Missing for Decades, Claude Chana Statue Returns to Placer County

The long-lost sculpture, which served as the model for Auburn’s famous 45-ton gold miner, has returned to the historic Colfax Hotel.

A statue of California Gold Rush pioneer Claude Chana has returned to Placer County after disappearing decades ago. The sculpture, created by Auburn dentist and artist Dr. Kenneth Fox during the 1960s, once stood outside the historic Colfax Hotel. Now it’s back, thanks to an unexpected discovery on Facebook.

And if you’re familiar with the enormous concrete gold miner standing in Old Town Auburn, there’s a connection. Fox created that monument, too. The missing Colfax sculpture was the smaller, earlier version that served as the model for Auburn’s famous 45-ton statue.

The two sculptures have very different histories.

The smaller statue stood outside the Colfax Hotel until it disappeared sometime during the following decades. Nobody seems to know exactly when it vanished or where it went. Then, in September 2026, someone recognized the sculpture advertised for sale on Facebook and contacted the mayor of Colfax.

The mayor reached out to the hotel’s owner, arrangements were made to bring the statue home, and by September 25, it had returned to the hotel where it originally stood.

The larger statue, meanwhile, has remained in Old Town Auburn since 1975.

 

Dr. Kenneth Fox was a practicing dentist in Auburn who taught himself to sculpt. His artistic career began in 1967 with a statue titled Why, depicting a soldier carrying a fallen comrade. Created during the Vietnam War, the sculpture caused controversy, particularly over its title. Fox refused requests to rename it.

He went on to create several enormous concrete figures, some of which were displayed outside his dental office. His sculptures eventually became known as the Great Statues of Auburn.

The Claude Chana monument was among his most ambitious projects. Built over a framework of steel reinforcing bars and wire mesh, the enormous figure depicts a prospector kneeling over a gold pan.

On May 20, 1973, Fox displayed the giant miner on a float during Auburn’s Gold Discovery Days parade, celebrating the city’s 125th anniversary. The float won the parade’s Best Theme award, and the sculpture attracted enough attention that local residents began discussing a permanent home for it.

Fox originally wanted $10,000 for the statue. In 1975, a citizens’ committee organized a fundraising campaign to purchase it for the community. Fox reduced his asking price to $8,000, and the monument was installed in Old Town Auburn, where it was formally dedicated on July 4, 1975.

That’s the giant gold miner visitors still see today. It never went missing.

The smaller Colfax sculpture, created years earlier, was part of the same artistic project. Its return gives Placer County another surviving piece of Fox’s work.

 

So who was Claude Chana, and why did Fox build a monument to him?

Chana was born in Rouen, France, in 1811 and immigrated to the United States in 1839. He eventually made his way west, crossing the Sierra Nevada in 1846 before settling in California.

His arrival came at an interesting moment. California was still under Mexican rule when Chana entered the territory, and the discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill was less than two years away.

In the spring of 1848, Chana learned of James Marshall’s gold discovery at Coloma. He joined a party traveling into the foothills, hoping to find gold of his own.

On May 16, 1848, the group camped along a stream in what would become known as Auburn Ravine. Chana tried panning the stream and reportedly recovered three large gold nuggets.

That discovery helped establish the mining district that eventually became Auburn.

Chana and his companions spent several weeks prospecting in the area before moving north toward reports of richer deposits along the Yuba River. He apparently never returned to the site of his discovery.

Chana’s later years tell another part of California’s early history. After finding success in the goldfields, he purchased a ranch near the Bear River and developed orchards and vineyards. He became an early figure in California’s fruit-growing industry.

Unfortunately, the mining industry that helped make his fortune also contributed to his financial ruin. Hydraulic mining operations upstream deposited enormous quantities of sediment along the Bear River, damaging his agricultural property. By 1875, Chana had lost his ranch.

He died in 1882.

 

Auburn’s beginnings are commemorated by California Historical Landmark No. 404, located in Old Town Auburn near the Claude Chana monument.

The landmark recognizes the community’s Gold Rush origins and Chana’s discovery of gold on May 16, 1848. Its historical marker was dedicated on September 23, 1950, more than two decades before Fox’s enormous statue found its permanent home nearby.

Auburn is one of the historic places covered in my book, Exploring California’s Historic Landmarks: Northern California, which takes readers through the landmarks, communities, and events that shaped the northern part of the Golden State. You can check out my books HERE.

There’s an interesting detail about the giant monument itself. No known photographs or drawings of Claude Chana survive, so Fox had no documented likeness of the pioneer to work from.

According to the Placer County Historical Society, a local gold panner named Paul Avery served as the model for the large Auburn sculpture.

The face that generations of visitors have come to associate with Claude Chana actually belongs to another man.

 

The smaller statue’s return comes as the historic Colfax Hotel undergoes a long-awaited restoration.

The building opened in March 1903 as the Gillen Hotel, named for its builder, Daniel Cornelius Gillen. Located on Grass Valley Street, it served travelers passing through Colfax, an important railroad junction connecting the Southern Pacific line with the Nevada County Narrow Gauge Railroad.

The hotel originally had 56 rooms, a restaurant, and balconies. Over the years, it changed owners and names before becoming the Colfax Hotel in the 1920s.

By the 1970s, the hotel had closed. Several attempts to revive the property followed, but the building remained vacant.

That began to change in 2026. Owners Wendy and Leif Lowery received the final permit needed for the restoration project in August, allowing work to move forward. Plans under consideration include a restaurant, retail space, and accommodations, although the final configuration and reopening date have not been announced.

And now, as work on the old hotel moves forward, the smaller Claude Chana statue has returned.

The sculpture once greeted visitors outside the building during the 1960s, years before its much larger counterpart became an Auburn landmark. Where it spent the intervening decades remains unknown, but the connection between the two statues is now part of the story of its recovery.

After decades away, the original Colfax gold miner is back where he started.

 

California has more than 1,000 registered historical landmarks, each with a story to tell. My Exploring California’s Historic Landmarks series covers Northern, Central, and Southern California, organized county by county for readers who want to explore these places themselves.

Explore all my California Historic Landmarks books HERE 

 

Missing Claude Chana Statue Returns to Placer County After Decades – HERE