State Route 49 (
SR 49) is a north–south
state highway in the
U.S. state of
California that passes through many historic mining communities of the 1849
California gold rush. Highway 49 is numbered after the "49ers", the waves of immigrants who swept into the area looking for gold, and a portion of it is known as the
Gold Country Highway. This roadway begins at
Oakhurst,
Madera County, in the
Sierra Nevada, where it diverges from State Route 41. It continues in a generally northwest direction, weaving through the communities of Goldside and Ahwahnee, before crossing into
Mariposa County. State Route 49 then continues northward through the counties of
Tuolumne,
Calaveras,
Amador,
El Dorado,
Placer,
Nevada,
Yuba,
Sierra, and
Plumas, where it reaches its northern terminus at
State Route 70, in
Vinton.