Murphys City Map Poster

About Murphys

Murphys is located at . According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of , 99.97% of it land and 0.03% of it water. The elevation ranges from about in the lower valley to over on Mount Oso (elevation ). A post office opened here in 1854; by 1870, Murphys had become an important mining town with a population between 1,000 and 2,000 people. It was named for John Murphy who discovered gold there in 1848 while looking for lost cattle along Coldstream Creek near his cabin site north-east of present-day Murphys off Highway 4 (the old road). In its heyday as a gold camp during California's Gold Rush era through approximately 1880s–1900s when hydraulic mining was practiced locally around nearby mines such as Big Oak Flat Mine No 2.