A few weeks ago I was able to share great photos of Bob G’s Mudgett saloon token from Fortuna. Tokens were used by various businesses and Bob has built quite a collection.
Some of Bob’s tokens and an overview of some uses can be found HERE on his Facebook page.
Many, like this one,
Alton House Token, c 1888
Alton House token, c. 1888
are also posted HERE on tokencatelog.com .
He suggests you click on California, then select any of our local towns such as Alton, Fortuna, Arcata, or Ferndale to see more local tokens. You’ll find over 200 from Eureka alone
Thanks for sharing, Bob !
Love the tokens. I remember the trains at alton. My dad used to get so mad if he couldn’t beat them as they were 100 cars and took forever. Alton was very different then.
I wish I could have seen that Alton.
Aren’t these tokens great? I grew up in Rio Dell and couldn’t find any, but found two from Wildwood-which was the previous name for the town. Also found some for Scotia, including tokens the Pacific Lumber Company would issue for “merchandise only”. I’m surprised none have turned up for Falk.
I bet if you went through them all, you’d be able to ID businesses that only “lived” a short while. There is a cool old one from “Polk Saloon” in Fieldbrook…