Along the Banks of the Cosumnes: A History of Sloughhouse, Michigan Bar, and Rancho Murieta

Sloughhouse, Michigan Bar, and Rancho Murieta may not come to mind when people think of famous California landmarks. Located in the bountiful Cosumnes River Valley, however, they are part of the colorful history that spans from the earliest signs of man to the pioneers, Gold Rush miners, and ranchers, some of whose kin remain and thrive there to this day.

The tale of the early Cosumnes River Valley is that of bloody bandits on the run, forty-niners lusting for gold, floods, hangings, land disputes, water wars, mining camps that came and went overnight, men with true grit, and women with resilient spirits. Although the bandits had long gone, the past and the present became forever linked when Rancho Murieta, developed in the 1970s, was named for the most infamous California Gold Rush figure of them all, Joaquin Murrieta.

A place of natural beauty and abundance, its colorful past has not escaped the folks who now call the Cosumnes River Valley home. They owe their serene and vibrant region to the vision of bold people who had a dream to carve out a piece of paradise at the base of the Sierra Nevada mountains.

Fans of California history will enjoy the vivid stories and almost 200 photographs featured in Along the Banks of the Cosumnes: A History of Sloughhouse, Michigan Bar, and Rancho Murieta.