History

The old gold rush towns were hell-for-sure violent places, and the towns we now know as Murphys and Angels Camp were no exceptions to this rule. However, some among the “Forty-Niners” brought with them to these places the civilizing Masonic virtues of temperance, fortitude, prudence and justice. The raw little mining village of “Murphy’s Rich Diggins” was just beginning to take off when a Masonic Lodge sprang up, fulfilling a need expressed by Freemasons who were among the early seekers of gold.

In May, 1853 “Ophir Lodge #33” received its charter from the Grand Lodge of California and began regular meetings in private homes. One Alexander H. Putney, who had previously served as Grand Master of the State of Maine, was the first Master of Ophir Lodge. In 1860 the fledgling Lodge was finally able to afford to build its own hall on ground donated by one of the lodge brothers, Fred Paxton. The original one-story hall was razed in 1902 and replaced by a two-story building complete with dining hall on the ground floor. The current Masonic Lodge complex, at the site of the original hall on Church Street, includes the 1902 building and a state-of-the-art ground-floor lodge room built in 2002.

Ophir Bear Mountain Lodge No. 33 Free & Accepted Masons is the result of a consolidation in 1988 of the original Ophir Lodge #33 of Murphys, and Bear Mountain Lodge #75 of Angels Camp.

Bear Mountain Lodge was chartered in 1855 and first held meetings in the Angels “Opera Hall.” After a fire which consumed the entire town, meetings were moved to the Oddfellows Hall until 1869 when the Lodge was able to purchase a building known as “Temperance Hall” for the princely sum of $100.

The history of the Angels Camp and Murphys Lodges is the history of the notable men who were the business, civic and cultural leaders of the area. The rolls of these Lodges contain many pioneer names, including: Harvey Blood, the creator of the toll road over the Sierras along the route of the present Highway 4; James G. Fair, one of the developers of the famed Comstock Lode of Nevada and later a U.S. Senator; and Thomas J. Moran, Wiley G. Manuel, and Willis Dunbar, all prominent in the local lumber industry. It may be of interest to Mark Twain fans that one Samuel L. Clemens, sat as Senior Deacon of Bear Mountain Lodge in February, 1865.

The history of the old west is a history of strong pioneer women, too, and this is still exemplified by the activities of the Order of the Eastern Star, an organization open to women and men with direct or familial ties to Masonry. Here in Murphys, Crescent Chapter No. 165, Order of the Eastern Star, celebrated its centenary in 1998.

Today, the men and women of Ophir Bear Mountain Lodge and Crescent Chapter are proud to carry on a long tradition of harmony, friendship and active service to the communities along the Ebbetts Pass corridor.