“There really is a town called ‘Cool’? How cool is that?” You can imagine that’s a conversation that happens many, many times in this small town nestled in the foothills of the Sierras of Northern California, with gorgeous views of the surrounding mountains and canyons, less than an hour’s drive from the state capital in Sacramento.
The area played a huge part in the development of California’s history as well, as the community now known as Cool lies near the Marshall Gold Discovery State Park, the site where James Marshall spotted some tiny flecks of gold in a river made by snow melting from the nearby Sierra peaks.
Working from the mill owned by his employer John Sutter, in 1847 Marshall had made what would turn out to be the gold discovery of the century, and draw tens of thousands with dreams of striking it rich to the area in the gold rush of 1849.
You’ll be running among all this history when you take to the trails that wind through the hills surrounding Cool, a town that today is home to about 4,000 residents.
