Heavy coarse gold discovered in this area gave the place the name Coarse Gold Gulch. Nearby, the Texas Flat Mine, filed on in 1853, became the oldest and most extensively worked ledge mine in the district. Coarsegold's historic old well, originally built in 1852, once stood in the middle of the Road to Yosemite and was a welcome sight to tired and thirsty travelers. In 1935 it was moved sixty feet adjacent to the Coarsegold Gulch Hotel, where landscaping and benches could be built around it, and its reconstruction was a community effort.