Paloma, CA

Paloma is a Calaveras County community between Highway 26 and the Mokelumne River, halfway between Valley Springs and Mokelumne Hill. It began as a Gold Rush mining place, and the name came from the nearby Paloma Mine. Senator William McKendree Gwin bought the operation in 1867 and renamed it the Gwin Mine; the quartz mine became one of the richest in California, producing millions of dollars in gold. The townsite came later, when Benjamin Franklin Foster subdivided land south of the mine.

The mining era left a small rural community rather than a full commercial town. The post office used the name Fosteria because Paloma was already taken elsewhere in California, then closed in 1918 after the mine had shut down. Today Paloma Road, Gwin Mine Road, and Gwin Street meet among grazing land and large-lot homes, with no public sewer service and only partial public water. A few old buildings still dot the landscape, and California Historical Landmark 295 keeps the gold-mining chapter visible. Paloma is a place where the roads, mine name, and open land still point back to the same Gold Country beginning.