Big Oak Flat

The town dug away the thing it was named for. Miners called this Savage Diggings after the man who found gold here in 1848, then renamed it about 1850 for an oak roughly thirteen feet through standing in the middle of the camp. They worked the gravel underneath it, it was undermined by 1869, and fire finished it in 1890. The bronze, cast in 1949, says only that pieces remain. Both the register and the marker database misspell the first name as Diggins.

What the plaque says

MARK TWAIN BRET HARTE TRAIL BIG OAK FLAT FIRST CALLED SAVAGE DIGGINGS AFTER MAN WHO DISCOVERED GOLD HERE, 1848. RENAMED BIG OAK FLAT ABOUT 1850 AFTER GIANT OAK TREE THAT STOOD IN CENTER OF TOWN, NEAR THIS SPOT. OAK WAS ABOUT 13 FEET IN DIAMETER AND WAS UNDERMINED IN 1869 AND BURNED IN 1890. PIECES REMAIN. RICH PLACER AND LODE MINES REPORTED TO HAVE YIELDED $28,000,000 DURING HEYDAY. STONE BUILDINGS, ERECTED 1852, STILL STANDING, 1949. HISTORICAL LANDMARK No. 406 TABLET PLACED BY CALIFORNIA CENTENNIALS COMMISSION. ARCH PROVIDED BY BOYS SERVICE CLUB SONORA UNION HIGH SCHOOL. DEDICATED APRIL 3, 1949

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Columbia State Historic Park — 17 mi
  The Gem of the Southern Mines, still open for business on a car-free Gold Rush main street.

More markers nearby

• Groveland — 2.0 mi
• Second Garrote — 3.5 mi
• Jacksonville — 6.8 mi
• Coulterville — 8.4 mi