Est. circa 1851, very serene small-town community. Supposedly, because the school was located on gold-bearing gravel, part of a teacher's salary was the right to pan for gold during recess.Before the gold rush, Chief Walker and a tribe of Miwok Indians occupied this placid little valley, their camp being located near a clear spring. But after the gold rush, things changed rapidly. With the discovery of gold in Coyote Creek, a mining camp appeared almost overnight; a camp that included a church, post office, school, two distilleries, blacksmith, flour mill, some merchandise stores, and 7 saloons. Sever- al thousand miners, with an ethnic mixture of Americans, Chileans, Danes, English, Irish, Italians, Mexicans, and Welsh, worked the placers, and the 4 major mines. The Indians no longer had a place to live, so they decided to leave the area. Coyote Creek runs thru a large meadow, also called a "flat", and since a man by the name of Douglas, spent a lot of time camped out in this "flat", the town eventually came to be named after him. Although the main industry here was mining, many set-tlers planted orchards, vineyards, and gardens, because the ground here seemed to be exceptionally fertile. It turned out to be a good thing, because the placers were worked out in a very short time, and most of the camp's population dwindled just as fast. Many of the type of crops planted then, remain today. (Submitted by Bob Stelow)

Douglas Flat
Courtesy Bob Stelow