La Grange, established in 1852 near the Tuolumne River, grew quickly as French, Chinese, Mexicans, Spanish, and Americans came by 1853 to mine gold, farm, and ranch, and about 5,000 people lived in the area. Stanislaus County was formed in 1854, and La Grange served as the county seat from 1856 to 1862. It is the only area in the eleven western states to have used all four types of gold mining. Its surviving historic places include the Inmon Trading Post, built in 1850 and now housing the local museum organized in 1989, the adobe barn and stable from 1850, the rustic jail from 1856, the St. Louis Mission from 1854 with its cemetery, the old school house from 1875 in a county park near the citizens cemetery, the 1857 IOOF Hall that was home to the Odd Fellows and Rebekahs, the 1897 saloon, and the 1878 general store. Up river stands La Grange Dam, the tallest overflow dam in the world when built in 1893. The La Grange rodeo, organized in 1948, draws thousands of fans on the first Sunday in April, and the La Grange Improvement Association, begun in 1974, continues to represent community interests.