Site of Mokelumne City

The Clampers' stone puts the town's end in two numbers: five hundred people in January 1862, none in February. Mokelumne City was founded in 1850 and grew into the county's second town, with deep water to San Francisco all year round, an advantage only Stockton otherwise had. The great flood of that winter washed it away. The state's own plaque is gone from its stone here, about 300 feet from the Clampers' marker, and the widely copied transcription of their text dates the flood ten years late.

What the plaque says

Bensons Ferry and Mokelumne City Pop. Jan. 1862 - 500. Pop. Feb. 1862 - 0. E. Stokes and A.M. Woods operated a ferry here in 1849. Sold to John Benson in 1850, he operated it until he was murdered in Feb. 1859 Nearby Mokelumne City, founded in 1850, was the second largest city in the county until washed away in the great flood of Jan. 1862 Tuleburgh Chapter No. 69 E Clampus Vitus Dedicated April 21, 1979 Rededicated April 13, 2024

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Sacramento — 23 mi
  The Gold Rush river port that became the state capital, and jacked itself ten feet into the air to stop drowning.

More markers nearby

• Benson's Ferry — steps away
• Grave of Alexander Hamilton Willard — 8.6 mi
• Murphy's Ranch — 9.3 mi
• Site of Wood's Ferry and Wood's Bridge — 10 mi