"French Settlers originally established the community of French Bar along the Tuolumne River in 1850. After the destructive floods of 1851-52, citizens of French Bar relocated one mile up stream above the flood plain."
"Renamed La Grange, the new town prospered as a mining and agricultural community, and served as the county seat of Stanislaus County from 1856 to 1862"
La Grange lost the county seat to Knights Ferry in 1860, an event which ended the great prosperity of the town. It's population was diminished, but La Grange outlived most Gold Rush towns as a center of hydraulic mining, and later gold dredging. Some of the largest dredges ever built worked the ground in this area.
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La Grange is about 30 miles from where I used to live and I've spent many, many hours just hanging out and talking with local residents, most of whom are descendants of the Gold Rush miners.
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