January 1980
HOW GOLDEN ROCK COURT GOT ITS NAME
Golden Rock Court (Circle) is named for the Golden Rock water ditch that brought Tuolumne river water from Hardin Flat to Groveland and Big Oak Flat as early as 1860.
The extensive ditch and its "Big Gap Flume" was constructed to supply water needed for gold mining.
An early newspaper correspondent reporting in early 1860 on the lack of water for mining wrote: "As we pass up Rattlesnake, the first creek of note we meet is "Slate Gulch" which has been worked but little since the spring of '50 when they made an average of two ounces per day to the hand. There is considerable dirt thrown up on this gulch, and a fine chance to run toms when we get plenty of water.
"We next reach Garrote creek. There have been many thousands of dollars taken out of this creek and there is more left which will be extracted if we get a little more water, that article being short at present.
"Big Creek has been worked to a considerable extent from the mouth of Garrote creek to where it enters the canyon. This work was done last spring, when the water suddenly dried up and labor was suspended.
"Besides these creeks and innumerable gulches known to contain gold, there is "Deer Flat," where gold has been found in several places in great abundance, but it has been but little more than prospected, as there was not water to work there last winter."
On March 28, 1860, the first water cascaded down the raceway, across the high flume and into the mining areas surrounding Groveland and Big Oak Flat. With it came a renewal of mining activity, a revival of the lagging economy and hope for the future.
John Hardin built a dam at Hardin mill to impound water from the south fork of the Tuolumne. The first thirteen miles of the Golden Rock ditch was built in 1859. The ditch was two and a half feet deep. Its width was nine feet at the top and six feet at the bottom. The grade was eight feet per mile.
The ditch connected with a 2,200-foot suspension flume that carried the water over Big Gap at Buck Meadows. | 
