall”. . . it served as an opera house, skating rink, dance hall and convention center. But the citizens’ group had more ambitious goals. The plans of the Auburn City Hall, as it was named, showed two towers, a smaller one on the corner and a taller two-story bell tower raising four stories in all. Several large glass peaked skylights brought sunlight into the upper floor, and when cranked open in the summer, also brought in cool breezes and ventilation. Lincoln potters Gladding-McBean Co. Produced ceramic flowers, tiles and other architectural details. This included a large round tile arch and pillared entrance with “Auburn City Hall 1892 emblazoned above the entrance doors . . .the preceding year, in 1890 another group had made similar plans for uptown Auburn. The uptown leaders, Col. Davis, Gen. Jo Hamilton. . .had plans for an opera house in the exact center of the city’s residential area, where seven broad streets converged in a large central square in east Auburn. . . .on July 12, 1890 the brick foundations were begun.
The citizens group incorporated a year later, on July 15, 1891, as the Auburn City Hall Association. Local business leaders, S. M. Stevens, D. W. Lubeck, E. C. Snowden, John Fulweiler and George W. McCreedy signed the documents.
On April 29, 1892, the burning of 650,000 bricks on J. B. Chamberlin’s lot on temple St. in Auburn for the New City hall began. The race between these different groups. . . was on.
. . .With both buildings finished, the competition between them grew. City Hall was never as popular with Auburnites . . .as the Grand Opera House in Central Square.
Despite this, the lower Auburn City Hall, . . .financially supported itself for a few years. . . Then disaster struck . A fire broke out in the back of the City Hall on July 29, 1905.. . All th buildings from Park Street to the American block burned. . . .Many schemes were developed over the years to use the old city hall property. . .Finally, during the First World War, it was used as a metal junkyard. . .then the lot remained vacant for two more decades. When the lot was paved in the 1940's the back walls became part of an auto repair garage and gas station. Straw Hat Pizza built a new frame building incorporating the old brick walls about twenty years later, it became Bootleggers Tavern. . . . The old brick walls are now all that remains of the old City Hall.
