Daffodil Hill closes for the season after just one weekend

For those waiting for an annual sojourn down State Route 88 to Daffodil Hill, it's time to change your plans. They opened for the season on March 30, not knowing their season would only last two days.

A rainy week has more than dampened spirits, it also damaged the thousands of daffodils lining the four-acre farm owned by the McLaughlin family.

"Together these factors have led the family to make the difficult decision to close Daffodil Hill for the 2019 season," said a post of the Daffodil Hill Facebook page. "We realize that this decision will disappoint all who were planning on visiting us this year, however, the weather has dictated this decision."

Thousands of people enjoyed the two days of daffodil viewing, visiting with the farm's peacocks and picnicking next to the gardens, bringing with them heavy traffic and rare parking spots. Roads and facilities were overwhelmed and the family said they will work in the coming months to figure out a plan for 2020.

In 2018 a wet spring prevented Daffodil Hill from opening so many were excited to make their plans to visit in 2019. After two sunny days of being opened the McLaughlins closed Monday due to rain heading into the area. When the rain didn't stop and with a forecast of rain through mid-April, they made the decision to close for the season.

The farm began as a 36-acre ranch and toll road for travelers and teamsters hauling timber from the Sierras down to the Kennedy and Argonaut Mines, and for eastbound travelers heading for the Comstock Lode on the Amador-Nevada Wagon Road (Highway 88).

In 1877, after coming west from New York and Ohio, Arthur McLaughlin and his wife, “Lizzie” van Vorst-McLaughlin purchased the ranch from Dutchman Pete Denzer, who planted a few daffodils around his residence in remembrance of his home country of Holland. Arthur and Lizzie continued to plant additional daffodils to beautify the ranch.

The family continues to plant more bulbs and there are an estimated 300,000 daffodils today.

The farm is located in the historic Gold Rush town of Volcano. The area was first known designated by Colonel Stevenson's men, who mined Soldiers Gulch in 1849. In 1851 a post office was established and by April 1852 there were 300 houses. By 1853 the flats and gulches swarmed with men, and there were 11 stores, six hotels, three bakeries, and three saloons.[6] Hydraulic mining operations, begun in 1855, brought thousands of fortune seekers to form a town of 17 hotels, a library, a theater, and courts of quick justice.

In this small town were many firsts for California: In 1854 there was the first theater group, first debating society, first circulating library, first private schools; and in 1855 the first private law school. In 1856 there was the first legal hanging in Amador County in Volcano, followed by the first astronomical observatory in California in 1860.