Sierra Conservation Center

The Byrne's Ferry bridge was a historic cantilevered covered bridge across the Stanislaus River between Calaveras County and Tuolumne County, California. Originally built during the California Gold Rush, the bridge was located on the O'Byrne's Ferry road between Chinese Camp and Copperopolis. Until the mid-20th century, it was one of the last remaining covered bridges in the state; the bridge was destroyed in 1957 (after an unsuccessful attempt to move it) to make way for the construction of Tulloch Dam.

Black Creek is a tributary of the Stanislaus River in Calaveras County, California, flowing about 13 miles (21 km) in a southerly direction through the Sierra Nevada foothills. Originating near Carmen Peak, it joins the Stanislaus River in Tulloch Lake, near Copperopolis.

Lake Tulloch, located in Copperopolis, California, is one of the few lakes in California that has private shoreline houses. At roughly 504 feet (154 m) in elevation the lake covers 1,260 acres (510 ha). Lake Tulloch provides water needs to downstream users and hydroelectricity to users throughout the state.

New Melones Dam is an earth and rock filled embankment dam on the Stanislaus River, about 5 miles (8.0 km) west of Jamestown, California, United States, on the border of Calaveras County and Tuolumne County. The water impounded by the 625-foot-tall (191 m) dam forms New Melones Lake, California's fourth-largest reservoir, in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada east of the San Joaquin Valley. The dam serves mainly for irrigation water supply, and also provides hydropower generation, flood control, and recreation benefits. The dam was authorized in 1944 as a unit of the federal Central Valley Project, a system designed to provide irrigation water to the fertile agricultural region of the Central Valley. It would be built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps), and transferred to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) upon completion. In 1966, work began to clear the foundations for a high dam that would replace an earlier, much smaller structure built by two irrigation districts. Construction of the main embankment began in 1976, and was topped out in late 1978. The filling of New Melones Lake began in 1978, and the dam's hydroelectric station produced its first power in mid-1979. New Melones was the focus of a long environmental battle during the 1970s and early 1980s; critics protested the flooding of a long scenic stretch of the Stanislaus River, which flowed over whitewater rapids through the deepest limestone canyon in the western United States. The protestors employed a variety of methods, some extreme, to prevent the filling of New Melones Lake until 1983, when record-setting floods filled the reservoir and nearly breached the dam's emergency spillway. The fight over New Melones galvanized the river conservation movement in California and influenced major water policy changes on the state and federal levels; since its completion, no other dams of its size or importance have been built in the United States.The New Melones project has continued to generate controversy, due to the water yield from the project being lower than expected, and the use of New Melones water to meet federal environmental standards at the expense of farming. The reservoir is considered "over-allocated"; in an average year, it is unable to meet all the demands placed on it. The debate over water rights continues today, with environmentalists seeking to further increase fishery flows, and the Stanislaus irrigation districts asserting their senior rights to the river.

Tulloch Dam is a hydroelectric dam on the Stanislaus River in central California. The dam is part of the Stanislaus River Tri-Dam project cooperatively owned by the Oakdale and South San Joaquin Irrigation Districts, and was completed in 1958. It serves mainly for irrigation purposes but also has a power station with a capacity of 18 megawatts. The dam is located just downstream of the New Melones Dam and upstream of the Goodwin Dam.

Angels Creek is a 19-mile (31 km)-long tributary of the Stanislaus River in Calaveras County, California in the United States. It flows generally southwest from Forest Meadows, through the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, to join the Stanislaus River in New Melones Lake. The creek takes its name from the historic Gold Rush town of Angels Camp. There are two hydroelectric plants on the creek operated by the Utica Water and Power Authority.

New Melones Lake is a reservoir on the Stanislaus River in the central Sierra Nevada foothills, within Calaveras County and Tuolumne County, California. The New Melones Dam and reservoir are a water collection and transfer unit of the United States Bureau of Reclamation's Central Valley Project. New Melones Lake provides irrigation water, hydroelectric power, flood control, and wildlife habitat. Recreation uses include fishing, camping, and boating within the Glory Hole Recreation Area and Tuttletown Recreation Area. The California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) has developed a safe eating advisory for fish caught in New Melones Lake based on levels of mercury or PCBs found in the fish species.

The Stevenot Bridge carries State Route 49 over New Melones Lake between Calaveras and Tuolumne Counties in the U.S. state of California and was completed in 1976. It is named after Archie Stevenot, who helped found the California Chamber of Commerce.

Robinson's Ferry is a historical site in Angels Camp, California in Calaveras County. John W. Robinson and Stephen Mead founded a ferry in 1848. The ferry crossed the river, where New Melones Lake is now. The New Melones Lake Bridge now crosses where the ferry was. The ferry was used to move California Gold Rush miners, their cargo and animals across the river. Harvey Wood purchased the ferry in 1856. The fare to cross was 50 cents for each person or animal crossing. The site of Robinson's Ferry a California Historical Landmark No. 276. A marker is on California State Route 49 near the bridge across New Melones Lake. The historical marker was placed there in 1949 by California Centennial Commission, and the base was built Angels Camp Lions Club. The Marker is 5.6 miles south of Angels Camp and 0.3 miles north of New Melones Lake Reservoir.

Melones (Spanish for "Melons") is a former settlement in Calaveras County, California, now submerged beneath a reservoir named New Melones Lake. It lay at an elevation of 955 feet (291 m). Melones was founded on the site of a ferry operated from 1848 by John W. Robinson and Stephen Mead. The town initially took its name from the ferry.

The Copperopolis Armory is a Civil War armory located at 695 Main St. in Copperopolis, California. The brick Greek Revival building was constructed in 1864 to house the Union Guard of Copperopolis, the town's regiment of the Union Army. Copperopolis largely owed its existence to the war; the town grew due to a boom in local copper mining in 1860, which stemmed from the Union Army's need for copper ammunition. The armory served a variety of purposes for the Union Guard; at the building, new soldiers were enlisted, training was conducted, and arms and supplies were stored. Military balls, victory celebrations, and the local funeral ceremonies for Abraham Lincoln also took place in the armory. The armory also held an 1837 bronze cannon, which was used for ceremonial purposes and arms training; the cannon remains in the building and is one of the few American bronze cannons from the era in California. After the war, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows bought the building, which they converted to a social hall. In 1940, the armory became a community center.The armory was added to the National Register of Historic Places on December 30, 1997.

Reed's Store is a historic building located at 679 Main St. in Copperopolis, California. William K. Reed, a miner and one of the first discoverers of copper in Copperopolis, built the store in 1861 to serve the growing mining town. The two-story brick store was designed in the Neoclassical style, a common design for commercial establishments at the time. Reed's Store was the most successful store in Copperopolis until 1867, when a fire and the declining copper industry greatly diminished the town's population. Various lessees rented the store until mine owner Charles Ames bought it in 1890; Ames sold the store to merchant Charles Fontana by 1900. In 1906, the store became the property of the Union Copper Mining Company, which made the building its headquarters. The company, later renamed the Calaveras Copper Mining Company, occupied the building throughout the town's 1909–1929 copper boom. The store is now one of four buildings remaining from the 1860s in Calaveras; it is adjacent to two others, the Copperopolis Armory and the Honigsberger Store.Reed's Store was added to the National Register of Historic Places on April 2, 1992.