Our story opens in 1862, when the original Homestead Act was passed. To encourage settlement of the American West, Congress offered large tracts of land to anyone willing to live on and work the property. The terms were straightforward: farm the land for five years and the title was yours. Five Murphy brothers seized the opportunity and headed to California to build a better future for themselves and the families to come. They settled in Tuolumne County, on acreage along the border between Sonora and Jamestown. We can't say for certain why they picked Tuolumne County, but the gold discovered in Sonora a decade earlier surely influenced the choice. In fact, Sonora is still called the “Queen of the Southern Mines” to this day.