Secret Town was a historical mining town in Placer County,

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 ...

. It was located northeast of Colfax, at an elevation of 2904 feet (885 m).

Name

After gold was discovered in this area, miners wanted to keep the location a secret, hence the unusual name.''Secret Town Fill.''
Explore APA Heritage - Chinese Heritage Sites of the American West.

Climate

Railway bridge

Secret Town was the site of a very long trestle railroad bridge. The 1100 ft (335 m) long and 95 ft (29 m) high Secret Town wooden

trestle ATLAS-I (Air Force Weapons Lab Transmission-Line Aircraft Simulator), better known as Trestle, was a unique electromagnetic pulse (EMP) generation and testing apparatus built between 1972 and 1980 during the Cold War at Sandia National Laborato ...

on the

Central Pacific Railroad The Central Pacific Railroad (CPRR) was a rail company chartered by Pacific Railroad Acts, U.S. Congress in 1862 to build a railroad eastwards from Sacramento, California, to complete the western part of the "First transcontinental railroad" in N ...

's grade, like most of the other trestles of the line, was filled in with earth and rock after the railroad opened to traffic and could afford to send Chinese laborers back to improve the

right-of-way Right of way is the legal right, established by grant from a landowner or long usage (i.e. by prescription), to pass along a specific route through property belonging to another. A similar ''right of access'' also exists on land held by a gov ...

by reducing the risk of catching fire from smokestack sparks as steam locomotives crossed.

References

Unincorporated communities in California Unincorporated communities in Placer County, California Railroad bridges in California {{PlacerCountyCA-geo-stub