Calaveras County’s first county seat was established at “Double Springs or Pleasant Valley,” at the junction of five important roads, on April 18, 1850.  At first the county courthouse was a canvas tent but it was soon replaced by a pre-fabricated building shipped from China.  A special election on May 26, 1851, moved the county seat to Jackson (today’s Amador County was then a part of Calaveras).  The election was disputed and on April 16, 1852, the state legislature awarded the county seat to Mokelumne Hill.  Finally, in 1866, the governmental center of the county was settled in San Andreas.  Until the first decade of the 21st century, however, the historic courthouse remained in Double Springs, a symbol of the earliest days of Calaveras County.

By Sal Manna, 1910