French Lake, California located in Nevada County, was a

California Gold Rush The California Gold Rush (1848–1855) was a gold rush that began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California fro ...

community, now uninhabited. It was located by a lake of the same name.

Reservoir

French Lake Reservoir French Lake Reservoir (National ID # CA00247) is a reservoir in Nevada County, California. The earthen, rock-fill French Lake Dam was first constructed in 1859, and is a candidate for the first use of rock-fill in an engineered dam.Journal of ...

, at an elevation of 7500’-6680’, is part of a string of lakes, including Bowman Lake, Sawmill Lake, and Faucherie Lake to the northwest, as well as Meadow Lake and Fordyce Lake to the southeast. French Lake Road, used by the

Nevada Irrigation District Nevada Irrigation District (NID) is an agency in Northern California that supplies water for much of Nevada County and portions of Placer and Yuba Counties. The water is used for irrigation, municipal and domestic purposes. It was established i ...

and not available for public use, skirts the lake's northwest perimeter before heading east to Meadow Lake Road. An unsigned road near the lake's southeastern banks veers northeast to Meadow Lake Road above English Mountain's now uninhabited Baltimore Town and Summit City in unincorporated Nevada County.

History

Prior to the

Maidu The Maidu are a Native American people of northern California. They reside in the central Sierra Nevada, in the watershed area of the Feather and American rivers. They also reside in Humbug Valley. In Maiduan languages, ''Maidu'' means "man." ...

, French Lake was inhabited by the

Martis people Martis is the name given by scientists to the group of Native Americans who lived in Northern California on both the eastern and western sides of the Sierra Nevada. The Martis complex lasted from 2000 BCE to 500 CE, during the Middle Archaic era ...

, a now extinct

Native American tribe In the United States, an American Indian tribe, Native American tribe, Alaska Native village, tribal nation, or similar concept is any extant or historical clan, tribe, band, nation, or other group or community of Native Americans in the Unit ...

. The Martis'

Meadow Lake Petroglyphs The Meadow Lake Petroglyphs (also known as 4-Nev-3) are located in a restricted area by French Lake, California in the Tahoe National Forest. Attributed to the Martis people, they are listed on the National Register of Historic Places The ...

(also known as 4-Nev-3) are a historical landmark. In 1878, the world's first long-distance telephone line operated between French Lake and

French Corral, California French Corral is an unincorporated community approximately five miles west of California State Highway 49 in Nevada County, California. It was one of the first of several historic California gold rush mining camps along the San Juan Ridge. T ...

, 58 miles to the west, including the towns of North San Juan, and North Bloomfield on the phone route. The phone line was used to pass information regarding water flow from French Lake for post-

hydraulic mining Hydraulic mining is a form of mining that uses high-pressure jets of water to dislodge rock material or move sediment.Paul W. Thrush, ''A Dictionary of Mining, Mineral, and Related Terms'', US Bureau of Mines, 1968, p.560. In the placer mining of ...

References

External links

Society of California Pioneers photo, ca. 1860-1870
at

University of California Libraries The University of California operates the largest academic library system in the world. It manages more than 40.8 million print volumes in 100 libraries on ten campuses. The purpose of these libraries is to assist research and instruction on the ...

Former settlements in Nevada County, California Mining communities of the California Gold Rush Populated places in the Sierra Nevada (United States) Former populated places in California {{NevadaCountyCA-geo-stub