In Calaveras County, a golden retriever goes viral — and makes a name for his small town
In a small town in rural Calaveras County, one dog stands above the rest. His name is Copper, and he resides in the town of Copperopolis.
Copper, a 5-year-old golden retriever, rules the 4,300-person town — literally. After voting closed on Sept. 6 for an informal Copper Valley mayoral race, the pup was officially announced as mayor (Copperopolis is unincorporated, so the title is purely ceremonial). Copper’s vice mayor, Jaxson, is also a dog.
Copper isn’t the first dog mayor in America, or even the first in California. Yet his story is still remarkable: This easygoing dog has managed to bring a small community together as it expands. He has also served as a much-needed companion not only to Copperopolis residents, but to people across the world who have battled loneliness and isolation during the pandemic.
At home, Copper greets customers at the pet-friendly Gateway Hotel in the Copperopolis town square. He hosts pet costume competitions and he has his own cellphone number and ice cream shop. Of course, it sells ice cream for dogs, too.
He’s also the spokesdog for Copper Valley, a development plan that aims to rebrand Copperopolis as “one of California’s best kept secrets.”
The claim is far from hyperbolic. Unless you live in Calaveras County, you’ve probably never heard of Copperopolis. Even the name of the town sounds slightly made up. I’ll confess that I doubted its existence until I saw it for myself.
Depending on the route you take to get to Copperopolis, you might drive by businesses and shops in Amador and El Dorado County, but mostly it’s rural open space and farmland. That’s why stumbling upon a busy town square with a gazebo straight out of Stars Hollow and an expansive, chic gated golf course after traveling through miles and miles of, well, nothing, gives the town a magical, Brigadoon-like quality.
Copperopolis
It wasn’t always this way.
Copperopolis was once the nation’s largest producer of copper, providing vital copper supply that helped the Union win the Civil War. The town thrived. But in 1867, much of Copperopolis — located in a fire-prone part of California — burned in an extensive fire and was never completely rebuilt.
Over 150 years later, the town has regained some of its lost potential.
In 2018, developers Tom Hix and Mike Fletcher acquired an expansive land portfolio in Copperopolis. This included the town square, the 18-hole golf course and thousands of acres of land.
Fletcher is also Copper’s owner — or, as Fletcher says, Copper’s “dad.”
When Fletcher and Hix acquired the land, Copperopolis’ town square and the hotel located inside were “neglected,” according to The Calaveras Enterprise. The town square was constructed in 2008 for $53 million by Castle & Cooke, the company that owns much of the Hawaiian Island of Lanai.
The transformation of the town is already obvious — all of the available commercial units in the town square have been leased out. Hix and Fletcher plan to develop over 1,000 homes over the next two decades, marketing the town based on its proximity to the Bay Area, Sacramento, the Foothills, Yosemite and nearby hiking trails and lakes.
The two developers also plan to construct affordable housing options for the county’s workforce, as well as a “Warehouse District” near the town square with a market and restaurant.
Fletcher and Hix are attempting to accomplish what developers before them have failed to do.
In 2006, at the groundbreaking of a new town, Castle & Cooke announced the decision to rebrand new Copperopolis as the “Copperopolis Town Square,” changing it from “Copper Mill,” a nod to the town’s historic mining reputation. Many residents were unhappy with the change.
As The Enterprise reported, Castle & Cooke had “a rocky history” in Copperopolis, with multiple expansion plans for new housing and commercial development never coming to fruition. Multiple development plans that would have produced thousands of new homes were rejected by county supervisors and planning officials. At least two proposed housing development sites, each thousands of acres, were instead designated for cattle grazing.
Given the town’s recent and bumpy history with developers, it’s understandable that some residents are weary of Fletcher and Hix’s development plans proposing so many new homes for a city of less than 5,000.
Yet it’s Copper the dog who’s helping to bring the community together as the town evolves.
The handful of Copperopolis residents I spoke with during my visit there said they appreciate what the development has done to their town thus far. Some folks said they know the developers on a first-name basis, and many more said they know Copper.
During the pandemic, Copper was a source of comfort for town residents and visitors. He can usually be found hanging out somewhere in the town square, and Fletcher says the pup’s relaxed energy has a calming effect.
“Copper became an important part of people getting out of the house,” Fletcher said. “He does nothing except follow you around. It’s made neighbors be nice to neighbors again, and he seems to be in the middle of that.”
Copper goes viral
So how did a golden retriever in rural Calaveras County acquire an international fan base? It started — as many stories do nowadays — with a TikTok.
On the popular social media app, animal content frequently goes viral. In fact, TikTok has ushered in a new host of internet celebrities deemed “petfluencers.”
So when Katelyn Nassar, Fletcher’s daughter, posted a video about her family’s dog explaining how Copper became the mascot and soon-to-be mayor of a town in California, it was bound to go viral. And it did. The video has over half a million views and over 170,000 likes.
“People in the town always want to get photos with him,” Nassar said in the video. “And you can also text him and he’ll respond.”
When the TikTok exploded during the pandemic, “we were up until 5 a.m. (responding to texts),” Nassar said. “Every two minutes, a couple texts would come in. Then it was 10 a minute. It was nonstop.”
In total, she said about 3,000 texts came in — with more still trickling in today. Some messages came in from as far away as Canada and parts of Asia. Remarkably, instead of setting up an instant auto-reply message “from” Copper, Fletcher, Nassar and some of their friends individually responded to each and every text message in Copper’s voice.
When I texted Copper, I got a same-day response — even though Fletcher and his family were en route to Cabo San Lucas for Nassar’s wedding.
“Are you a pup or a two legged pet?” asked the text message I got from Copper. “I’ll buy you an ice cream. I get them for free but Dad says I’m getting kinda fat. Can I go back to my nap now?”
Nassar now has several viral Copper videos. One video, with 4.7 million views, shows Copper sitting by himself, turned away from the camera, watching the sunset.
“My dog sits in this exact spot and watches the sunset every night,” Nassar wrote in the caption.
Another Copper TikTok, this one with 6.7 million views, shows Nassar sitting next to Copper as he watches the sunset. There are over 10,000 comments, many calling the golden retriever “an old soul.”
Pet therapy
Speaking from Cabo during the week of her wedding, Nassar said most people who text Copper just want to send love to the pup — many include heart and kiss emojis. Some are shocked when they get a text back with a personal message, Nassar said.
Most surprising, however, is the way that some people have reached out to Copper as a kind of virtual therapy dog.
“We’ve had a couple people who were in serious straits looking for some advice and we’ve referred them to counseling,” Fletcher said. “I think people actually forget they’re talking to a person. There’s a real desire to make a connection.”
On top of COVID-19, many of us are battling a second tremendously difficult pandemic: A loneliness pandemic. We’ve found ways to cope with our isolation, and animals have played a huge role in that. My family was one of millions worldwide that got a new pet during lockdown, and that companionship has made an immense difference in our lives.
Fletcher, a lifelong owner of golden retrievers, says having a dog as beloved as Copper has been a humbling experience.
“Out of all the dogs we’ve had, he is the most special,” he said.