Penryn

The stories of the founding of towns up and down the Sierra Foothills around the Gold Rush era are often immigrant stories. Penryn is just such a town. A Welsh immigrant with the unlikely name Griffith Griffith came to the area not to mine gold, but to mine granite. He leased land in 1864 from the Central Pacific Railroad and was quickly producing stone and shipping it out on the railway. He named it after the quarry his father had worked in Wales, the Penrhyn Slate Quarry, dropping the ‘h’ to make it easier for non-Welsh speakers. 

By the mid 1870’s, the growing town had been named after the quarry, by far its biggest industry. It had become a thriving community, with a hotel, a schoolhouse, a blacksmith, and a half dozen shops and saloons. The quarry ran until the mid 1890s, and agriculture took its place as the main industry for the town. Good soil conditions and perfect weather made Penryn one of the premier fruit growing regions in the county, until it was eclipsed by the Central Valley. It still boasts a number of farms selling delicious produce directly to consumers and through local shops.