By Peter Hecht / The Sacramento Bee

YREKA, Calif. - The last time so much gold was pulled out of this town, the place was known as "the richest square mile on earth," a Gold Rush jewel north of California’s Mother Lode.

By the mid-1850s, the town so glittered in gold that miners showered the popular child dancer Lotta Crabtree with buckskin bags filled with nuggets at the Arcade Saloon.

Now Yreka is feeling violated by an audacious heist that has stolen its history and wounded its pride.