You’ll find La Grange—not “Louisiana Grange”—along California’s Tuolumne River, a gold rush settlement that served as Stanislaus County seat from 1856-1862. Eli Dye arrived in 1852 after catastrophic floods forced relocation, and the town thrived with 215 merchants, miners, and professionals by 1856. Hydraulic mining operations extracted $3.5 million in gold before ending in 1951. Today, this California Historical Landmark #414 preserves pre-1850 adobe structures, a rustic jail, and trading posts—remnants of frontier ambition now inhabited by just 166 residents who guard stories of devastating floods and boom-era prosperity.
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9.1 Why Was the Town Called La Grange Instead of French Bar?…