Photograph as originally submitted to this page in the Historical Marker Database www.HMdb.org. Click on photo to resize in browser. Scroll down to see metadata.

Photographer: Merle Porter, Royal Pictures, Colton, California
Taken: Circa 1960's
Caption: Sonora, California
Additional Description: This postcard image is looking north from the intersection of Stockton Road and Washington Street - Original site of the Fountain.

"Sonora, California is the seat of Tuolumne County. In 1848 this was known as Sonorian Camp, settled by Mexicans from the state of Sonora, Mexico. The streets were packed with as many as 5,000 miners on a Saturday night. The town was organized in 1848 to establish a hospital to treat one-half of the population who suffered from scurvy. In June of 1850 the new "gringo" government, unappreciative of Sonora's pioneers, imposed a $20 tax on foreign-born miners. Alarmed at the Yankee treachery, Mexicans and Chileans, fearing an attack pulled down their tents and left for new diggings. When the excitement subsided, Sonora found itself with but a fifth of its former poplulation"...MP
Submitted: June 19, 2010, by Syd Whittle of Mesa, Arizona.
Database Locator Identification Number: p113586
File Size: 0.416 Megabytes

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