History
The town was founded by Freemasons, hence its name. Middle Town, the largest of the three towns, had a post office, boarding house, and a general store. It also housed the offices of the town's newspaper: The Masonic Pioneer.
The Lorena post office opened in 1905, changed its name to Masonic in 1906, closed in 1912, re-opened in 1913 and closed for good in 1927.
Masonic's population in 1906 was about 500. The principal mine, called the Pittsburg-Liberty Mine, produced $700,000 in gold before closing in 1910. By 1911, Masonic was in decline, although some mines kept in production until the 1920s.
Read more about this topic: Masonic, California
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“We aspire to be something more than stupid and timid chattels, pretending to read history and our Bibles, but desecrating every house and every day we breathe in.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“In every election in American history both parties have their clichés. The party that has the clichés that ring true wins.”
—Newt Gingrich (b. 1943)
“The history of any nation follows an undulatory course. In the trough of the wave we find more or less complete anarchy; but the crest is not more or less complete Utopia, but only, at best, a tolerably humane, partially free and fairly just society that invariably carries within itself the seeds of its own decadence.”
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)