Piety Hill, California

California Gold Rush. Like many Gold Rush camps that became a town, the town grew quickly from a few miners to a town of 1,500. Near Piety Hill was Chinatown of 600 that mined and farmed. The large scale Hardscrabble mine opened in 1853. Mining need lot of water and the Dry Creek Tunnel and Fluming Company both ran a water system, with a two-mile ditch, to the town and mines nearby, built with Chinese labor. In 1866 the Hardscrabble's hydraulic mining run off threatened the town. Many fed to nearby Igo. Hydraulic mining was outlawed in 1884 in the anti-debris act. The town ended in the 1920 when the last two Chinese residents died. The Dry Creek Tunnel and Fluming Company water right were transferred to the Happy Valley Land and Water Company that serves the Happy Valley area. There are no remains of this town. The Piety Hill Loop is a 4.1-mile loop trail near Igo. A historical was place near the form town by the Ono Grange #445, E Clampus Vitus, Trintarianus Chapter # 62 and the Department of the Interior and Bureau of Land Management.^[1][2]