The history of Douglas Flat is typical of many other towns in the California foothills, with its booms and busts, colorful characters, and reliance first on mining and then on agriculture. The prosperity of the community was first based on the rich placer gold found in Coyote Creek and its tributaries Wild Goose Gulch, Missouri Gulch, and Pennsylvania Gulch. First the “easy” gold was found in the streambeds and mined with pans, rockers, and long toms. The miners soon traced the gold’s source to the ancient Tertiary Central Hill Channel beneath the Table Mountains. Shafts were sunk (Figure mining), drifts and tunnels were run under the tables and, when water became plentiful, the hillsides were scoured with hydraulic monitors.

The town, however, developed slowly. The mines were deep, rich, and extensive, with most of the diggings on the south side of Coyote Creek. In 1857, although the camp was described as having “a permanence”—primarily because of its agricultural facilities and conveniences for irrigation—it was also characterized as dull, with few people in town, and having no post office or express office. Most of the families were Welsh or Italian, with 28 children in school (San Andreas Independent). The post office was at Murphys, which also served many of the other nearby placer-mining communities (Heckendorn & Wilson 1856:105).

In the later nineteenth century, several mining companies continued to work their claims on Coyote Creek, including some companies of Chinese. The most extensive mining in Douglas Flat, however, shifted to the Ohio and Buckminster hydraulic claims below Table Mountain northwest of the town. Hydraulicking ceased about 1900 when the tailings pond south of the highway was filled, although a long, north-trending tunnel was prospected intermittently from the 1930s to the early 1950s (Clark and Lydon 1962:201). In the 1950s, a dredge on pontoons worked up Coyote Creek from Vallecito through Douglas Flat (John Davies 2007), erasing many of the features of the early-day placer mines along the creek.

Almost as soon as the first miner settled in Douglas Flat, farmers also began to take up land. The first recorded land claim in the area was that of Thomas Porter, who filed for 160 acres for agricultural purposes in 1853. The land was located on the east side of modern Highway 4, on present Coyote Creek Drive. Although Porter and several other early 1850s farmers were originally from the eastern states, most of the long-term settlers in the community came from Wales and Italy. The Welsh included the Roberts, Evans, Williams, Prothero, Thomas, and other families, with the Italians being represented by the Malatestas, Arratas, Malespinos, Copellos, Sanguinettis, Valentes, Lavagninos, Gagliardos, Grenittas, Bertattas, and others. Most of the men mined and farmed, especially the Italians.

The Milk Ranch, below town, was taken up by a company of Italians in the early 1850s, and, as was typical with serial migration, many of their Genovese relatives and neighbors soon joined them. They worked first on the truck farm and in the Milk Ranch Placer Mine and others, shortly thereafter taking up acreage and establishing their own truck farms, orchards, vineyards, and livestock operations. Among them were the Canepas, Gagliardos, Peiranos, and others whose descendants still reside in the county.

It was not long, however, before Douglas Camp was transformed into a community. By 1854 the miners had built a small building to serve as a church and town hall, and it soon served as a school as well, as more and more families settled in the area. The following year three merchants, a hotel keeper, a printer, a ranchero, and seven miners were listed as residing in Douglas Flat, although there were undoubtedly many more who did not pay to have their names included in the publication (Heckendorn & Wilson 1856:98).

As noted earlier, in 1857 a correspondent noted:

The camp looks dull, but few people 'in town,' and no post office or express office in the place. Douglass’ is about halfway between Murphys and Vallecito, and will always be eclipsed by the more active and enterprising neighbors. The greater part of the families residing here are Welch and Italians – twenty eight children large enough to attend school. (San Andreas Independent, November 14, 1857).

The same writer described the activity on Coyote Creek:

On Pennsylvania Gulch the mines are similar to Murphys, deep – all dirt being hoisted out in buckets, by horse-power… On the banks sloping from the north, between Pennsylvania Gulch and Coyote Creek, are some extensive hydraulic claims now being worked… in fact, the mines and mining operations in this vicinity are of a superior order and looked 'Healthy,' in the finest sense of the word. Fine ranches and gardens line the creek on either side, down to Douglass’ Flat. Here the 'Ranch Act' is much complained of, and appears to be quite unpopular with the miner – while it is the reverse with the farmers and gardeners. A ranch was offered us for $700, while the owner said that if there was no gold in the ground, he would not take less than $7,000.00. We laughed at him and remarked that if it was not for the gold in the ground, him or his ranch would not have been heard of in 'these parts.' He tacitly admitted the fact and thereby became a convert to the 'mining interest' (San Andreas Independent, November 14, 1857).

