Sloat Towne Hall

Introduction

Text-to-speech Audio

Built in 1935, the Sloat Towne Hall was once a meeting hall in Sloat, California. Many of Sloat's 2,000 residents worked in a nearby lumber mill or were miners or ranchers. Though the Sloat Towne Hall was established as a meeting space, Sloat is a ghost town today, and the Sloat Towne Hall is the only public building left.

Images

Photograph of Sloat Towne Hall Marker, courtesy of Barry Swackhamer

Image of Sloat Towne Hall, courtesy of Barry Swackhamer

Image of Sloat Towne Hall.

Backstory and Context

Text-to-speech Audio

The town of Sloat was named after Commodore John Drake Sloat by Western Pacific. Commodore Sloat took possession of California in 1856. Sloat had a population of more than 2,000 people. Many of the town's residents were lumber mill employees, miners, and ranchers. The Sloat Lumber Co., which opened in 1912, employed the lumber mill workers. When the mill burned in 1918, the F.S. Murphy Lumber Co. rebuilt the mill and continued operations. The mill went through a series of owners through the 1990s when the mill finally shut down in 1991.

In the height of its popularity, the Sloat Towne Hall was built in town in 1935 as a meeting hall and then donated to the community by United Independent Workers’ Union in 1956. Although the Sloat Towne Hall was once a meeting space in the community, Sloat is a ghost town, most likely due to the lumber mill closing. Today, the only public building in town is the Sloat Towne Hall.

Sources

Swackhamer, Barry. Sloat Towne Hall, The Historical Marker Database. June 19th 2012. Accessed December 26th 2019. https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=56554.

Swackhamer, Barry. Sloat Mill Site, The Historical Marker Database. June 19th 2012. Accessed December 26th 2019. https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=56557.

Image Sources(Click to expand)

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=56554

https://noehill.com/plumas/poi_sloat_town_hall.asp