The Official Guide described the '49 Camp as 'depicting the early life of California.' Todd called it the real bad boy of the Zone. It had a restaurant, a bar, a Jimtown dance hall and other pioneer trappings. It was also said to allow gambling, which Todd notes would have been only historically accurate. Through the rainy early months the management kept 'slamming the lid' on it. It reopened several times on promises of good behavior.
It ended in the hands of the boxing promoter James Coffroth. He staged roulette, faro and craps with scrip that bought chips, which turned back into scrip and then into merchandise, with a limit of two dollars' worth per customer. With a few limited-round bouts added, the camp became very popular, but it still looked too much like gambling and was closed in October. On Zone Day it held an Old Fiddlers' contest, won by a player born in 1844.
At a glance
- Contained a restaurant, bar and 'Jimtown' dance hall.
- Closed repeatedly; finally shut in October 1915 under James Coffroth.
- Scrip limit: no more than $2 sold to any one person at a time.
Afterward
Closed October 1915; demolished with the Zone in 1916.
Where it stood
The '49 Camp stood at about 37.80344 N, 122.42891 W on today's map. The whole fairground over the city →
Sources
- Frank Morton Todd, The Story of the Exposition, vol. II (1921), ch. LXVI, p. 362
- Frank Morton Todd, The Story of the Exposition, vol. III (1921), ch. IX, p. 64 (Old Fiddlers' contest)
- Official Guide of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition (1915), p. 69
- Map of the Zone concessions, spring 1915 (reproduced in 'Let Me Get There', USC Scalar), Spring 1915 map of the Zone concessions