Founded in 1852 by French miners who struct gold in the nearby Tuolomne River La Grange was a mostly lawless town after mining all but ceased by 1880. Famous for the many dredges that operated in the are though the 50’s. We stopped by a nearby dredge location but were deterred by a massive forest fire heading for the small town. We pulled over and watched a helicopter dip into Dawson Lake near the dredge to help extinguish the fire along with dozens of fire trucks and planes.
Afterwords we cruised though town for lunch and checked out the museum. Across the street are located a couple of massive buckets from nearby dredges. The post office and school still operate today.
We also checked out the French Cemetery on the outskirts of town. One of the sarcophagus in the cemetery was was cracked open, creepy!
