Michigan Bluff

The town dug the ground out from under itself and had to move. Michigan City was founded in 1850 on the slope half a mile from here; by 1858 the diggings had left it undermined and unsafe, so it was shifted up to this bluff and renamed. Leland Stanford kept a store in the old town from 1853 to 1855, before the wealth and fame the bronze credits him with, and before the railroad he ran through this county.

What the plaque says

MICHIGAN BLUFF FOUNDED IN 1850 AND FIRST KNOWN AS MICHIGAN CITY WHICH WAS LOCATED ON SLOPE ONE HALF MILE FROM HERE. IN 1858 TOWN BECAME UNDERMINED AND UNSAFE SO WAS MOVED TO THIS LOCATION AND RENAMED MICHIGAN BLUFF. LELAND STANFORD, WHO GAINED WEALTH AND FAME IN CALIFORNIA, OPERATED A STORE IN MICHIGAN CITY FROM 1853 TO 1855. STATE REGISTERED LANDMARK NO. 402 TABLET PLACED BY CALIFORNIA CENTENNIALS COMMISSION. BASE FURNISHED BY PLACER COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY DEDICATED AUGUST 20, 1950

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park — 18 mi
  The tailrace at Coloma where a carpenter found gold in January 1848 and the world came running.
• Empire Mine State Historic Park — 20 mi
  The oldest, deepest, richest hard-rock gold mine in California, with 367 miles of flooded tunnels underneath.
• Nevada City — 21 mi
  Gaslamps, brick storefronts, and the Nisenan who are still fighting to be recognized on their own ground.
• Malakoff Diggins State Historic Park — 25 mi
  A canyon washed out of a mountain by water cannon, and the lawsuit that ended hydraulic mining.

More markers nearby

• Forest Hill — 4.6 mi
• Yankee Jims — 6.7 mi
• Iowa Hill — 8.0 mi
• Georgetown — 11 mi