The Scott brothers, descendants of the Cherokee Tribe, discovered gold in 1853 in Tuolumne County.

When the placer gold panning (diggins) ran out, some quartz mines opened around Cherokee.

[1][2] Cherokee was the first mining town in the East Best of the California Mother Lode.

Cherokee supported the other nearby mining camp of Independence, Little Jessie, Mary Ellen, Plowboy and Excelsior.

After the gold ran out the Scanvino brothers, Domingo and Ciovanni, from Italy, started a family farm that replaced Cherokee.