[4] A post office was established titled "Mountain Springs", after the Mountain Springs Hotel, in 1854, a few miles southwest of Dutch Flat.

The post office moved one mile north and the name was changed to Gold Run in 1863.

$6,125,000 in gold was transferred out of the town between 1865 and 1878 due to the hydraulic mining.

[4] It is east of Rollins Reservoir in the Sierra Nevada foothills.

This region experiences warm (but not hot) and dry summers, with no average monthly temperatures above 71.6 °F.