At the beginning of each summer season Camp Tawonga turns back time. Tawonga runs a living history program for elementary students from local Jewish Day Schools. The students, along with their teachers and chaperones, come up for a 3 or 4 day program where they are brought back in time to the city of Hangtown, California in 1855. The students are Greenhorns (inexperienced minors) mining for gold, hiking, spending time at the school house, cook their own meal, playing games at the saloon, and spending nights at the dance hall in the pursuit of becoming Sourdoughs (experienced minors). The local Sourdoughs show the Greenhorns the ropes and share their experiences with the Greenhorns.


Here is a sneak peak at this year’s Sourdoughs:
From top to bottom, and the bottom row from left to right: Mr. Banjo, Mrs. Marry Ellen Pleasant, Mr. Israel Joseph Benjamin, Mr. Simon Heimavitz, Mr. William “Angle Eyes” Preston, Mr. Samuel Brannan, Mrs. Virginia Reed Murphy, and Ms. Ykipapa.