Stanislaus

NO. 347 KNIGHTS FERRY - Once called Dentville, this picturesque mining center and trading post was founded in 1849. An early ferry carried Argonauts on their way to the southern mines. The rare wooden covered bridge, reportedly designed by U. S. Grant, brother-in-law of the Dent brothers, and the old flour mill were built there in 1854. The town served as the county seat from 1862 to 1872.
Location: On Sonora Rd, 1.4 mi W of State Hwy 120 (P.M. 16.4), Knights Ferry

NO. 414 LA GRANGE - French settlers originally established the community of French Bar along the Tuolumne River in 1850. After the destructive floods of 1851-52, citizens of French Bar relocated one mile upstream above the floodplain. Renamed La Grange, the new town prospered as a mining and agricultural community, and served as the county seat of Stanislaus County from 1856 to 1862.
Location: 30173 Yosemite Blvd., La Grange 

NO. 415 THE WILLMS RANCH - Arriving in California October 12, 1849, John R. Willms and John H. Kappelmann engaged in the hotel and butcher businesses in Buena Vista, in what is now Stanislaus County. They bought up mining claims and settler's claims until, by 1852, they had a tract of 3,600 acres. The 'KW' brand was the first in Tuolumne County in 1852. After the death of Kappelmann, Willms carried on alone, and the ranch has been owned by the Willms family ever since.
Location: On Willms Rd, 1.3 mi S of State Hwy 120 (P.M. 170), 1.9 mi S of Knights Ferry

NO. 418 EMPIRE CITY - This memorial is dedicated to the memory of the pioneer men and women of Empire City and vicinity. Located one-half mile west of here on the banks of the Tuolumne River, Empire City was the head of navigation and the site of the second courthouse of Stanislaus County. Records remained here from October 1854 to December 1855.
Location: 0.1 mi S on County Hwy J-7 Empire

NO. 934 TEMPORARY DETENTION CAMPS FOR JAPANESE AMERICANS-TURLOCK ASSEMBLY CENTER - The temporary detention camps (also known as 'assembly centers') represent the first phase of the mass incarceration of 97,785 Californians of Japanese ancestry during World War II. Pursuant to Executive Order 9066 signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942, thirteen makeshift detention facilities were constructed at various California racetracks, fairgrounds, and labor camps. These facilities were intended to confine Japanese Americans until more permanent concentration camps, such as those at Manzanar and Tule Lake in California, could be built in isolated areas of the country. Beginning on March 30, 1942, all native-born Americans and long-time legal residents of Japanese ancestry living in California were ordered to surrender themselves for detention.
Location: Site: Stanislaus County Fairgrounds, Turlock