Coordinates: 38°22′49″N120°31′58″W / 38.38028°N 120.53278°W
A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are often chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position and two or three of the numbers represent a horizontal position; alternatively, a geographic position may be expressed in a combined three-dimensional Cartesian vector. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation. To specify a location on a plane requires a map projection.
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| Sandy Gulch | |
|---|---|
| Unincorporated community | |
  Sandy Gulch Location in California  Sandy Gulch Sandy Gulch (the US) | |
| Coordinates: 38°22′49″N120°31′58″W / 38.38028°N 120.53278°W | |
| Country | United States |
| State | California |
| County | Calaveras County |
| Elevation [1] | 2,592 ft (790 m) |
| Population (2016) | |
| • Total | 42 |
| Reference no. | 253 |
Sandy Gulch is a small community in Calaveras County, California, just southwest of West Point on State Route 26. It lies at an elevation of 2592 feet (790 m) above sea level and is located at 38°22′49″N120°31′58″W / 38.38028°N 120.53278°W . The community is in ZIP code 95248 and area code 209.
In law, an unincorporated area is a region of land that is not governed by a local municipal corporation; similarly an unincorporated community is a settlement that is not governed by its own local municipal corporation, but rather is administered as part of larger administrative divisions, such as a township, parish, borough, county, city, canton, state, province or country. Occasionally, municipalities dissolve or disincorporate, which may happen if they become fiscally insolvent, and services become the responsibility of a higher administration. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. In most other countries of the world, there are either no unincorporated areas at all, or these are very rare; typically remote, outlying, sparsely populated or uninhabited areas.
Calaveras County, officially the County of Calaveras, is a county in the northern portion of the U.S. state, California. As of the 2010 census, the population was 40,171. The county seat is San Andreas. Angels Camp is the only incorporated city in the county. Calaveras is the Spanish word for skulls; the county was reportedly named for the remains of Native Americans discovered by the Spanish explorer Captain Gabriel Moraga.
California is a state in the Pacific Region of the United States. With 39.6 million residents, California is the most populous U.S. state and the third-largest by area. The state capital is Sacramento. The Greater Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nation's second- and fifth-most populous urban regions, with 18.7 million and 8.8 million residents respectively. Los Angeles is California's most populous city, and the country's second-most populous, after New York City. California also has the nation's most populous county, Los Angeles County, and its largest county by area, San Bernardino County. The City and County of San Francisco is both the country's second-most densely populated major city after New York City and the fifth-most densely populated county, behind only four of the five New York City boroughs.
It was established in 1849 as a trading center for miners of the area. The settlement, in an area that was home to many Miwok Indians, was named after the gulch where William and Dan Carsner found large nuggets of gold embedded in the coarse sands. Water for mining was brought from the middle fork of the Mokelumne River through Sandy Gulch and Kadish Ditches. Quartz mining began in the early 1850s, and the first custom stamp mill in the district was located at the head of Sandy Gulch. School and election precincts were established early, and one of California's many Hangman's Trees stood near the center of town.
The Miwok are members of four linguistically related Native American groups indigenous to what is now Northern California, who traditionally spoke one of the Miwok languages in the Utian family. The word Miwok means people in the Miwok language.
In xeric lands, a gulch is a deep V-shaped valley formed by erosion. It may contain a small stream or dry creek bed and is usually larger in size than a gully. Sudden intense rainfall upstream may produce flash floods in the bed of the gulch.
Gold is a chemical element with symbol Au and atomic number 79, making it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. In its purest form, it is a bright, slightly reddish yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal and a group 11 element. It is one of the least reactive chemical elements and is solid under standard conditions. Gold often occurs in free elemental (native) form, as nuggets or grains, in rocks, in veins, and in alluvial deposits. It occurs in a solid solution series with the native element silver and also naturally alloyed with copper and palladium. Less commonly, it occurs in minerals as gold compounds, often with tellurium.
It is registered as California Historical Landmark #253. [2]
California Historical Landmarks (CHLs) are buildings, structures, sites, or places in the U.S. state of California that have been determined to have statewide historical landmark significance.
Sandy Gulch is marked by a cluster of homes surrounding the town baseball field. Sandy Gulch is also home to several small home businesses. As of 2016, its population was around 42.
