Rail Road Flat, CA

Rail Road Flat is a Calaveras County CDP at about 2,600 feet, with a name that sounds like a railroad town even though no railroad ever ran there. The name comes from primitive mule-drawn ore cars used during the mining era, when the place was a historic mining settlement. Water mattered too: Clark built a ditch from the Mokelumne River to support mining. The joke is built into the map—Rail Road Flat has the rail name, the ore-cart history, and the mountain setting, but not the tracks. It is California foothill mining country with a place-name that needs its own footnote.