Calaveras Heritage Council

The lands taken up by members of the Callahan family from the 1870s through the 1890s may have been occupied by others in the 1850s and 1860s, but no deeds were located.

The first person to be assessed for the lands on Baker’s Flat was Joseph Lewis in 1858.

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.

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.

Most of the long-term settlers in the community came from Wales and Italy.

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

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