{"id":1971,"date":"2022-05-13T07:34:50","date_gmt":"2022-05-13T07:34:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yosemitegold.com\/?p=1971"},"modified":"2022-08-26T06:06:38","modified_gmt":"2022-08-26T06:06:38","slug":"groveland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yosemitegold.com\/groveland\/","title":{"rendered":"Groveland &#8211; Yosemite Gold"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"entry-header\">\n<h1 class=\"entry-title\">GROVELAND<\/h1>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"entry-content\">\n<figure class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.yosemitegold.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/groveland.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"358\" height=\"234\" data-pagespeed-url-hash=\"2558633083\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Iron Door Saloon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>On Highway 120, just 26 miles from the Yosemite Park entrance, the historic community of\u00a0<strong>Groveland<\/strong>\u00a0is the most convenient gateway to this treasured national landmark for tourists comingfrom the San Francisco Bay area, Sacramento, Stockton or Modesto. Groveland is also home to a great \u201cdowntown\u201d with a park, shops, restaurants and the famous\/infamous Iron Door Saloon \u2014 said to be California\u2019s oldest continuously-operating saloon.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>GroveLand History<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.yosemitegold.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/treesm.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"248\" height=\"355\" data-pagespeed-url-hash=\"566746452\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Garrotte Hanging Tree: how it looks today.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Gold brought the initial flood of citizens. Water and Yosemite are responsible for the latest influx. Today, Groveland and nearby communities hold more than 7,000 of Tuolumne County\u2019s 56,000 residents. The community serves as host to tens of thousands of tourists. It\u2019s a natural stopping-off point on Highway 120 to Yosemite and from several other vacation destinations.<\/p>\n<p>Originally, Groveland and nearby Big Oak Flat were both called Savage\u2019s Diggings. James Savage discovered gold there in 1848. Savage\u2019s Diggings became Garrotte in 1850 \u2014 named so for the area\u2019s swift and harsh justice. Soon Garrotte was a boom town, but by the 1870s, the easy pickings were gone and Garrotte was transformed from dozens of bars and bordellos to a quiet community catering to cattle ranches and \u2014 even back then \u2014 a trickle of tourists taking the new Big Oak Flat Road to Yosemite.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>By 1875, citizens changed the name of Garrotte to Groveland and, as luck would have it, Groveland soon thereafter experienced a second gold rush with the advent of deep shaft mines and milling operations.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.yosemitegold.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/donpedrosm.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"405\" height=\"218\" data-pagespeed-url-hash=\"1738976711\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lake Don Pedro: one of California\u2019s largest lakes provides fishing, waterskiing, houseboating and more!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The second gold rush was over by 1914 but, by then, a third rush was about to begin. In 1914, SanFrancisco had received congressional approval to build the Hetch Hetchy Water Project and Groveland was selected to be the construction headquarters. It\u2019s ironic that while the headquarters, it received none of the water.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>At the end of World War II, there was yet another boom \u2014 but it was short-lived. 22 lumber mills opened. Periodic improvements in the Hetch Hetchy system brought new workers, but the lack of water to Groveland itself meant that every summer, private wells and springs dried up. Lack of water meant that this boom, too, was soon over.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.yosemitegold.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/cattlesm.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"455\" height=\"192\" data-pagespeed-url-hash=\"238537349\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Local ranchers still \u201crun herds\u201d right through town.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Finally, Groveland citizens united and formed their own water system. That opened the way for developer Boise Cascade, in the mid-60s, to begin development of a brand new resort \u2014 Pine Mountain Lake: a planned community with over 4,000 residential lots and its own golf course, country club, airport and stables. By then, the die had been cast. Groveland had now charted a course of steady growth that continues to this day.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>While their community is steeped in history, residents are assured its best days are straight ahead, as visitors discover this very special Sierra town that\u2019s also the gateway to Yosemite.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Accommodations<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>People ask us about where to stay in this wonderful community so close to Yosemite National Park. May we suggest\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.yosemitegoldvacations.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Yosemite Gold Vacations<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.friendsofyosemitepark.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Friends of Yosemite Park Lodging<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.hotelcharlotte.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Hotel Charlotte<\/a>\u00a0&amp;\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.sunsetinn-yosemitecabins.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sunset Inn Yosemite Guest Cabins<\/a>.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Nearby<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Groveland is popular because of its history and its proximity to Yosemite. Also nearby (via Highway 132) is the unique Gold Rush town of\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.yosemitegold.com\/?p=144\">Coulterville<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yosemitegold.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1971"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yosemitegold.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yosemitegold.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yosemitegold.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yosemitegold.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.yosemitegold.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1971\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yosemitegold.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yosemitegold.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yosemitegold.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}