Poverty Bar, California

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Poverty Bar [1] is a former settlement in Calaveras County, California, active from c. 1850s to 1862, and now covered by the waters of Camanche Reservoir. The nearest major town is Campo Seco, California. [1] [2]

Contents

History

Poverty Bar was founded south of the Mokelumne River from Lancha Plana in Amador County as a gold mining town during the California Gold Rush, nearby Camanche, California, Cat Camp, and Sand Hill. A post office was opened in Poverty Bar in 1858 and closed in 1864. [1]

Poverty Bar had a major fire on the night of September 7, 1859. The fire originated in the grocery store of Lorengo & Co., near the center of the town, and spread so rapidly in different directions that in a few minutes the entire town was in flames. It appeared to have been arson, the second such incident there during that summer. [3]

During the American Civil War the town raised the Union Guard a California Militia Company in 1861 and maintained it until its declining population forced it to be moved. "On July 23, 1866, the company was reorganized and their headquarters moved to Campo Seco." [4]

In 1962, before the Comanche Reservoir was filled, the graves in the cemetery of Poverty Bar were transferred to the Pioneer Cemetery, and the People's Cemetery in San Andreas, California. [5] [6]

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amador County, California</span> County in California, United States

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Calaveras County, California</span> County in California, United States

Calaveras County, officially the County of Calaveras, is a county in both the Gold Country and High Sierra regions of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 45,292. The county seat is San Andreas. Angels Camp is the county's only incorporated city. Calaveras is Spanish for "skulls"; the county was reportedly named for the remains of Native Americans discovered by the Spanish explorer Captain Gabriel Moraga.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">San Andreas, California</span> Census-designated place in California, United States

San Andreas is an unincorporated census-designated place and the county seat of Calaveras County, California. The population was 2,783 at the 2010 census, up from 2,615 at the 2000 census. Like most towns in the region, it was founded during the California Gold Rush. The town is located on State Route 49 and is registered as California Historical Landmark #252.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mokelumne River</span> River in northern California

The Mokelumne River is a 95-mile (153 km)-long river in northern California in the United States. The river flows west from a rugged portion of the central Sierra Nevada into the Central Valley and ultimately the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta, where it empties into the San Joaquin River-Stockton Deepwater Shipping Channel. Together with its main tributary, the Cosumnes River, the Mokelumne drains 2,143 square miles (5,550 km2) in parts of five California counties. Measured to its farthest source at the head of the North Fork, the river stretches for 157 miles (253 km).

Lancha Plana was a small settlement in Amador County, California, formed as a result of a flatboat ferry crossing across the Mokelumne River.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Camanche, California</span> Former settlement in California, United States

Camanche is a former settlement in Calaveras County, California, United States. Located at an elevation of 220 feet, the town was once called Limerick, before it was renamed to Camanche in 1849. The settlement of Camanche is now submerged under Camanche Reservoir.

Campo Seco is an unincorporated community in Calaveras County, California. It sits at an elevation of 564 feet above sea level and is located at 38°13′38″N120°51′12″W. The community is in ZIP code 95226 and area code 209.

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Area codes 209 and 350 are telephone area codes in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for the U.S. state of California. Their service area includes Stockton, Modesto, Turlock, Merced, Winton, Atwater, Livingston, Manteca, Ripon, Tracy, Lodi, Galt, Sonora, Los Banos, San Andreas, Mariposa, and Yosemite, the northern San Joaquin Valley, and the Sierra Foothills.

Greasertown is a former settlement in Calaveras County, 4 miles (6.4 km) west of San Andreas, on the west side of the Calaveras River. It was a mining town during the California Gold Rush. It was destroyed when the first Hogan Dam on the Calaveras River was built in the late 1920s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Camanche Reservoir</span> Reservoir in Amador, Calaveras and San Joaquin counties

Camanche Reservoir is an artificial lake in the San Joaquin Valley in California in the United States, at the juncture of Amador, Calaveras, and San Joaquin counties. Its waters are impounded by Camanche Dam, which was completed in 1963. Camanche Reservoir is a source of water for industrial and municipal purposes and also provides flood control.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Camanche Dam</span> Dam in San Joaquin County, California

Camanche Dam is an earthfill Dam on the Mokelumne River in the central California, about 20 mi (32 km) from East Lodi. The dam and reservoir lie in the Sierra Nevada foothills in San Joaquin County. Construction of Camanche Dam was started in 1963 and completed in 1964. East Bay Municipal Utilities District (EBMUD) owns and operates it. The purpose of Camanche Dam and reservoir is to provide flood control, water flows for agriculture, habitat for fisheries and recreation for community.

The Pioneer Cemetery, formerly known as the North Branch Cemetery, is a defunct cemetery established in c. 1851, and located along California State Route 12 in San Andreas, Calaveras County, California. It is the oldest known cemetery in Calaveras County.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Durham, David L. (1998). California's Geographic Names: A Gazetteer of Historic and Modern Names of the State. Clovis, Calif.: Word Dancer Press. p. 817. ISBN   1-884995-14-4.
  2. ↑ Poverty Bar, USGS WALLACE Quad, California, Topographic Map
  3. ↑ Weekly Stockton Democrat, Stockton, San Joaquin Co., CA, Sunday, 11 Sept 1859; from Ancestry.co.uk.
  4. ↑ Outline History of Calif. National Guard, Vol. 2, #107.
  5. ↑ Mildred Brooke Hoover, Douglas E. Kyle Historic spots in California, Stanford University Press, 2002, pg. 46.
  6. ↑ "California Historical Landmark #271: Pioneer Cemetery in Calaveras County". noehill.com. Retrieved 2023-01-08.

38°13′30″N120°54′30″W / 38.22500°N 120.90833°W / 38.22500; -120.90833


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