As the mines waxed and waned, however, it was the ranchers and farmers who supported the town. In the late 1850s the county assessor noted over twenty ranches on the flat and along Coyote Creek, ranging in size from 15 to 360 acres. By the 1880s, most of the smaller ranches had been absorbed into larger ranches by settlers who remained in the area for many years, some of whose descendents still farm the land (Calaveras County Assessment Rolls, various). In 1859 a writer noted that Mr. (David) Healey produced fine assorted fruit: Isabella grapes, Mixon clingstone peaches, Sweetbough apples, freestone peaches, and a variety of pears, as well as “Pick’s Pleasant,” and “Baldwin” apples, in his garden in Douglas Flat (San Andreas Independent, September 10, and November 26, 1859).

By 1860 three stores had been established in town, those of Joseph Winn, S.A. Perry, and Antonio Gagliardo, also known as the “Italian Store.” Later sold to the Malespina family, the stone store still stands on Main Street, while the others disappeared long ago. Other businesses included a hotel, butcher shop, shoe store, a wheelwright, and the ubiquitous saloon, but the majority of the men listed their occupations as “miner” through the 1880s (Calaveras County Assessment Rolls, various; U.S. Federal Census 1860, 1870, 1880).

A post office was finally established in 1879, but discontinued in March of 1891, reestablished the following May, and has been active since. In the 1880s, long after mining activities in Douglas Flat had been recounted in the local publications, several of the farms in the area were bustling with activity. A county history noted that:

S. A. Perry has one of the model homes of Calaveras County at Douglas Flat. A comfortable home with a nice orchard of apple, plum, fig, cherry, and apricot trees, as well as a vegetable garden. He also has five cows, several head of young cattle, sheep, horses, and poultry on his place. S.A. Perry & Sons are engaged in general merchandising: he is postmaster, two of the sons are of the firm (Elliott 1885:98).

The same writer described the farm of Ansil Davis as a successful fruit place of 40 acres, with 3,000 trees of all varieties of fruit. Included were apples, pears, peaches, and plums, as well as 3,000 grapevines of selected varieties (Elliott 1885:92).

By this time the Malespina, Bertatta, Raffetto, Copello, Sanguinetti, and other Italian families had established cattle operations on their ranches, practicing transhumance, taking their livestock to the high country to pasture during the summer, returning in the fall to their foothill ranches.

 In the later 19th century, several mining companies continued to work their claims on Coyote Creek, including a few companies of Chinese. The most extensive mining in Douglas Flat, however, shifted to the Ohio and Buckminster hydraulic claims below Table Mountain northwest of the town.  Hydraulicking ceased about 1900 when the tailings pond south of the highway was filled, although a long, north-trending tunnel was prospected intermittently from the 1930s to the early 1950s (Clark and Lydon 1962:201).  In the 1950s, a dredge on pontoons worked up Coyote Creek from Vallecito through Douglas Flat (John Davies 2007), erasing many of the features of the early-day placer mines along the creek

Water Systems 

Water has always been and continues to be of major importance in the development of Calaveras County.  Water was essential to the recovery of gold, and since foothill rivers are seasonal and unpredictable, it wasn’t long before entrepreneurs constructed dams to store water, and ditches and flumes to transport it between drainages.  Often transitory in nature, many of these ditch systems were abandoned as the placers played out, while others were improved end extended for hydraulic and hard rock mining.  Several small ditches in the area served first the mining and later the agricultural needs of the vicinity.

The county’s largest and most important ditch systems -- the Union Water Company, now the Angels-Utica system, and the Mokelumne Hill Canal and Mining Company, now operated by Calaveras County Water District -- continue to serve communities on either side of the county..  After the demise of mining, these ditches were converted to agricultural and domestic use, and later to the production of hydroelectric power.  

Water was provided to Doulas Flat by the ditches of the early Angels-Utica system; the North Ditch on the hillside above town, and the South Ditch between present State Route 4 and Coyote Creek.  As noted by one native, “Utica Ditch gave us drinking water.  It ran through everybody’s place and we didn’t die.” As a kid, she also carried water in a bucket from the Utica Ditch for house water, getting irrigation water once a week (Peirano 1988).

