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Dutch Flat, California

Coordinates: 39°12′22″N 120°50′16″W / 39.20611°N 120.83778°W / 39.20611; -120.83778
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Dutch Flat
Name: Dutch Flat
Kind of location: Unincorporated community
Country: Placer County, California, United States
Height: 3,144 ft (958 m) above sea level


Dutch Flat is a small Unincorporated community in Placer County, California, United States, about 30 miles (48 km) northeast of Auburn along Interstate 80. It was founded by German immigrants in 1851 and was once one of the richest gold mining locations of California. Its ZIP code is 95714 and its area code 530. 39°12′22″N 120°50′16″W / 39.20611°N 120.83778°W / 39.20611; -120.83778

File:Dutch flat election 1876.JPG
Main Street, Dutch Flat, on election day, 1876. From Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper.

History

Dutch Flat was founded by two German brothers, Joseph and Charles Dornbach[1]. To the south of their settlement was the busy mining camp of Green Valley, where 2,000 men were at work when the Dornbachs arrived. Across the Bear River in Nevada County was another camp, Little York, and just west, a trading post at Cold Springs (later known as Gold Run). All these camps were supplied by mule train from Illinoistown, near today's Colfax. The muleskinners referred to the Dornbach's camp as 'Dutch Charlie's Flat,' and thus the town was named.

Travel Center

While Dutch Flat was originally settled by miners, it first gained prominence as an important stagecoach stop, making it one of the largest and most important towns in Placer County from about 1864 to 1866. In the fall of 1866, however, the railroad and reached Cisco 20 miles further up the ridge, and Dutch Flat lost most of its importance as a stage stop.

In 1859 Dr. Daniel Strong of Dutch Flat invited railroad surveyor Theodore Judah to come and evaluate a possible route across the Sierra Nevada mountains. One of the first large mining ditches to reach Dutch Flat had, in effect, demonstrated the existence of easy grades up to Emigrant Gap; from there, the line of the old Donner Trail across the Sierra Nevada was also such that a railroad could be built. Judah recognized the value of the proposed route, and at last the Pacific Railroad, proposed decades before, became a reality. The first shares in the new venture were subscribed in Dutch Flat.

Mining

Gold miners excavate an eroded bluff with jets of water at a placer mine in Dutch Flat, California sometime between 1857 and 1870.

Mining operations at Dutch Flat reached their peak during the 1870s, with thousands of miners worked the surrounding area. Prior to the 1870s, gold mining was often a solitary and small-scale pursuit. In 1872, however, the Cedar Creek Company of London purchased over 30 claims in the area and began working them in a more aggressive and industrial fashion, employing hydraulic mining to reach hitherto unreachable deposits of gold by literally blasting it out of alluvial deposits with high-pressure water cannons known as “monitors.” The many dozens of mining claims dividing the old channel gravels beside Dutch Flat and Gold Run made for a thriving economy. In January 1884, however, in a historic verdict, a United States District Court banned the flushing of debris into streams. Implementing the decision was difficult, as many miners refused to accept the court decision. Court challenges were filed, injunctions were disobeyed, inspectors were threatened with violence, but eventually hydraulic operations were brought to an end.

Lumber

Lumber was a prominent industry in Dutch Flat's history. From 1861 to 1907, the Towle Brothers Lumber Company was among the largest in the state, owning over 20,000 acres of land, with a private narrow-gauge railroad 38 miles long, and employing a workforce of around 200 men, including fifty Chinese workers.[2]

Chinatown

Dutch Flat's Chinatown began in the 1850s, and by the late 1860s, when the transcontinental railroad was under construction, it was one of the largest Chinese settlements outside of San Francisco. In 1853, Dutch Flat had a population of 6,000 including 3,5000 Chinese. In 1877 Old Chinatown burned down, and the settlement relocated south of town, near the Dutch Flat Depot on the Central Pacific Railroad. Adjoining the pioneer American cemetery just above the town is the Chinese burial grounds.

Culture

"Muck-a-Muck, the haughty, untaught, untrammeled son of the forest (after Cooper)." Illustration for Bret Harte's Condensed Novels (first edition).

Dutch Flat was referred to by residents as "the Athens of the Foothills." In the 19th century, it had a thriving amateur dramatical society and debating society, and Mark Twain lectured at its Opera House. Dutch Flat was also frequently mentioned in works by Bret Harte, including "Muck-A-Muck: A Modern Indian Novel After Cooper."[3]

Present

As of October 2009, Dutch Flat had 333 residents.[4] The town is designated "semi-ghost"[5] and while tourism makes up much of the local economy, many of its current residents are retirees, families and professionals who commute to nearby jobs.

Tourism

Recently, residents of Dutch Flat have sought to increase tourism by asking the state Department of Transportation for a sign on I-80 saying Dutch Flat is a national historic landmark.[6] The Golden Drift Museum on Main Street is open in summer. Historic buildings of note include the Dutch Flat Hotel (1853), Methodist Church (1861), old Dutch Flat Elementary School (1898), Odd Fellows Building and the Masonic Hall (both pre-1856), and the Dutch Flat Cemetery. Dutch Flat is near all mountain recreation areas and only a short distance from snow and water skiing, fishing, biking, kayaking, gold panning and hiking the abundant mountain trails.[7] The town hosts parades on major holidays such the 4th of July and Veterans Day.

Literature

Dutch Flat has been mentioned or used as a setting by the following authors:

  • Mark Twain, who derided Dutch Flat poetry as "smooth and blubbery" in a small piece for the 1864 Californian. He also noted Dutch Flat as the death place of "George", the subject of his essay "General Washington's Negro Body Servant: A Biographical Sketch"[8]
  • Bret Harte used Dutch Flat as a location for "Muck-A-Muck: A Modern Indian Novel After Cooper"[9] and for "Wan Lee the Pagan."[10]
  • M.K. Hobson sets several scenes in 1876 Dutch Flat in her alternate history fantasy novel "The Native Star"

References

  1. ^ Towle, Russell, The Dutch Flat Chronicles, Giant Gap Press,1994
  2. ^ Towle Brothers Company records, 1861-1907, online archive of California
  3. ^ Harte, Bret, "Condensed Novels", 1871: http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2277
  4. ^ The Sacramento Bee, "Tourist Gold Elusive in Dutch Flat", http://www.sacbee.com/288/story/2278114.html
  5. ^ www.ghosttowns.com Web site
  6. ^ The Sacramento Bee, "Tourist Gold Elusive in Dutch Flat", http://www.sacbee.com/288/story/2278114.html
  7. ^ Dutch Flat Chamber of Commerce Website, http://www.colfaxarea.com/dutchflat.php"
  8. ^ Originally published in Sheldon & Co.'s New York City literary magazine, The Galaxy, in February 1868.
  9. ^ Harte, Bret, "Condensed Novels", 1871: http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2277
  10. ^ Harte, Bret, "Tales of the Argonauts", 1875: http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2886
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