Dutch Flat isn't your normal ghost town. For one thing, living people reside there.

Even though it boasts an array of Gold Rush-era buildings that's hard to match, it's not your typical Gold Country tourist trap either. And many of the town's 333 residents are happy to keep it that way.

A mile off Interstate 80 halfway between Sacramento and Truck- ee, "Dutch Flat is one of the few gold mining towns that never totally burned over," said resident and local historian Doug Ferrier. "Auburn, Grass Valley, Nevada city, Truckee, you name it, they burned over at least once."

German brothers Joseph and Charles Dornbach founded the town in 1851 with their families. Fueled by hydraulic mining, in 1860 Dutch Flat had the largest voting population in Placer County. Before its decline, its Chinese population peaked at 2,000.

These days, the town is a mix of retirees, families and professionals who commute to nearby jobs.

"What is nice about Dutch Flat is … you can picture in your mind exactly how it was in the 1860s," Ferrier said.

The Methodist Church, old Dutch Flat Elementary School, the Odd Fellows Building and the Masonic Hall were all built before the turn of the 20th century.

But because of its location, the town, which is designated "semi-ghost" by the www.ghosttowns.com Web site, doesn't attract accidental tourists, Ferrier said.

When Susan "Sussy" Flanigan and her husband, Tom, took the Dutch Flat exit more than six years ago, she didn't know there was more than the gas station, restaurant and repair shop hugging the interstate.

The part-time opera singer and Bay Area real estate appraiser were looking to buy a weekend retreat for themselves. In 2003, they ended up paying $425,000 for the 5,700-square-foot, three-story hotel – one of the most iconic buildings in town – and two adjacent homes.

"We thought, 'Wow, it's basically free by Bay Area standards,' " said Susan Flanigan.

The hotel had closed in the 1940s. Failed renovation work in the 1980s left it gutted, boarded-up and fenced off.

The Flanigans poured more than $1 million into restoring and decorating the hotel, which she planned to run as a bed-and-breakfast.

"We restored a part of California. We restored the soul of the community," Flanigan said. "We saw this as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."

But Flanigan said she can't break even as a bed-and-breakfast and has put the hotel up for sale, although she still tries to rent out the entire building as a weekend retreat for groups or families.

Flanigan still wants to improve the town's visibility and is asking the state Department of Transportation for a sign on I-80 saying Dutch Flat is a national historic landmark.

The Golden Drift Museum on Main Street attracts a few tourists when it's open in summer, but often docents have no patrons for their tours.

"We need tourists," said Jean Fanning, whose antique shop across the street from the museum is one of the few businesses in town.

"I used to be able to make enough in the summer to see us through the winter," said Fanning, who's lived in town for 40 years and run the business since 1985. Now she isn't getting enough traffic to make ends meet, she said.

Susan Prince, who is on the community center board, concurs that the town must attract outsiders.

"We have to have new people," said Prince, who attended the nearby school as a child. "If a town just turned inward, it dies. That is not the sign of a healthy community.

A "small-town feel" wrapped in pine, fir and spruce trees is what many residents said attracted them to the town.

Carly Breslin, who owns a dress shop down the street from the hotel, said that although she wasn't sure she'd fit in when she moved to Dutch Flat, she found she enjoys going television-free as she and other women in town do crafts, quilt and sew.

"I can't think of a better place," said longtime resident Jim Ricker. "It rarely gets below 20 (degrees) and never gets above 100," he said. "It's like a little New England town with white picket fences."

Local activist Debbie McClatchy, a distant relative of the Bee's founder, said little things make it home for her.

"There is no postal delivery. So everyday people have to walk and get their mail. So people congregate," she said.

As for tourists, she is a little less inviting. "I don't want people picking fruit on my trees, walking on my property to look at my garden," she said. "We love visitors, but we don't want tourists."

Call The Bee's Ed Fletcher, (916) 321-1269.