The system was surveyed and built by the Calaveras County Water Company (CCWC) incorporated on November 1, 1856, with its principal place of business at Vallecito.  The system took waters from the North Fork Stanislaus River and by a series of ditches, flumes, and creekbeds, delivered water to Coyote Creek, Vallecito, and Carson Hill.  When the system was acquired by the Utica Gold Mining Company in the 1880s, major expansion of, and improvements to, the flumes, ditches and reservoirs were made (Davis-King et al. 1993:5-17).  After the Utica Mine was shut down in 1915, the Utica Company shifted its focus from supplying water for mining to agricultural and residential uses.  In 1946, Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E) purchased the entire Angels-Utica system, and in the 1920s the route of the old CCWC system through Douglas Flat was finally abandoned (PG&E 1947, in Davis-King et al. 1993:5-15, 5-17). 

Settlement and Agriculture

Close behind the prospectors and miners came the agriculturalists, families from the eastern states and Europe who saw opportunities for stock-raising and truck garden operations on the open grasslands.  Following the decline of placer deposits in the Mother Lode after ca. 1860, farming gained importance as a family enterprise, which helped to establish more permanence and stability in the society. Settlers established farms growing hay, alfalfa, and wheat and planting orchards and truck gardens.  Most families practiced a mixed agricultural economy, raising cattle, sheep, hogs, and poultry, which supplied them with a steady supply of foodstuffs augmented by vegetable gardens and orchards. 

Livestock, however, has always been the backbone of the agricultural industry, with the practice of transhumance opening up the high country to cow and sheep camps.  Commercial winemaking began in 1851, with 1,000 vines set out on the Calaveras River.  Mokelumne Hill was another center of wine production, but vineyards were also planted in virtually every community in the early years.  Hops were grown and baked in kilns for breweries that produced local beers and ales.  Olive trees were planted and the olives cured or made into oil, in both family and commercial orchards.  Local farming, however, never developed beyond a subsistence level and gradually gave way to livestock operations.  

Almost as soon as the first miner settled in Douglas Flat, farmers also began to take up land.  Although several early 1850’s farmers were originally from the eastern states, most of the long-term settlers in the community came from Wales and Italy.  The Welsh included the Roberts, Evans, Williams, Prothero, Thomas, and other families, with the Italians being represented by the Malatestas, Arratas, Malespinos, Copellos, Sanguinettis, Valentes, Lavagninos, Gagliardos, Grenittas, Bertattas, and others.  Most of the men mined and farmed, especially the Italians. 

It was not long before Douglas Camp was transformed into a community. By 1856 the miners had built a small building to serve as a church and town hall, and it soon served as a school as well, as more and more families settled in the area.  The following year three merchants, a hotel keeper, a printer, a ranchero, and seven miners were listed as residing in Douglas Flat (Heckendorn & Wilson 1856:98). 

As the mines waxed and waned, it was the ranchers and farmers who supported the town.  In the late 1850s the county assessor noted over twenty ranches on the flat and along Coyote Creek, ranging in size from 15 to 360 acres.  By the 1880s, most of the smaller ventures had been absorbed into larger ranches by settlers who remained in the area for many years, some of whose descendants still farm the land (Calaveras County Assessment Rolls, various).  The farm of Ansil Davis was described as a successful fruit place of 40 acres, with 3,000 trees of all varieties of fruit.  Included were apples, pears, peaches, and plums, as well as 3,000 grapevines of selected varieties (Elliott 1885:92). 

By this time the Malespina, Bertatta, Raffetto, Copello, Sanguinetti, and other Italian families had established cattle operations on their ranches, practicing transhumance: taking their livestock to the high country to pasture during the summer and returning in the fall to their foothill ranches.  

Commerce

By 1855, three merchants were noted in Douglas Flat:  J.R. Peyton, J.T. Harper, and Joseph Winn.  A hotel, run by John Templeman, provided for travelers, and continued to operate as the Phoenix Saloon for many years.  In 1856 Gannat and Darling operated a store, known as Gannatt and Colton in 1858.  Other merchants noted over the years were John Arratta and G.B. Cuneo in 1860, and Frank Valente in 1880. 

Two stores, however, were to supply the needs of Douglas Flat and its environs for many years.  One merchant was Stephen Addison Perry, a California pioneer, who was residing in Yuba County in 1852, settled in Douglas Flat by 1858 where he worked as a teamster and farmer.  H later purchased Joseph Winn’s business and operated the S.A. Perry &Sons store and post office north of the present schoolhouse.  He and his wife Julia raised their family in Douglas Flat, where he died in 1892 (Ancestry.com).  On the south side of the school, in 1861-2, Antonio Gagliardo & Co. erected a stone store and resided in a frame residence, a property owned by the Malespina family after 1885.  Flanking the school house, their tax assessments provided the only documented information on the location of the school in the early years.

By Judith Marvin