Tuolumne

What the state registered here is a centre point. Geographical center of East Belt Placer Gold Rush, the bronze says, which commemorates an average rather than an event. The town beneath it changed names twice more after Summersville, to Carters and then to Tuolumne. The bronze casts first white settlers for the family who arrived in 1854; the register prints first non-Indian settlers, editing the plaque without saying so. The Tuolumne Band of Me-Wuk Indians holds its rancheria here, bought for landless Indians in 1910.

What the plaque says

MARK TWAIN BRET HARTE TRAIL TUOLUMNE (FORMERLY CALLED SUMMERSVILLE) GEOGRAPHICAL CENTER OF EAST BELT PLACER GOLD RUSH, 1856-57. FIRST WHITE SETTLERS, THE FRANKLIN SUMMERS FAMILY, ARRIVED IN 1854, AND BUILT LOG CABIN HALF MILE WEST. JAMES BLAKELY, IN 1858, DISCOVERED FIRST QUARTZ LODE, HALF MILE EAST, NAMING IT "EUREKA", WHICH MINE BECAME NUCLEUS OF TOWN OF "SUMMERSVILLE", LATER CALLED "CARTERS'" AND FINALLY "TUOLUMNE". OTHER MINING TOWNS LIVELY IN GOLD RUSH DAYS WERE LONG GULCH, TWO MILES SOUTH, AND CHEROKEE, TWO MILES NORTH. TABLET PLACED BY CALIFORNIA CENTENNIALS COMMISSION. BASE PROVIDED BY TUOLUMNE CITY PROGRESSIVE ASSOCIATION. DEDICATED OCTOBER 24, 1948

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Columbia State Historic Park — 11 mi
  The Gem of the Southern Mines, still open for business on a car-free Gold Rush main street.

More markers nearby

• Cherokee — 1.3 mi
• Soulsbyville — 2.1 mi
• Sonora Pass - Mono Road — 7.0 mi
• St. James Episcopal Church — 8.3 mi