Niagara Camp
The National Park Service has not published a boundary polygon for this district; the map shows the listed properties inside it and the district's reference point.
Why it's listed
Niagara Camp is a four-acre logging site in Stanislaus National Forest, northeast of Tuolumne, California. It preserves the remains of a main camp for single men and a family camp, along with a railroad bed that still has cedar ties, a red fir trestle spanning 318 feet at a height of 54 feet, and four steam donkeys left together in a graveyard. Fred Ellis designed the trestle, built in 1923-24 for the West Side Lumber Company's railroad. Logging at Niagara began in earnest in 1929, paused during the Depression from 1930 to 1935, and resumed with cats, A-frame loaders and trucks. George Couture, camp boss until 1957, built the camp itself. The site matters because it shows each phase of logging from the 1920s to the 1950s: the workers' living quarters, their machinery and their transport. Logging has long underpinned the county's economy. Deterioration and vandalism threaten the surviving structures.
Machine-generated summary. This summary was generated by a language model from the official nomination document and has not been reviewed line by line by an editor. It may contain errors. Check the source document before relying on any detail. Source: nomination document (PDF) · catalog entry. Generated October 2026 (model claude-sonnet-5-5, prompt v1.0-2026-10-29).
| Period of significance | 1898-1958 |
|---|---|
| Styles | Vernacular |
| Areas of significance | Industry, Engineering, Transportation |
| Acreage | 4 |
| Boundary source | not published |
| Full listing page | Niagara Camp (property record) |
What listing means for this property
This is a historic district. Buildings within its boundary are either contributing (they add to the district's significance) or non-contributing. Owners of contributing income-producing buildings can claim the 20% federal rehabilitation tax credit; homeowners should look at state credits. National Register districts impose no design review by themselves; a local historic district ordinance, if one exists, does (the difference explained).
General information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change; confirm with your State Historic Preservation Office or a qualified adviser.