Amador County was created in 1854 from Calaveras County.  Territory which at one time was in Amador county is now in Alpine and Mono Counties. The county is named for Jose Maria Amador, soldier, rancher and miner, who was born in San Francisco in 1794, the son of Sergeant Pedro Amador, a Spanish soldier who settled in California in 1771. In 1848, Jose Maria Amador, with several Indians, established a successful gold mining camp near the present town of Amador. In Spanish, the word amador means "lover of inanimate objects."

   .........