An early hotel and stage station stood on this site at the junction of roads from Auburn to Foresthill and Illinoistown. In 1854, it was the home of “The Auburn Poetess,” Mary Eulalie Shannon, reputed to be California’s first woman poet. It was also the scene of the death of “Rattlesnake Dick,” a famed early-day outlaw fatally wounded in a gun duel with law officers on July 11, 1859.