Piety Hill

Piety Hill was established in 1849 along Cloverdale Rd. for 0.7 of a mile and quickly grew to 1,500 residents, including 600 Chinese close by. The Hardscrabble mine began operations in 1853 and was served by the Dry Creek Tunnel and Fluming Co.'s twenty-two mile long ditch constructed by Chinese labor. When the Hardscrabble's hydraulic operations threatened to destroy the town in 1866, many white residents moved across Conger Gulch to the newly established town of Igo, while the Chinese population remained engaged in mining and vegetable gardening. The town was saved from destruction by the passage of the anti-debris act, which limited hydraulic mining. The Chinese stayed until the early 1920's, when the last two residents died. In 1907, the water rights of the Dry Creek Tunnel and Fluming Company transferred to the Happy Valley Land and Water Company, which extended the ditch system to provide agricultural water for the Happy Valley area.

California · United States