Copperopolis Town Square

I love Copperopolis because it’s just so bizarre. It reminds me of a Twilight Zone episode with the music playing in the well manicured park, the beautifully perfect buildings, yet not a single soul in sight.
Actually, there are some people there once you start looking around. There’s a few businesses open among the empty buildings. Griff’s is a good restaurant, and on our last visit we noticed a new wine bar and made a mental note to stop in next time.
Honestly, they must be losing money hand over fist on this development, but for some reason I stop in every time I’m in the neighborhood just to see if there’s anything new, and to kind of trip out on oddness of it.

Santana Row in the foothills. But empty. And yes, creepy. I could not stop talking about it to my travel partners. It’s amazingly poorly planned and conceived. At 12:00 noon, on a «first-​good-​snow-​of-​the-​season» Saturday, the «Square» was empty. As a former business owner, who paid $ 1.50 a sq ft for 2000 sq ft, I had to wonder: How does the almost empty coffee shop (with the most burnt-​tasting brewed coffee I have tasted in years) and 5 – 6 employees running around doing stuff, stay open? Better yet, how do all the other rather large-​ish nail salons, nick knack stores, and ice cream shops STAY CLOSED… And STILL PAY THEIR RENT? Who owns this place? Better yet… who subsidizes it? If it’s not subsidized, then I feel really worry for the owners who got duped into signing multi-​year leases and are now eating their shorts. The Eighth wonder of the world.
There’s even at least one road that heads out to an empty field that appears to be space for future expansion.
Only gets a second star because of the Grill place. The salad was actually a bit eclectic for being a restaurant in a former copper-​rush town: Arugula and young greens – not just a slice of iceberg. The ribs were… decent. The service was real good and authentic. Too bad that place is not on it’s own.

I am a huge sucker for small towns for so many reasons. They are always beautiful and old timey looking. They usually have an amazing variety of antique shops. Small towns come equipped with small town eateries and no fast food chains. Finally, small towns almost always have the nicest people in the world running them.
Copperopolis isn’t just a small town, it’s a tiny town. We walked around the entire town, taking our time, and still managed to finish in less than 30 minutes. We stopped a few great shops, including a store that specializes in olive oil and even gives free tasting. We also stopped at an art store that sells both supplies and works of art. Both were very cute and exactly what I want from a small town like this.
That was pretty much the jist of it. A few other stores and restaurants were open, but a vast majority of the spaces were empty. Not exactly a booming town if you catch my drift, but cute none the less. We didn’t stay long and instead just kept making our way down the 4, but I did enjoy my very brief stay in the town with the very fun name to say.

Well here it is late summer, September, 2014. Mid-​week (on a Thursday).We we’re on our way out of the mountains on Hwy. 4… Been on a camping trip at Highlands Lake. We had previously stopped at Copperopopolis Town Square once a few years back. And yep, it’s still deserted, and has that creepy feel to it. Nothing has changed. Everything the other Unilocal reviews have said are right on the money! Yes the Town Square and the whole area are WAY out there, in the golden brown rolling hills. Oak trees scattered about. Someone had a big dream and invested a huge fortune to build this small «village».I poked around in a ladies clothing boutique, a kitchen shoppe, and we bought a few things in a pet store. Also enjoyed some good coffee and pastries from the mini-​Starbucks type of store. They also offered free WiFi.
Same piped in music all over the Square, it all just seems surreal. But we find ourselves kind of feeling sorry for the businesses. The bigger cities of Stockton and Modesto are just down the road and folks need to stop by Town Square more often. I hear concerts are held here occasionally during the spring & summer. That’s a good thing! We will always stop when traveling the Hwy 4!

It’s a cute townsquare with nice shops. The people are friendly but some things are overpriced. I enjoy just walking around there. It’s pretty.

Visited the town square for the second time in a year. Sad that some of the stores that were three last year no long there. The town square is pretty much of a ghost town now with just a few stores and restaurants. We went on a Sunday and it was a ghost town with piped in music playing. The square is clean, and will give the very clean public toilets a shout out. Doubt we will re-​visit as there really is not enough there to afford the drive.

Just heard «Journey Relived «last night at the square check the schedule next sat nights some great groups!
1.Excellent Venue
2. Clean, kid dog ok (on a leash)
3. BYOB OKKK! Says no… but everyone brings a sm cooler for evening short chairs or blanket get there early for best seating options
3. The restaurant are very accommodating THAT BEING SAID…
***************PATRONIZE***********
Support these guys buy some dinner or appetizers and beverages!

We were on our way back from Yosemite on a Sunday… and drove through Copperopolis, needed to stop for the kids and saw the signs for Town Square… PERFECT — right? Not so much — it was down right creepy. In such a cute-​straight off of Disney Main street way-​the stores should have been open, kids riding bikes and people strolling but just the opposite — the sidewalks were rolled up and no one — no one was around. It was like out of a SciFi movie — seemed very unreal.
So to the town planners and elected officials of Copperopolis — Please open your stores and embrace the cute appeal that you have — your town is starting to be known as creepy.

