Plymouth was a mining camp by about 1852 and began as a quartz-mining settlement established early by Green Aden and other hard rock miners. The town was probably named after the nearby Plymouth Mine. A post office was established in 1871, and the town endured many fires, the most destructive in 1877. It was incorporated in 1917 and prospered through mining, as a trading center, and through local farming. Mining claims were located in 1852 and merged in 1883 into the Plymouth Consolidated Mine, whose deepest shaft reached 4,450 feet. The mine produced over $13,500,000 and closed in 1947, and it was the first Mother Lode mine to deliver ore from shaft to mill by conveyor belt.