The Angels Hotel on Main Street is where Mark Twain heard the story that made him famous. The original building dates from the Gold Rush era; the current structure incorporates elements of the old hotel and carries a plaque marking Twain's famous stay in the winter of 1864-65. It is a bar and restaurant today, and while the interior has been modernised, the location is genuine.
The building is modest but the literary history is real. Twain came here as a broke, unknown journalist hoping to try his luck in the gold fields. He left a few months later without having made his fortune from mining, but with the raw material for "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" — the short story that launched his career. The hotel is worth a stop for a drink and to pay your respects to the place where an American literary tradition began.