Second Garrotte
Second Garrotte is a ghost town located near Groveland in Tuolumne County, California originally settled during the California Gold Rush.[1] It lies at an elevation of 2,894 feet / 882 meters in Second Garrotte Basin.[2] [3]
The town was named after a nearby hanging tree, where according to local lore as many as thirty men were said to have been hanged.[4] Certain contemporary accounts from miners and settlers in the area suggest only two men were hung at Second Garrotte, a pair of thieves caught stealing gold dust from a sluice box. Jason Chamerblain and James Chaffee, early settlers at Second Garrotte who owned the property on which the hanging tree stood, denied any hangings took place.[5]
The nearby town of Groveland was originally known as First Garrotte, named after an earlier hanging at that town.[5]
References
- "Tuolumne". CA State Parks. Retrieved 2019-03-10.
- U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Second Garrotte Basin
- U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Second Garrotte
- Miller, Donald (1978). Ghost towns of California. Boulder, Colo.: Pruett Publishing Co. p. 153.
- Paden, Irene; Schlichtmann, Margaret (1955). The Big Oak Flat Road; an account of freighting from Stockton to Yosemite Valley. Yosemite National Park: Yosemite Natural History Association. pp. 167–180.