A multi-day festival to call attention to Yreka’s gold rush and frontier past will also double as a prime event to showcase downtown businesses. 

“Gold Rush Days celebrates Yreka’s unique foundation as a bustling cosmopolitan gold rush-era city,” said Kory Hayden, one of the key organizers for the event. “For a period of time Yreka was a sister city to San Francisco and a significant transportation and communication hub, with the Franco-American Hotel, Third Street, and Yreka stagecoach routes drawing impressive visits by dignitaries.” 

Gold Rush Days kicks off Friday evening with Miner Street businesses staying open later for a “sip and shop” from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., followed by an outdoor concert in Tri-Counties Bank parking lot and a “speakeasy” at the Rex Club. 

The fun continues the next day with a number of events starting with a pancake breakfast at the Yreka Fire Department on Miner Street, live music beginning at 11 a.m. on the main stage, Third Street historic wagon tours, events for children and others like the watermelon eating contest, carousel rides, face-painting, stick-horse racing and more. All events are free. 

Gold Rush Days, which has been on hiatus for two years due to COVID-19 protocols, is imagined as a nostalgic meander around the many aspects — large and small — of small-town living, remarked Hayden, recalling sockhops, sidewalk sales and movies at the Broadway Twin. 

“These events framed Yreka as a city full of pride and promise. Today, Gold Rush Days keeps some of that former excitement going,” said Hayden.