There are two schools of thoughts on how the town got its name. In 1849, an African American minister and miners rediscovered the diggings and struck it rich. It’s said that the Mormons originally mined that region in 1848, but moved on. Negro Hill was located across the South Fork of the American River from Mormon Island. By the late 1940s, this town still had scattered families and surviving structures.ĭuring severe droughts, the remains of Mormon Island come back to life in the barren lands of Folsom Lake. Within a few years, the town had more than 2,500 residents with hotels, stores, and other non-essential businesses. It was located right near the confluence and became a vital stop between Sacramento and Placerville. Mormon Island was founded by members of the Mormon Battalion in the spring of 1848 after they heard about the discovery of gold at Coloma. One of the county’s earliest bridges was located here as it connected El Dorado and Placer Counties. It was located roughly 2.5 miles northeast of the confluence. This region was where some of the earliest Gold Rush camps and towns sprung up following the discovery of gold in January 1848 at Coloma.Ĭamps like Condemned Bar, Mormon Island, Negro Hill, and Salmon Falls grew into towns that were clinging on to their existence by the time the US Army Corps of Engineers began work on the Folsom Dam in 1951.Ĭondemned Bar was founded in 1848 and rose from a camp to a town in 1849. Folsom Lake: Mormon Bar, Negro Hill and Othersīy the late 1940s, plans were made to build a dam and a lake at the confluence of the North and South Forks of the American River located within three different counties: El Dorado, Sacramento and Placer. The following is a growing list of occurrences where towns lie at the bottom of one of California’s man-made lakes.
However, not all of them double as a liquid time capsule with towns from a bygone era. In extremely rare cases, some of these towns come back to “life” during severe droughts where foundations are exposed and, for a moment, we can step back in time.Ĭalifornia has nearly 1,500 reservoirs that make up the state’s water grid. In fact, in a handful of lakes and reservoirs, scuba divers can head down to the murky depths and find various artifacts and structures. Yet, beneath the waters of some of these lakes and reservoirs lie remnants of towns dating back to the Gold Rush era. Many of California’s lakes and reservoirs provide endless fun for visitors along with other vital resources like irrigation, hydroelectricity, and drinking water.
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