Historic Resource Evaluation Project - Tuolumne Utilities District

Camp Road, various concrete and/or wood drop-downs and gates, often with associated
cross-gates or distribution gates and spillways, an above-ground concrete clean-out and
pipe-access box, a concrete driveway bridge, two board-formed concrete supports for the
Sullivan Creek pipeline, and two board-formed concrete chutes with grizzly. There are
various historic ditch service tags.
History. The Section 4 Ditch, named for its origin in Section 4, T2N, R16E, was
reportedly constructed in 1887-1888 by the TCWC (Rhodin 1916). It received its supply
from the Main Ditch at Middle Camp, and carried it to Eureka Camp, from where it was
distributed into the Eureka Ditch, and, beyond Tuolumne, to the Roach’s Camp Ditch.
Another branch carried water through the Soulsbyville Ditch to Soulsbyville.
The ditch was constructed by the TCWC during the hard-rock mining era, when the
company was reconstructing the old mining ditches of the 1850s-1870s to bring water to
the booming quartz mines and their communities. It connected the Soulsbyville Ditch
and the Eureka Ditch with the Main Ditch at Middle Camp, replacing the two original
separate ditches with the headworks to connect both ditches that coursed southerly from
their original takeouts.
In 1916 the ditch was described as being 2.73 miles long, with an average bottom width
of four feet, in excellent condition, with flumes in fair condition. Its terminus was at
Eureka Camp Station (ditch-tender’s dwelling with outbuildings), which was in a good
state of repair. At Eureka Camp Station water was diverted into the Soulsbyville Ditch
and the Eureka Ditch (Rhodin 1916).
Evaluation. One of the younger ditches in the TUD system, the Section 4 Ditch appears
to be eligible for listing on the NRHP under Criteria A and C, as a contributing property
to a potential Tuolumne Utilities District National Register District. Under Criterion A,
the Section 4 Ditch was constructed by the TCWC during its era of expansion in the late
1880s-1890s. At that time, it was built to convey water from the Main Ditch to the
Eureka and Soulsbyville ditches, a refinement and improvement of their earlier routes. It
was during this booming era that the company was expanding and altering its conduits to
bring water to the hard-rock mines and the West Side Lumber Company town of
Carter’s/Tuolumne, an era important in the history of Tuolumne County and California.
Under Criterion C, the ditch retains its integrity along about 65% of its length, and
embodies the distinctive characteristics of its type, period, and method of construction to
its period of significance (ca. 1888-1967). The ditch is still in use, and conveys water in
the same manner as when it was first constructed.
Shaw’s Flat/Street’s/Sullivan Creek and Tuolumne River Water Company Ditch
(P-55-000980; CA-TUO-003305H)
Description. This resource is a water conveyance system consisting of earthen berm
ditch, random, siphons, and pipelines with a total length of 55,784 linear feet (this total
excludes Shaws Flat pipeline from Chaparral Drive to the Sonora WTP that is 6,398 ft.
Foothill Resources, Ltd. 4.40 TUD Ditch Sustainability Project
Francis Heritage, LLC
Historic Resource Evaluation Report