[2] The town of Murphys was a popular stopping point along the stagecoach route from Milton to the Calaveras Big Trees.

Thought to be fireproof due to its stone construction and iron shutters, the hotel was damaged in the fire of 1859 that destroyed most of the downtown area.

Copies of the original register show such signatures as Mark Twain, John Jacob Astor, Ulysses S. Grant, John Bidwell, Charles Bolles (alias Black Bart), Henry Ward Beecher, Horatio Alger, J.P. Morgan and Thomas Lipton.

Gordon Ramsay's Hotel Hell covered the hotel in an episode of the series, broadcast on September 9, 2014, on the U.S. Fox television network.

[4] It also appeared in the public television series Road Trip with Huell Howser episode on the Mother Lode.