Amador County – McLaughlin’s Daffodil Hill is set to open on Friday, March 16, weather permitting.

Daffodil Hill is an historic private ranch in Volcano that transforms into a flowering paradise each spring, with thousands of visitors for about four weeks viewing its six-acre grounds displaying blooming almonds, crocuses, tulips, hyacinths, violets and lilacs in a farm setting, and its blanket of daffodils.

Not a commercial enterprise, and not formally publicized or promoted, Daffodil Hill has been owned by the same family since it was acquired in 1887 by pioneers Arthur McLaughlin and Elizabeth “Lizzie” van Vorst-McLaughlin. The several hundred-acre property was purchased from Pete Denzer, a Dutchman, who planted a few daffodils around his residence in remembrance of his home country.

In the early days of the Gold Rush, Daffodil Hill was a regular stopping place for teamsters hauling timber from the Sierras down to the Kennedy and Argonaut Mines, and fore eastbound travelers heading for the Comstock Lode on the Amador-Nevada Wagon Road (Highway 88).

In 1887, after coming west from New York and Ohio, Arthur’s wife, Lizzie, began to plant additional daffodils to beautify the ranch. The bulbs have been nurtured and added to by subsequent generations as a memorial to their ancestors.

Today much of the landscape around the old homestead is covered with several hundred named varieties of daffodils. For the last 20 years, the McLaughlins’ descendants have continued to personally plant several thousand new bulbs per year. In the past several years an average of 16,000 daffodil bulbs per year have been planted by the Ryan brothers and their families: great-grandchildren; great-, great-grandchildren; and great-, great-, great-grandchildren of Arthur and Lizzie. It is estimated that today Daffodil Hill has approximately 300,000 bulbs.

Located at 3,000 elevation, the site includes the original 1880s barn, wagon wheels, Gold Rush era mining equipment, antique farming implements, and peacocks, chickens, miniature donkeys and a horse.

Daffodil Hill is open only in the spring, usually from mid-March through the first weeks of April. After that, it goes back to a working ranch and is not open for visitors. Weather determines the length of the blooming each season, and the Hill is not open during or immediately after inclement weather.

Visitors should call the Hill hotline before they visit to make sure it is open. Hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., seven days a week, weather permitting. Admission and parking are free, though donations are gratefully accepted, and proceeds go toward purchase of the next season’s planting of bulbs.

Call Daffodil Hill at (209)296-7048 and Amador County Chamber of Commerce at 1(800)649-4988.

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