Eastern Stanislaus County, California

Taken today on Cooperstown and Rock River Roads, eastern Stanislaus County, CA.
Cooperstown Road used to be the main stagecoach road between Oakdale and La Grange and had a shitload of small ranches and farms along it. Same thing with Rock River, it was the main route between Oakdale and Jamestown. Now they're all gone, absorbed into a few larger ranches. The roads are still dirt, but they grade them every couple of years, still a nice relaxing drive full of history if you know where to look.

Then over Rydberg Creek on Cooperstown Road, just underneath the bridge there's Indian grinding rocks that nobody knows about.

 

These pictures were taken from the bridge, most of them straight down. I've prowled all along the creekbed and found a shitload of pestles and other tools used to process their acorns.

 

Lots of folks think these holes were worn down over years and years of use but that just ain't so. The way these holes were made was to build a fire where you want your hole, heat the rock up real hot, then sweep away the coals and drop a few drop of cold water there. The hot rock will crack. Sweep the cracked rock away, build another fire and repeat. Pretty soon you'll have a jagged hole. Shape it with a sharp rock, then smooth it out with a harder rock. It might take a few days, but it doesn't take generations like everybody thinks.

See, another useless fact from Wirecutter.....