Calaveras County
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Calaveras County is a county located in California's Sierra Nevada foothills region, known historically for gold mining during the 1800s. Today it remains a rural area in central California with small communities and natural attractions in the mountains.
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Calaveras County (Calaveras, Spanish for "Skulls"; /ˌkæləˈvɛrəs/ ), officially the County of Calaveras, is a county in both the Gold Country and High Sierra regions of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 45,292. The county seat is San Andreas. Angels Camp is the county's only incorporated city. The county was reportedly named for the remains of Native Americans discovered by the Spanish explorer Captain Gabriel Moraga in 1806.
Calaveras Big Trees State Park, a preserve of giant sequoia trees, is in the county several miles east of the town of Arnold on State Highway 4. Credit for the discovery of giant sequoias there is given to Augustus T. Dowd, a trapper who made the discovery in 1852 while tracking a bear. When the bark from the "Discovery Tree" was removed and taken on tour around the world, the trees became a worldwide sensation and one of the county's first tourist attractions. The uncommon gold telluride mineral calaverite was discovered in the county in 1861 and is named for it.