Carnegie was a town in

Corral Hollow Corral Hollow, formed by Corral Hollow Creek, is a canyon partially located in Alameda County, with parts in San Joaquin County, southwest of Tracy, California. Corral Hollow Creek, formerly El Arroyo de los Buenos Ayres (The Creek of the Goo ...

, in

San Joaquin County San Joaquin County (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''San Joaquín'', meaning "Joachim, St. Joachim"), officially the County of San Joaquin, is a county (United States), county in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States Census, 20 ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

from 1902 to about 1915. It was discovered that the San Francisco & San Joaquin Coal Company's Tesla coal mines in Corral Hollow contained a rich deposit of clay. Fueled by California's rapid population growth and the subsequent demand for building materials mine owners James and John Treadwell of the

Treadwell gold mine The Treadwell gold mine was on the south side of Douglas Island, east of downtown Douglas and southeast of downtown Juneau, owned and operated by John Treadwell. Composed of four sub-sites, Treadwell was in its time the largest hard rock gold ...

formed the Carnegie Brick and Pottery Company in 1902. The Treadwells named the company after philanthropist

Andrew Carnegie Andrew Carnegie (, ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans i ...

. In 1904 the plant to make brick and architectural terra cotta was built near the

Alameda and San Joaquin Railroad The Alameda and San Joaquin Railroad was incorporated on May 1, 1895, to serve the coal mines of the San Francisco & San Joaquin Coal Company at Corral Hollow. The line ran from Tesla (located in the Corral Hollow canyon southeast of Corral H ...

line, four miles east of the coal mining town of Tesla. A town was in place with over 300 inhabitants (mainly Italian artisans) and the town's brick factory was producing upwards of 100,000 bricks per day. In 1904, the Pottery sewer pipe plant was built between Carnegie and Tesla. In 1911 a flood destroyed bridges, roads, and buildings which the company could not afford to rebuild. The towns of Carnegie and Tesla were abandoned. The rail line from Carbona was abandoned by the

Western Pacific Railroad The Western Pacific Railroad was a Class I railroad in the United States. It was formed in 1903 as an attempt to break the near-monopoly the Southern Pacific Railroad had on rail service into northern California. WP's Feather River Route dire ...

in January 1916. Dan L. Mosier, Brief History of the Tesla Area
/ref> In 1916 the company was sold to

Gladding, McBean Gladding, McBean is a ceramics company located in Lincoln, California. It is one of the oldest companies in California, a pioneer in ceramics technology, and a company which has "contributed immeasurably" to the state's industrialization. During ...

Lincoln, California Lincoln is a city in Placer County, California, United States, part of the Sacramento metropolitan area. Located in an area of rapid suburban development, it grew 282.1 percent between 2000 and 2010, making it the fastest-growing city over 10,000 ...

. The new owners, in an effort to reduce competition, sold off the factory's equipment and destroyed what remained of the town's buildings. On May 27, 1917, the tall smokestacks at the plant were dynamited. Today only the foundation of the brick works can be seen within the

Carnegie State Vehicular Recreation Area Carnegie State Vehicular Recreation Area is a state park unit of California, U.S., providing off-roading opportunities in the Diablo Range. Located in southern Alameda and San Joaquin counties, it is one of eight state vehicular recreation a ...

. Materials from Carnegie Brick and Pottery were used to build the

Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County is the largest natural and historical museum in the western United States. Its collections include nearly 35 million specimens and artifacts and cover 4.5 billion years of history. This large coll ...

, the Oakland Hotel, and the Carnegie libraries in Livermore and Lodi, California. The site of the former town is registered as a

California Historical Landmark A California Historical Landmark (CHL) is a building, structure, site, or place in California that has been determined to have statewide historical landmark significance. Criteria Historical significance is determined by meeting at least one of ...

References

Former settlements in San Joaquin County, California Former populated places in California Populated places established in 1902 {{SanJoaquinCountyCA-geo-stub