There aren’t many places to stop between Stockton and Angels Camp other than Copperopolis. This small town Square was a surprise. I was expecting to see the four Civil War era buildings that are on the National Register of Historic places when I turned off highway 4. Instead I found this pretty little town square.
It looked pretty busy when we first drove in. There were a lot of motorcycles parked around the square. By the time we left they were gone. There are a few shops, several restaurants and other businesses around the square. My guess is that it might seem like a modern day ghost town during the week; Copperopolis is really in the middle of nowhere.

Stopped by here yesterday (holiday Monday) after going up the Calaveras Big Trees Park. Seems like I had the same reaction as some Unilocalers who reviewed this place several months ago. Yup… it’s C-​R-​E-​E-​P-​Y. Ghost town creepy. Not the dilapidated, rotting-​away kind but more like an abandoned-​shiny-​new-​amusement-​park-​in-​the-​middle-​of-​nowhere kind. Everything is nice and pretty and clean… and deserted. Um, where are the people?
There are several shops but the only ones open were the art shop and Griff’s BBQ Grill (will have a separate review about this place later). Granted we came here after 5pm and it was a weekday holiday to boot so probably shops close earlier. There were a steady stream of people coming to the bbq place, who I think are mostly locals.
One Unilocaler mentioned this place is like a movie set, which was just what I was thinking when I heard the clock tower chimed at 6pm. Whoa, to quote other Unilocalers: Back to the Future! That was cool. Although, I can’t help thinking «Uh-​oh, is it time to let the zombies out? Should I grab my kid and high tail it out of here?!»
I guess I’d like to see this place again when there’s an event going on or just people hanging about and enjoying the day. The buildings are new and nicely done, and the other shops are probably interesting to visit and browse, but don’t people hang out here often?
Anyway, I’m giving it three stars — one, for that Back To the Future feeling it gave me for a few seconds; two, the empty town square where my kid enjoyed running around (anything that amuses my 1 ½ year-​old for more than 20 minutes is gold for me); and three, for its public restroom that’s equipped with stainless steel toilets! Yeah, don’t laugh, if you’ve been pee-​ing behind bushes in the wilderness, you’d worship the stainless steel toilet. Not that I pee-​d behind bushes or anything, it’s just a metaphor, ya hear!
So if you’re having a road trip out to Highway 4, swing by the place and check it out. It can be a nice photo-​op place where you won’t have to worry about other people photo-​bombing you (because it’s deserted). Or rest stop where you won’t have to worry about the long lines to use the bathrooms (again, because it’s deserted).
But for authentic local downtown experience, you might want to explore what the other towns have to offer.

Holy creepy. It’s like a ghost town… a creepy, perfect, weird little ghost town. We stopped in here recently and got out of the car… and felt like we were in a daytime version of Silent Hill. Seriously, if you’re ever in the area, take a few minutes to pull in and check it out. It’ll give you some serious willies.
Filed under Children of the Corn o_​O

This place creeps me out!
The shops are fine and all, some of them are pretty great, but the «town» itself is creep-​tastic! As someone else mentioned (although they meant it as a compliment I think), it’s like being on a movie set– as in everything is FAKE! It’s as if the Disney crew came in a built a «western town» set. And it’s nearly deserted most of the time, which always reminds me of some kind of after-​the-​zombie-​apocolypse scene, where everything is pretty much untouched, even the piped in music is still playing, but nothing lives! I’m expecting some crazy un-​dead to come running out of a shop and start chasing me!
I grew up in the area so it’s especially weird to me to see something like this in Copper, since when we were growing up, Copper was kinda like the ghetto. I remember when the land this «town square» sits on was just an empty field. There are some big beautiful homes in the area and all, but for the most part there are a lot of meth-​heads since rent is so cheep (because it’s hotter than $HIT in the summer, and no body else is willing to live there!).
If you are into pre-​packaged, insincere, fakeness– this is the town for you! If, however, you would like a little more authentic experience, you should go to pretty much any other town in the area. Murphys, Angels Camp, Sonora, Twain Harte, Sutter Creek, Jackson, all have wonderful downtown areas… and guess what… They’re all actually from the Gold Rush era!

I’ve lived in Copperopolis for over half of my life now, and I was skeptical at first when this Town Square seemed to rise out of the ground. It took me a long time to actually get around to the place, but when I did, WOW! There are so many different shops and places to grab a snack. I am actually employed part time in the square now, so I get to enjoy the atmosphere all the time.

Cute little place to stop and take cute pictures in the gazebo.
Nice place to walk around, stretch your legs and maybe grab some snacks (ice cream!)
The town square is pretty new, but yet we felt like we were on the set of Back to the Future with the Town Square and the clock tower! :)
Also we kinda felt like we were in some magical disney town!
There’s a restaurant, dog store, ice cream parlor, gas station nearby, and other places to drop in and walk around! :)