Downieville became one of the most important and colorful towns of the Northern Mines after gold deposits were discovered in 1848-1849. Before the town developed, the site was known as Jim Crow Diggins, Washingtonville, Missouri Town, or simply The Forks, and in the spring of 1850 it was named for Major William Downie with general jollification. By May 1850 it had 15 hotels and gambling houses, 4 bakeries, 4 butcher shops, and every piece of ground was claimed, and in 1851 its population exceeded 5,000. Philo Haven and Francis Adderson were credited as among the first to discover gold a short distance above Jersey Ridge. Joseph Zumwalt, who arrived in 1850 and mined an area later known as Zumwalt Flat, brought the secrets of the Ancient and Honorable Order of E Clampus Vitus and founded its first chapter. When Sierra County was established in 1852, Downieville became the county seat, and it also received 10 fewer votes than Sacramento in the contest to become the state capitol. Gold was found widely there, including a reported $500 discovered by a housewife while sweeping the earthen floor of her kitchen. Among the earliest and richest mines were Sailor Ravine, Blue Banks opposite Zumwalt Flat, Tin Cup Diggins at the forks of the two rivers in town, and the gravels of Durgen Flat. The Gold Bluff, one of the earliest lode mines, began in 1850, and the Caton, the first drift tunnel, began in July 1851. One of the best-known Gold Rush stories was the hanging of Juanita for stabbing John Crow after the Fourth of July celebration in 1851.