MOCCASIN, Tuolumne County — At the base of a steep grade in the Sierra Nevada off a highway that leads into Yosemite National Park is an unincorporated community with 63 people and not much else. There’s no grocery store or gas station in Moccasin, but it has a stately pink powerhouse and a quaint row of Spanish Colonial-style cottages topped with red-tiled roofs. The lawns are lush and the air smells of mountain pine. When a neighbor drives by, usually in a white utility truck, it’s all but guaranteed they’ll flash you a wave.
Although it’s approximately 140 miles east of the Golden Gate Bridge, Moccasin is perhaps the safest, cleanest and quietest part of San Francisco.
Most of the town’s homes and buildings are owned by the city and county of San Francisco. Every resident works, in some capacity, for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission to operate the Hetch Hetchy Water and Power System.
With a small population and no cultural or commercial attractions, Moccasin may seem like the polar opposite to San Francisco, but they’re eternally tethered. The company town was once the headquarters for constructing the water system, which began over 100 years ago…