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This historic marker honors the founders of the first known agricultural colony in San Joaquin Valley. In 1846, 20 Mormon pioneers from the ship Brooklyn arrived in the valley and built a settlement, later known as Stanislaus City. They were not the first Europeans arriving in the valley, but the were the first to plant wheat and crops and irrigated the land.
Their settlement, however, did not last. In Rensch and Hoover’s Historic Spots in California, the following account of the Mormon colony is given:
Soon after their arrival, a log house, constructed after the Western manner and covered with oak shingles fashioned on the spot, was put up, while, with a crudely improvised sawmill, boards were hewn from oak logs for the cabin floor. Elk, bear and wild geese were so abundant that one man with a rifle could bring in enough game in three hours time to supply the colony for a week. Wheat, farm instruments and other necessary supplies had been brought and by the middle of January 1847, eighty acres of grain had been sown. The little settlement did indeed seem full of hope and promise.
But with the coming of winter rains the whole aspect was changed. The season was so stormy that the river overflowed its banks causing the little band of pioneers untold suffering and hardship. Then, too, serious dissentions arose among the colonists. So completely disheartened did they become that gradually the group disbanded. By the summer of 1847, only one man, a Mr. Buckland, remained and he too, was gone by November.
Another account of the early settlement is given in Stanislaus County History:
Mormon Sam Brannan brought settlers to a spot 1 1/2 miles north of the junction of the Stanislaus and San Joaquin rivers River, near present day Salida. On the south bank had been Estanislao's camp, and on the north bank (in today's San Joaquin County), Brannan established the settlement of New Hope or Stanislaus City. But, settlers of New Hope lived on both sides of the river, which meant they lived in the future Stanislaus County. Mormon President Brigham Young could not agree with Brannan to settle the Mormon people at New Hope instead of in the Valley of the Great Salt Lake. Many of the Mormon settlers went to the gold mines or to Utah abandoning the settlement.
Most likely, the area would have remained unsettled for quite a while, but only one year after the Mormons left, one moment in history changed everything: the California Gold Rush. In 1859, several river crossings sprang up to carry gold seekers and settlers to and from the Stanislaus River. Up through 1857, ranches and farms were getting a solid foothold along the Stanislaus River and a settler named W. H. Hughes bought a settler's right to the land that was once the Mormon Stanislaus City. The city became permanently established when he granted a right-of-way, including a depot site, to the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1872. The settlement was then renamed Stanislaus Station.
We were somewhat baffled by the fact that the marker was located six miles away from the settlement it honors, but we found the explanation in History of the City of Ripon: In 1912, a new station was built to the north of this original structure, at the first location of the Historic Marker. In 2010, the Marker was relocated and is now in front of the Lions Club on Main St in Ripon.
One cannot help but admire the optimism and the foresight of these first Mormon settlers. They were defeated by nature, but the dream remained and 150 years later the Central Valley supplied 15% of the world’s vegetable production.
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