Copperopolis Park

Although Copperopolis is known for copper mining, gold was discovered here in 1858, copper in 1860. The gold belt was a mile west of the copper belt.

The Madame Felix Mining District produced 200,000 ounces of gold between 1864 and 1974.

The ...

St Louis, Salem and Little Rock Railroad

In 1873 the St Louis, Salem & Little Rock Railroad was completed from Cuba, forty-one miles south, to Salem at a cost of about $1,250,000. It was built to transport iron ore and lead from area mines to market, and ...

Giovanni Lavagnino

Pioneer Craftsman

In Tribute

To the pioneer craftsman whose skills, ingenuity and determination established permanent communities in the wake of the gold rush, and whose progeny have continued to contribute to the region’s character and spirit, recognition is today given the gates ...

County Fair

When Sen. Harry S. Truman campaigned for re-election in a close 1940 primary, two democratic committeemen were his only listeners on the steps of the adjacent Wallace house, as people kept hurrying past. He learned they were going to the ...

Cuba's Gold Star Boys aboard the Blue Bonnet Frisco Train

During World War II the Blue Bonnet, a Frisco train named after the Texas state flower, was a familiar sight with its distinctive blue and white cars. The train was a major form of transportation from 1927 to 1967, and ...

New Gap, New Road

Morton Overlook

I do not . . . favor the scarring of a wonderful mountainside just so we can say we have a skyline drive. It sounds poetical, but it may be an atrocity.

Harold Ickes, Secretary of the Interior, 1935

It’s not ...

Fulton Packeries

Because early Fulton was surrounded by ranches and could be accessed by water, the town became a leading packing center on the Texas coast. The industry flourished from 1868 to 1882. Initially, the packeries rendered cattle hides and tallow only ...

Fulton Harbor

Fulton’s natural shoreline attracted a flourishing beef processing and distribution industry in the 1860s and 1870s. Piers and docks were built by landowners to facilitate the turtle, fishing, oyster, and shrimping industries. A steady growth began and flourished until silting ...

Tourist Courts and Cottages

In the mid-1920s, a camp known as the “Cool Coast Camp,” located just north of Fulton, was promoted as a resort. It boasted tree-shaded cabins and tents, with a 500-foot wharf with an open-air pavilion over the water. In the ...

Fulton Seafood Industry

Seafood has always been a Fulton staple. As early as the 1880s, commercial fishing for trout, redfish, sheepshead, turtles, and oysters had become significant for Fulton’s economy. About 1888, David Rockport Scrivner opened Miller Brothers Fish Company at Broadway on ...