About the Hotel Leger

From the Enterprise article:

George Leger first operated the hotel - originally a wood-framed tent that sat on the corner of Main and Lafayette streets. In 1851, records have shown that the hotel - then called the Hotel de France - initially catered to a large French population that had settled into Moke Hill during the Gold Rush.

The present hotel is actually three separate buildings, one of which served as the Calaveras County Courthouse from 1855 to 1866. That stone building is the only portion of the three-building structure that survived three devastating fires that razed most of the town in 1854, 1865 and 1874. Inside the old courthouse structure was also the county jail.

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From the Stockton Record article:

One of the most historic hostelries in the Mother Lode, Mokelumne Hill's Hotel Leger (pronounced "luh zhay") has always been the hub of town activity. Beginning in 1851, a hotel, has always existed on the corner of Lafayette and Main. Until 1866, the building included the county courthouse with a convenient downstairs dungeon and a hanging tree out back.

Since "the Hill" was the biggest, baddest, most important mining camp in Calaveras County (according to the records, 17 people killed there in 17 weeks, then five more shot the following weekend), it scarcely seems surprising that such riotous history would inspire a legion of restless spirits.

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