Cherokee, California
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cherokee was founded by Maidu Indians. Around 1818 Spanish found gold on Cherokee's south side by Table Mountain. In 1849 Cherokee Indians came from Oklahoma to start the Gold Rush. Welsh miners came in the 1850s, naming the town after the Cherokee and constructing many buildings in town. In 1880 President Rutherford B. Hayes, his wife Lucy, Civil War General William T. Sherman and General John Bidwell came to visit Cherokee's famous hydraulic gold mine. In the 1890s, the gold mines were sold off because of operation cost. At its boomtime, the town had a population in the thousands.
Possibly the site of the historic gold mine, on the 1994 Cherokee, California 7.5-minute quadrangle, a feature named "Cherokee Placer Mine" exists about .65 miles southwest of the above coordinates. USGS identifies Cherokee Flat and Drytown as historic variant names for the community.
[edit] Today
Cherokee now consists of a museum and a Cherokee cemetery, as well as a few houses.
Incorporated places
Oroville (County seat) • Biggs • Chico • Gridley • Paradise
Census-designated places
Concow • Durham • Magalia • Oroville East • Palermo • South Oroville • Thermalito
Other unincorporated communities
Bangor • Berry Creek • Butte Meadows • Camp Eighteen • Centerville • Cherokee • Cohasset • DeSabla • Feather Falls
Forest Ranch • Inskip • Merrimac • Oregon City • Pulga • Richvale • Stirling City
