2. TUOLUMNE COUNTY HISTORY
In 1806 Gabriel Moraga encountered the “Taulamne” Indians at their village on the Stanislaus River, giving the future
Tuolumne County its name. Other early adventurers, such as Jedediah Smith, Joseph Walker, John Frémont, French
trappers, and early emigrant parties, encountered the Central Sierra Me-Wuk Indians, a group who remains here and
in surrounding counties. Accommodating a succession of prehistoric cultures, the county has a rich and varied cultural
past that began more than 10,000 years ago.
 Tuolumne County folklore suggests that miners from Sonora, Mexico,
arrived here by 1848. These men, who gave the name of their home
state to the new settlement of Sonoran Camp, mined for placer gold.
It did not take long for word to spread that the precious metal was
easily found: soon thousands of men from all over the world migrated
to the county in search of gold. The story of Tuolumne County during
the first few years of settlement is similar to other Mother Lode
communities. Hordes of miners came. Water systems were developed.
Settlements grew up around successful and rich mining areas.
Transportation networks connected camps, first as trails, then as wagon
roads. Farms, orchards, and truck gardens sprang up. Saloons and
fandango halls, along with boarding houses, provided entertainment,
bed, bath, and sustenance to the miners. The bare bones of civilization in the form of government, law, newspapers,
and social lodges developed, and violence became commonplace. Natural and man-made disasters, such as fires and
earthquakes, destroyed many of the structures of those early days.
Placer gold deposits were exhausted by the mid-1850s causing a major depression. Miners rushed to other strikes in
Nevada, Colorado, or Alaska, hoping to find work, while local support industries collapsed or suffered. Farms were
abandoned, businesses closed and auctioned off, and the mines shut down. Tuolumne County’s population decreased
by nearly 50% between 1860 and 1870. Up to the early 1890s, the county suffered hardship and depression, only to
have mining again enliven the area. The Lode Gold Rush lasted about 25 years—the county experienced another major
period of growth and a population boom when the miners sunk deep shafts into the Mother Lode. Hoisting equipment
was developed and pumps forced fresh air into the shafts, while electricity provided power, with the added benefit of
providing some residential electricity.
 Sonora and Jamestown boomed. A large increase in assessed valuation
allowed the county to construct a new courthouse in 1898, build
bridges, improve roads, establish a high school, and generally
reestablish county services. Business and commerce revived, and
agriculture came into its own again, while sawmills, planing, and
box mills were developed. Hundreds of homes were built to house
the increased population, and whole communities were established or
rebuilt. Apples and pears from Tuolumne County were prized, as were
its sugar pine wood, gold, and sash windows and doors.
About this time, the City of San Francisco was feeling the need to
expand its municipal water system to provide for a growing population.
By 1903 the city had acquired rights to Hetch Hetchy valley and Lake Eleanor. In 1913, the U.S. Congress, through
the Raker Act, granted approval to flood Hetch Hetchy. Construction began the following year and greatly aided
the economy and employment opportunities of southern Tuolumne County. Meanwhile, by World War I most of the
mines in Tuolumne County were again idle and many people moved away to work in war-related industries in the
San Francisco Bay Area. With the advent of the automobile and inexpensive truck transportation, many agricultural
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