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Altaville (''Alta'',
Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...
for "Upper" and ''Ville'',
French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...
for "town") is a former
unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...
in
Calaveras County Calaveras County (), officially the County of Calaveras, is a County (United States), county in both the Gold Country and Sierra Nevada, High Sierra regions of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the ...
,
California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
, now located in the northwest portion of the city of Angels Camp. It sits at an
elevation The elevation of a geographic location (geography), ''location'' is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational equipotenti ...
of 1,542 feet (470 m) above
sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal Body of water, bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical ...
and is located at , at the intersections of SR 49 and SR 4. The community is in ZIP code 95221 and
area code 209 Area codes 209 and 350 are telephone area codes in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for the U.S. state of California. Their service area includes Stockton, Modesto, Turlock, Merced, Winton, Atwater, Livingston, Manteca, Ripon, Tracy ...
. The town was established in 1852 on Cherokee Creek and was known variously as Cherokee Flat, Forks-of-the Road, Low Divide, and Winterton over its history. Notorious bandit
Joaquin Murrieta Joaquin Murrieta Carrillo (sometimes misspelled Murieta or Murietta) (c. 1829 – July 25, 1853), also called the Robin Hood of the West or the Robin Hood of El Dorado, was a Mexicans, Mexican figure of disputed historicity. The novel ''The Lif ...
supposedly spent so much time here that a mountain northwest of the creek was named Joaquin Mountain. Although
gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...
was discovered here in 1854, it didn't last long, but the town survived due to its position as an important point for supplies and machinery. D.D. Demerest established a foundry here in 1854, and others soon followed. Most of the stamp mills and a large part of the mining machinery erected in Calaveras and Tuolumne Counties were built at the Altaville Foundry. A brick schoolhouse was built at Altaville in 1858 and the townsite was established in 1873. A post office was established in 1904, closed in 1943, and re-established in 1944. Altaville was also the site of an archaeological hoax, the
Calaveras Skull The Calaveras Skull (also known as the Pliocene Skull) was a human skull found in 1866 by miners in Calaveras County, California, which was presented as evidence that humans were in North America as early as during the Pliocene Epoch (at least ...
. The town today is registered as
California Historical Landmark A California Historical Landmark (CHL) is a building, structure, site, or place in the U.S. state of California that has been determined to have statewide historical landmark significance. Criteria Historical significance is determined by meetin ...
#288.


References

Unincorporated communities in Calaveras County, California California Historical Landmarks Populated places established in 1852 Unincorporated communities in California 1852 establishments in California {{CalaverasCountyCA-geo-stub