Dogtown is a former settlement in Mariposa County, California, United States. It was located on Maxwell Creek east of Coulterville, at an elevation of 2582 feet (787 m).
Dogtown was a major hydraulic mining center in the late nineteenth century. At its peak, the town boasted numerous hotels, saloons, a dance hall, and a red light district. The town was supposedly named for the many stray dogs that roamed the area during the Gold Rush. A dam failure flooded much of the townsite in 1899; by 1989, only "scattered building foundations and half a dozen wooden structures on the verge of collapse" remained at the site.
Several unrelated communities and mining camps in California also had the name Dogtown during the nineteenth century; including one in Mono County, one in neighboring Merced County, another in Butte County (now Magalia), one in Calaveras County, and a later settlement in Marin County.
See also Cat Town, California Quartzburg, Mariposa County, California
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