MOKELUMNE CITY

NAME: Mokelumne City COUNTY: San Joaquin ROADS: 2WD GRID: 2 CLIMATE: Foggy and cool in winter,hot in summer. BEST TIME TO VISIT: All year round.

COMMENTS: No current residents.The site is located about 14 miles north-west of lodi.200ft n of intersection of cameron road and thornton road,3 miles n of thornton. REMAINS: The old hotel that was turned into a barn.

In 1861 Mokelumne City was the second largest community in San Joaquin county.It was located at the forks of the Mokelumne and the Cosumnes rivers.The waterway was navigable for commercial traffic and Mokelumne City could boast deep water communication with San Francisco year round.The site was surveyed in 1850 and,at this time ,100 lots were sold for commercial and residential use.Some of the lots brought as much as $1,000.Stephen Davis,established a lumber yard here and operated the sloop Mary Bowers.He eventually built three of these river craft for the Mokelumne City-San Francisco service.Mokelumne City was serving as a trans-shipment center for the mining district around Camanche,Lancha Plana and Poverty Bar in Calaveras county.Mokelumne City had three stores,two hotels,a blacksmith shop,saloon.a twenty-four by forty foot warehouse and twenty-three houses.Growth and promise for the area came to a rapid end with the flood of 1862.All of the buildings either floated away in eight feet of water or were demolished by wind and waves.The town was ruined and it was never rebuilt.All the buildings were gone except the hotel it was turned into a barn. Submitted by: Chris Geigle

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