Calaveras Heritage Council

The Matteson shaft, also on the western slopes of Bald Hill, was reportedly sunk in 1866 by James Matteson, a blacksmith from Illinois.

Some of the lands in the Flowers Ranch area near Copperopolis were taken up in the 1850s, with farms and dwellings located on the ferry roads and along Littlejohns Creek.

There is little documentary information about land occupation and ownership in the Flowers Ranch area prior to the issuance of land patents and the late 1850s assessments, but the first Euro-American

Flowers Ranch, encompassing more than 3,000 acres southwest of Copperopolis in Calaveras County, was pieced together from more than 24 separate land patents, mostly granted during the 1870s and 1880s.

The history of Douglas Flat is typical of many other towns in the California foothills, with its booms and busts, colorful characters, and reliance first on mining and then on agriculture (Figure GLO)

Gold was first found in Calaveras County along the banks of the Mokelumne, Calaveras, and Stanislaus rivers, as well as in virtually every stream drainage.

Close behind the prospectors and miners came the agriculturalists, families from the eastern states and Europe who saw opportunities for stock-raising and truck garden operations on the open grassland

Water for placer mining was first brought into Angels Camp in 1853 by the Union Water Company.

The histories of Angels Camp and Altaville are typical of many other towns in the California foothills, with their booms and busts, colorful characters, and almost century-long dependence on mining.