Photograph of Wakamatsu Tea and Silk Farm Colony — Photograph by NoeHill, CC BY-SA 3.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Wakamatsu Tea and Silk Colony Farm

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009. 11 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1891.

From the record

“The Wakamatsu Tea and Silk Farm Colony is believed to be the first permanent Japanese settlement in North America and the only settlement by samurai outside of Japan. The group was made up of 22 people from samurai families during the Boshin Civil War (1868-69) in Japan preceding the Meiji Restoration.”
Wikipedia article Wakamatsu Tea and Silk Farm Colony, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 21 National Register listings published here for El Dorado County · listed in 2009 · category: Site.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

Address. 941 Cold Springs Rd., Gold Hill, 95667
When was it listed? October 2009
Category. site
Census division. North El Dorado
National Register reference number. 09000397 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Fires near this property

741 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 741 fires within 5 miles of Wakamatsu Tea and Silk Colony Farm between 1992 and 2020, burning about 2,349 acres in total. 11 started naturally. 50 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	232
Equipment and vehicle use	211
Debris and open burning	160
Arson/incendiarism	50
Smoking	24
Misuse of fire by a minor	24
Power generation/transmission/distribution	14
Natural	11
Recreation and ceremony	8
Other causes	7

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
9 September 2017	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection	BOOT
9 September 2015	Smoking	under an acre	Amador-El Dorado Unit	BEALS RD GOLD_HILL
9 September 2014	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Amador-El Dorado Unit	LINDBERG
9 September 2014	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Amador-El Dorado Unit	HY 50 EB / FORNI OFF RAM
9 September 2007	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Amador-El Dorado Unit	TANGLEWOOD
9 September 1999	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Central California District	COLOMA
9 September 1999	Natural	under an acre	Central California District	COLOMA 2
9 September 1993	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Amador-El Dorado Unit	WEBER

Every fire recorded in El Dorado County

Mines and quarries near this property

10 of 419 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 419 workings within 5 miles of Wakamatsu Tea and Silk Colony Farm: 210 occurrences, 106 past producers, 94 unknowns, 9 producers. 9 still produce. What was taken out: Gold, Chromium, Slate, Dimension, Copper. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
Funny Bug	Gold, Copper, Zinc, Antimony, Molybdenum, Lead	Past Producer	Bornite, Chalcopyrite, Galena, Gold, Malachite, Molybdenite, Pyrite, Sphalerite, Stibnite
Funny Bug Pendelco	Gold, Copper	Occurrence
Irland	Copper, Gold, Silver	Past Producer	Vein
Placerite Quarry and Mill	Stone	Producer
Seven Bells	Copper, Gold	Occurrence	Vein
Shelley Mine	Chromium, Iron	Past Producer	1917
Stuckslager Strucklager	Gold, Vanadium	Occurrence
Boneset	Gold, Copper, Lead	Past Producer	Chalcopyrite, Galena, Gold, Pyrite
Gentle Annie	Gold, Lead	Past Producer	Galena, Gold, Pyrite
Kelsey	Gold, Lead	Past Producer	Galena, Gold, Pyrite

Every working recorded in El Dorado County

Storms near this property

4 since 2015

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Gold Hill, the town this property stands in, in 4 storm reports between 2015 and 2022: 2 flood, 1 heavy rain, 1 hail. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
December 2022	Flood	Gold Hill	-	CHP reported vehicles unable to pass due to flooded roads at Cold Springs Rd and Richard Ave.
May 2019	Hail	Gold Hill	-	Hail caused damage to fruit in the Gold Hill area, near Placerville. Farmers in the area generally had 50% crop damage, with a few losing 90% of their crop. El Dorado County officials reported a damage estimate of $286,000.
January 2017	Flood	Gold Hill	-	Minor street flooding was reported on roads near Gold Hill.
December 2015	Heavy Rain	Gold Hill	-	There was 2.04 inches of rain measured over 24 hours. Minor street flooding in poor drainage areas occurred around the area in Placerville.

Every storm recorded in El Dorado County

Maps showing this location

11 surveys

United States Geological Survey topographic sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by taking the middle of the area the National Park Service maps for this listing, then testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.

1891 USGS Placerville quadrangle1:125000
1892 USGS Placerville quadrangle1:125000
1893 USGS Placerville quadrangle1:125000 - 9 printings
1947 USGS Sacramento quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1948 USGS Sacramento quadrangle1:250000
1949 USGS Coloma quadrangle1:24000 - 6 printings
1949 USGS Georgetown quadrangle1:62500 - 5 printings
1950 USGS Coloma quadrangle1:24000
1956 USGS Sacramento quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1957 USGS Sacramento quadrangle1:250000 - 4 printings
1976 USGS Placerville quadrangle1:100000 - 2 printings

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Property	Distance	Listed
Coloma	2.3 miles	1966
Coloma Community Hall	4.3 miles	2025
Hattie (Gold Bug), Priest and Silver Pine Mines and Stampmill	4.8 miles	1985
Episcopal Church of Our Saviour	5.0 miles	1977
Confidence Hall	5.2 miles	1982
United States Post Office-Main Street Branch	5.2 miles	2025

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 09000397 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
El Dorado County	All 21 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.