In the late 1870s, Tom Hildreth opened a store at the site, thereby beginning the town named for him.[2] A post office operated at Hildreth from 1886 to 1896.[2] At its peak in the 1880s, Hildreth had a hotel, three general stores, a mine, a barbershop, and other businesses catering to miners and travelers on the stage road from Millerton. The town "officially died" in 1896 when the post office closed.[3] Gold mining in the Hildreth district briefly revived in the late 1920s,[4] but the town was never repopulated. By 2010, only the schoolhouse and cemetery remained.[3]
^ abcDurham, David L. (1998). California's Geographic Names: A Gazetteer of Historic and Modern Names of the State. Clovis, Calif.: Word Dancer Press. p. 782. ISBN1-884995-14-4.