Tuolumne, also known as Tuolumne City, is an unincorporated town and census-designated place in Tuolumne County, California, in the Sierra Nevada foothills east of the county seat of Sonora. Its history reaches back to the Gold Rush, and remnants of the early settlement of Summersville survive alongside the town's better-documented logging past. In 1899, the West Side Flume and Lumber Company opened a large mill in what was then called Carters, and the town was renamed Tuolumne in 1909 as the company, later the West Side Lumber Company, expanded with a drying kiln, planing mill, and box factory. A narrow-gauge logging railroad hauled timber into the town from the surrounding forests from the late nineteenth century until 1961, and that industrial era is preserved today at the Tuolumne City Memorial Museum and along the West Side Trail, which follows the old railroad right-of-way. Today Tuolumne is a quiet foothill community of roughly 1,800 people set among pines and oak woodland near the Stanislaus National Forest. Black Oak Casino Resort, located on Tuolumne Road next to Summerville High School, is a major local employer and entertainment venue, drawing visitors from across the Mother Lode and promoting its proximity to Yosemite National Park. The town's residential streets are modest and forested, and its character remains small-town and tied to the outdoors. Tuolumne's setting places it between the amenities of Sonora, a short drive west, and the recreation of the high Sierra, including the Highway 108 Sonora Pass corridor and the approaches to Yosemite National Park. It appeals to those seeking foothill living with mountain access, a distinctive lumber-town heritage, and a slower pace than the valley below.