Springfield

Springfield is a California Historical Landmark in Tuolumne County.

Springfield · location approximate

Directions to the area ↗Start a road trip Historical trails

Springfield received its name from abundant springs gushing from limestone boulders. Town with its stores, shops and hotel built around plaza. Once boasted 2,000 inhabitants. Believed founded by Doña Josefa Valmesada, Mexican woman of means with reputation of aiding Americans in war with Mexico. During heyday 150 miners carts could be seen on road, hauling gold-bearing dirt to Springfield springs for washing.

1971 register text, presented as a historical document. It uses the period's terms for Native people; the state's landmark listings still carry most of this wording, and the California Office of Historic Preservation maintains the program's current texts.

Many of these plaques have since been recast or their texts revised. The California Historical Landmarks program and its current texts are maintained by the California Office of Historic Preservation. California Office of Historic Preservation ↗

TodayHistorical map

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

Historical maps covering this location

1866 · Central California. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1873 · Composite: Topographical Map of Central California Together With a Part of Nevada, Sheets… (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1879 · 56D. Parts Of Central California. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1948 · Columbia, California (USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection)
1949 · Columbia, California (USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection)

56D. Parts Of Central California, 1879, covering the location of Springfield, with a pin at the marker's coordinates — 56D. Parts Of Central California, 1879, covering this location. David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries. The pin is ours and the location is approximate.

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For example, one family's tree showed the Articles of Confederation marker in Pennsylvania standing under a mile from where William Gabby lived in the 1760s.

What that marker records spans 1777 to 1789, overlapping William Gabby's years there.

From one family's 77-marker roster

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Marker data: State of California, Department of Parks and Recreation, California Historical Landmarks (1971)

Springfield

Historical maps covering this location

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