Potholes is a former gold camp and settlement in

Imperial County Imperial Count (german: Reichsgraf) was a title in the Holy Roman Empire. In the medieval era, it was used exclusively to designate the holder of an imperial county, that is, a fief held directly ( immediately) from the emperor, rather than from ...

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 ...

. The settlement was located on the railroad line northeast of

Bard In Celtic cultures, a bard is a professional story teller, verse-maker, music composer, oral historian and genealogist, employed by a patron (such as a monarch or chieftain) to commemorate one or more of the patron's ancestors and to praise t ...

along the

Colorado River The Colorado River ( es, Río Colorado) is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The river drains an expansive, arid drainage basin, watershed that encompasses parts of ...

near the site of the

Laguna Dam The Laguna Diversion Dam is a rock-filled diversion dam on the Colorado River. It is located 13 miles northeast of Winterhaven, California, Winterhaven, CA–Yuma, Arizona, Yuma, AZ on County Route S24 (California), Imperial County route S24. Cons ...

History

These diggings were probably the ones previously worked by Spanish miners from

Mission San Pedro y San Pablo de Bicuñer Mission San Pedro y San Pablo de Bicuñer was founded on January 7, 1781, by Spanish Padre Francisco Garcés, to protect the Anza Trail where it forded the Colorado River, between the Mexican provinces of Alta California and New Navarre. The se ...

in 1781. Richard E. Lingenfelter, Steamboats on the Colorado River, 1852-1916, University of Arizona Press, Tucson, 1978
/ref> Knowledge of location of the mines was lost with the death of the miners in the

Yuma War The Yuma War was the name given to a series of United States military operations conducted in southern California and what is today southwestern Arizona from 1850 to 1853. The Quechan (also known as Yuma) were the primary opponent of the United ...

. In early 1859, placer gold was found fifteen miles above

Fort Yuma Fort Yuma was a fort in California located in Imperial County, across the Colorado River from Yuma, Arizona. It was on the Butterfield Overland Mail route from 1858 until 1861 and was abandoned May 16, 1883, and transferred to the Department of ...

at the ''Pot Holes'' on the west bank of the

. Placer mining in the area continued into the later 19th century. Dredging the Colorado River for gold in the vicinity of Pot Holes was attempted in 1900–1901, but it was a failure. Most of the gold was too fine to be caught in the mechanism of the dredge used. The town of Potholes was established during the construction of the Laguna Dam and the

All American Canal The All-American Canal is an long aqueduct, located in southeastern California. It conveys water from the Colorado River into the Imperial Valley and to nine cities. It is the Imperial Valley's only water source, and replaced the Alamo Canal, w ...

. A post office operated at Potholes from 1905 to 1909 and from 1920 to 1922. The cemetery for the settlement was located a mile to the south along the west bank of the river.

References

Former settlements in Imperial County, California Former populated places in California {{ImperialCountyCA-geo-stub