Mountain House (formerly, Zimmerman's and Zimmerman's Mountain House) was a historic waystop for forty-niners halfway from

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

to the Sierra Nevada gold country. Today it is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

Alameda County Alameda County ( ) is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,682,353, making it the 7th-most populous county in the state and 21st most populous nationally. The county seat is Oakland. Alam ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. It is located east-northeast of Livermore, and east of the

Altamont Pass Altamont Pass, formerly Livermore Pass, is a low mountain pass in the Diablo Range of Northern California between Livermore in the Livermore Valley and Tracy in the San Joaquin Valley. The name is actually applied to two distinct but nearby ...

, historically the Livermore Pass, at an altitude of 207 feet (63 m), between the

California Aqueduct The Governor Edmund G. Brown California Aqueduct is a system of canals, tunnels, and pipelines that conveys water collected from the Sierra Nevada Mountains and valleys of Northern and Central California to Southern California. Named after Califo ...

and the Delta-Mendota Canal. San Joaquin County's Mountain House borrowed the name of the historic Mountain House and is located two miles (3 km) to the northeast further downstream on Mountain House Creek.

History

The Cholbon triblet of the Northern Valley

Yokuts The Yokuts (previously known as MariposasPowell, 1891:90–91.) are an ethnic group of Native Americans native to central California. Before European contact, the Yokuts consisted of up to 60 tribes speaking several related languages. ''Yokuts ...

were the original inhabitants of the Mountain House area. Their territory ran along Old River a distributary of the

San Joaquin River The San Joaquin River (; es, Río San Joaquín) is the longest river of Central California. The long river starts in the high Sierra Nevada, and flows through the rich agricultural region of the northern San Joaquin Valley before reaching Suis ...

. In 1849 Thomas Goodall erected a blue denim cloth tent to serve as a midway stopover for gold miners headed from

to the Sierra Nevada (U.S.) foothills via

. Goodall eventually built an adobe house at the eastern edge of the

Diablo Range The Diablo Range is a mountain range in the California Coast Ranges subdivision of the Pacific Coast Ranges in northern California, United States. It stretches from the eastern San Francisco Bay area at its northern end to the Salinas Valley are ...

hills, calling it The Mountain House. Simon Zimmerman later acquired the stop and it became known as Zimmerman's Mountain House, and became a well-known way station stop on the way to Stockton. The last remaining settlement buildings were leveled in 1940. In November 1994, the

San Joaquin County San Joaquin County (; Spanish: ''San Joaquín'', meaning " St. Joachim"), officially the County of San Joaquin, is a county in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 779,233. The county seat is Stockton. San ...

Board of Supervisors officially launched the new community of Mountain House two miles to the northwest along Mountain House Creek. The Elk Horn post office, which operated from 1852 to 1853, was located at or near Mountain House. In 1915 the county road, passing in front of Mountain House, became the

Lincoln Highway The Lincoln Highway is the first transcontinental highway in the United States and one of the first highways designed expressly for automobiles. Conceived in 1912 by Indiana entrepreneur Carl G. Fisher, and formally dedicated October 31, 1913 ...

, America's first to-coast paved road. The Mountain House Bar now occupies the site of the original Mountain House, and is located at 16784 West Grantline Road.

References

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Alameda County, California California Gold Rush