Atwater

The town of Atwater was rich in a different kind of treasure than the gold usually sought by people flocking to California in the 1850s. Named for Marshall D. Atwater, a tenant on several of founder John W. Mitchell�s 2,000-acre parcels, the community boasted a mineral-rich alluvial soil that made it an extremely productive agricultural area. When the Central Pacific Railroad came through�thanks to lobbying from Mitchell, along with several strips of free land deeded to the railroad�a switch was