Located at the southern end of the Golden State's Gold Country, Tuolumne County was home to Native Americans for several thousand years until the Gold Rush in 1848. This Central Sierra Nevada region was transformed into hundreds of fleeting and permanent communities established by thousands of prospectors seeking their fortune in gold.

The Southern Mines attracted quite a cosmopolitan aggregation of miners and merchants from such far away places as Chile, the Hawaiian Islands, Germany, England, Italy, France, Australia, China, Mexico and "the States" including slaves brought West by their masters. This ethnic mix coupled with greed and the loose lifestyle associated with those tumultuous times begat much violence and general lawlessness. Some made their fortunes mining, others sold supplies and services to gold miners thus the term "mining the miners". Later, others began tunneling into mountainsides and washing away surface soil with hydraulic nozzles.    

Sonora, the county seat, and other camps and towns were periodically cleansed by fires which easily consumed hastily erected buildings of canvas, wood and brush. As life stabilized and camps became towns and cities, Tuolumne County's economy diversified into timber harvesting in the virgin Sierra Nevada forest to the east; hydroelectric projects chiefly benefiting Central Valley communities and the San Francisco Bay Area; commercial activities associated with local trade and tourism which relied on the area's proximity to Yosemite and other mountain retreats. The economy also extended into agricultural pursuits such as cattle ranching and apple orchards. A second Gold Rush beginning in the 1890s was made possible by advances in mining equipment technology and transportation in the form of the Sierra Railway which arrived here in 1897. Today Tuolumne County is a growing and dynamic part of California.

Although the gamblers, outlaws, painted ladies and most of the miners have gone, many vestiges of the exciting frontier days remain. In fact, a walk along many streets and roads is a visit with yesterday - a brick building, an iron shutter, an old home, a rock wall, an ancient shade tree in the midst of an old fashioned garden - all are reminders of the pioneers. History surrounds you in Tuolumne County.