They Lived in Jacksonville?

Once upon a time, there was a town in Tuolumne Co. called Jacksonville. It was on the Tuolumne River, just downstream from the confluence with Moccasin Creek. When the "New" Don Pedro Reservoir was filled in the 1970's, Jacksonville was inundated. The overlooks on either side of the Hwy 120 bridge over Don Pedro Reservoir look down on the general area of Jacksonville.

Early county records seem to differentiate between the town of Jacksonville and the community of miners, farmers and ranchers living along Moccasin Creek. Yet at least in the 1904 Voter Registrations, after the glory days of mining along the creek and before the City of San Francisco built their operating headquarters for the Hetch Hetchy Project there, families known to have lived in Moccasin (aka Moccasin Creek) are listed as "of Jacksonville".

Researchers, be cautious when researching someone "from Jacksonville". They may indeed have lived in Jacksonville town. But they might have lived farther afield -- as far out as the community we now call Moccasin.

As for the New Don Pedro Reservoir ... it has been around long enough that the "new" designation is fading from memory. There's been a Don Pedro Reservoir since the 1920's, managed by the Modesto and Turlock Irrigation Districts and providing irrigation water for those communities. In the 1960's, the Districts and the City and Co. of San Francisco joined forces to build a new dam and increase the storage capacity of the reservoir. You can read more about Don Pedro Reservoir here.