Carnegie was a town in Corral Hollow, in

San Joaquin County San Joaquin County (; Spanish: ''San Joaquín'', meaning "St. Joachim"), officially the County of San Joaquin, is a county in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 779,233. The county seat is Stockton. San Joa ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...

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 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 in ...

. In 1904 the plant to make brick and architectural terra cotta was built near the Alameda and San Joaquin Railroad 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 dir ...

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