It sits atop an ancient river bed of gold bearing gravel, which made it one of the richest California mining areas in the second half of the 19th century.

[2] Archaeologists have found signs of human habitation on the Ridge, including the area around Cherokee, dating back five thousand years.

It had two hotels, the Grizzly and Curnow’s,[9] saloons, several stores, a butcher, a shoe shop, a resident physician and drugstore, and a blacksmith.

[13] After 1878, Cherokee was connected to the world’s first long distance telephone line which ran from French Corral to the Bowman Lake area.

Our old friends, Dr. Wyatt, Frank Wilder, Martin Frankenheimer and Turney, still remain the landmarks of the place.

Turney keeps a hotel, Martin and Frankenheimer feed the hungry and clothe the naked, and Frank Wilder is sending acres of mud down Shady Creek, covering up ranches, destroying the navigation of the Sacramento, but putting pounds of filthy lucre in his pocket.”[15] A public school house was built by private subscription in 1855.

Mr. Welch, the present proprietor, is just one of the most accommodating landlords to be scared up, besides having fitted up his house in a style of superiority not often to be met with so far up in the mountains”.

[26] The hotel had a public hall which was frequently the site of dances and entertainments, such as Fourth of July celebrations.

[28] As noted above, mining prospects in the Cherokee area were not as promising as some of its neighboring towns, such as North Bloomfield.

[32] As late as World War I there was still some mining activity around Cherokee,[33] with the Guggenheims believed to be financing some of it.

[34] In 1924, an historian noted that the town was reduced to “one store; and the people live principally by farming, very little active mining being carried on here.” [35] Today, all that remains of Cherokee is the schoolhouse, located on Sages Road just north of Tyler Foote Crossing Road, the historic cemetery and a lot of land scarred by hydraulic mining.