The Tavern Keeper's Son Filming Locations

Learning of the discovery of gold on the American River near Sacramento, Juan Capella, the son of a poor Spanish tavern keeper and his wife, runs away from his parents and sweetheart to make his fortune. The tavern keeper is in debt and places a mortgage on the tavern to prevent it being seized to pay another debt. Juan strikes gold in the "diggings." Carmen, a Spanish dance-hall girl employed in the village near the diggings, tries to gain Juan's love and get his gold dust, but a vision of Dolores, the girl Juan left behind in the south, deters him from following up the flirtation, and Carmen is jilted. A year later, Juan having taken a fortune from the mine, decides to return south. He has grown a beard and looks very different from the youth who ran away from home. The money lender is about to seize the tavern in settlement of the debt, so Capella and his wife plot to rob the first wealthy traveler that stops at the inn. The traveler happens to be their own son, whom they do not recognize owing to his beard and rich garments. Seeing that he is not recognized, Juan determines to go upstairs and shave off his beard then return and surprise his parents. A terrific storm rages shortly after Juan gains the shelter of his father's tavern and Juan's father leaves for the stable to shelter the horse. He and his wife have changed their minds about robbing the stranger. While awaiting the return of her husband, who is delayed at the stable by the violence of the storm the wife falls asleep by the fireplace and in a vision dreams that she and her husband go upstairs and murder the stranger and steal his gold. Out of the stable the father has a vision of the sheriff's sale of the property and he resolves to return to the tavern and steal the stranger's gold without his wife's knowledge. Juan comes down the stairs, clean shaven, just as the mother awakens from her dream. She is overjoyed to see her son and realizes that it was only a bad dream. The father returns from the stable and is just in time to share in the reunion.