In 1851, the Middle Bar Bridge was built over the Mokelumne River to handle the large amount of gold seekers coming through the area. The following years, 1852, a flood washed the bridge away. Another bridge was built with claims stating it was high enough it would not get washed away. It was finished in November, 1852, and cost $25,000 (~$720,932 in 2023) to build. It stood for approximately ten years until another flood dislocated the bridge.[4]
After the first gold rush, the area experienced a second round of increased population in the 1920s during a smaller mining rush.