Old Sperry Hotel was originally built in 1855 by J. L. Sperry, of Sperry Flour fame, and his partner John Perry. Early guests whose names appear on an old register include Mark Twain, Horatio Alger, Thomas H. Lipton, Henry Ward Beecher, the Rothchilds, General U.S. Grant, and C. E. Bolton, known as Black Bart. According to tradition, the quaint old hotel is the one referred to in Bret Harte’s “A Night in Wingdam.” Murphy’s Camp was founded in early ’49 by the brothers John and Daniel Murphy, and millions of gold were taken from the camp and vicinity.