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Study the past if you would define the future. ~ Confucius

Study the past... The history of Folsom’s Corp Yard property largely reflects the origins of the City of Folsom, itself. Prior to the introduction of Western influences in the area the lands on both sides of the American River were the home of the Southern Nisenan Native American people. The American River was filled with Chinook salmon and steelhead trout, and the adjacent wetlands and fields provided ample game and food sources. Early in the 1800s Spanish Californios from Mexico settled in the area and surveyed the land on the American River. In 1844 Mexico gave a land grant called the Rancho Rio de los Americanos to William Alexander Leidesdorff, for his service to Mexico as Ambassador to the United States. What we now know as the Corp Yard was included in that Mexican land grant.

In 1848 gold was discovered along the American River, and by 1849 the eventual Corp Yard became a tent-city mining encampment called Black Miners Bar. Within one year the Chinese settled at Black Miners Bar, too, and built a church, a temple, several homes and businesses, and a livery stable. The Chinese were employed as laborers and independently mined the American River alongside free Blacks.

In 1855 Theodore Judah completed his survey for the town of Folsom, and the Chinese bought property in the eventual Corp Yard and surrounding areas. By 1856 pioneer J.D. Meredith built the Meredith Hotel and Store along Sacramento Road, a roadway which passed through the Corp Yard property and followed the American River into Sacramento, by then the State capitol. Meredith opened a gold mine on the American River, and employed mostly Chinese miners. A catastrophic fire in 1867 destroyed all of the gold rush buildings. However, Chinatown bounced back and was rebuilt.

From 1908 through the 1960s the Natomas Consolidated Company dredged part of the Corp Yard and most of the south bank of American River for gold; during this time ‘Old Chinatown’ in the Corp Yard came to serve as the City of Folsom’s dump.

In 1949, in order to build Folsom Dam and Folsom Reservoir, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers confiscated the American River waterway, along with 300 feet inland containing part of the Corp Yard, which included the old Sacramento Road and much of Folsom’s early cultural heritage sites along the river banks. In 1956 the Bureau of Reclamation completed the Nimbus Fish Hatchery and Dam, which created Folsom’s Lake Natoma. After the completion of both dams, the California State Parks system was given permanent jurisdiction over the American River, Lake Natoma, and the cultural heritage sites located in the river region of the City of Folsom.

In 1957 what was left of the ‘Old Chinatown’ property at the foot of the Corp Yard was annexed to become the City’s sewage disposal ponds. In 1987 an effort to clean-up the Corp Yard was started, and in 2009 the Corp Yard dump and sewage ponds were successfully clean-closed. Post-closure monitoring continues to this day and is expected to be completed in 2024.