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| Landmark #418 | Stanislaus County | Visited: June 27, 2015 | Plaque? YES! 🙂 |
| What is it? | A monument commemorating Empire City! |
| What makes it historical? | THE GUIDE SAYS: This memorial is dedicated to the memory of the pioneer men and women of Empire City and vicinity. Located one-half mile west of here on the banks of the Tuolumne River, Empire City was the head of navigation and the site of the second courthouse of Stanislaus County. Records remained here from October 1854 to December 1855.
OTHER TIDBITS: Empire City was the scene of a terrible crime, when a man lost his entire savings on an investment scheme and killed his entire family before riding into town with his wife’s scalp in hand and dropping down dead in front of a saloon! Fooled you! That story was actually a hoax penned by young journalist, Mark Twain, in the Territorial Enterprise on October 28, 1863! By writing about the “Empire City Massacre,” he meant to expose hypocrisy at his own newspaper! The paper had been encouraging folks to stop investing in mining ventures who were falsifying their finances, and switch to San Francisco utilities, but these utility companies were cooking the same books! So, the murder spree in Mark Twain’s tale came about because a man had chosen to invest in San Francisco utilities! |
| How can I Help the Helpers? | HERE’S HOW:
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| Where is this place? | LISTED DIRECTIONS: 0.1 mi S on County Hwy J-7 Empire, CA ANNOTATIONS: From Los Angeles: ~311mi (501km) — 5.2hrs |
| When should I go? | Whenever the mood strikes you! |