Folsom is named after a U.S Army officer and real estate investor named Joesph Libbey Folsom who purchased the land from William Alexander Leidesdorff for $75,000. After the discovery of gold in and around the American River people started to flock towards the area in hopes of striking it rich. Towns such as Prairie City, Mormon Island, California, and Salmon Falls are located inside of Folsom but they do not exist anymore. However there are communities named after these gold rush towns. The famous Folsom Prison was built in 1880 and continue to be a huge source of jobs in the Folsom area. Another famous landmark is the Folsom Powerhouse which was one of the first hydro-electric powerhouses ever built. It was operational until 1952 and still has the original turbines it once used. The city of Folsom was incorporated in 1946. At one end of Briggs Ranch there is another point-of-interest, Folsom Dam. The Folsom Dam was built in 1956 and acted as a bridge into neighboring areas like Roseville until 2001 it was closed due to the terrorist attacks on September, 11th. Thankfully, a new bridge was constructed called the Folsom Lake Crossing which enables residents to drive the same route the Dam once provided.
Briggs Ranch was one of the many subdivisions that were built in the Folsom area during the late 1980's and early 1990's. The land was purchased by the Briggs family and after the patriarch of the family died, the surviving Elvie Briggs deeded a portion of the land to the city of Folsom for a fee. The city who zoned the property for housing in 1987 chose the Winncrest company, founded by Thomas P. Winn, to develop and build the area now known as Briggs Ranch. Later the company merged with Renaissance Homes, and in 2000 US Homes to become Lennar. As early as 1988-1989 construction for roads and sewage were started. The area was built in three stages from 1990-1995. The first homes, called the classic series, were complete as early as 1990 at the Blue Ravine and Manseau area. Many if not all of these homes were tract homes and construction continued till late 1991 when the focus moved to the other side of Briggs Ranch. The second series, called the masters series, was built on the southeast side, or the prison side, from Natoma St. to Randall and Briggs Ranch Dr. There is a mix of tract and custom homes in this area and construction went on till about 1993 when the next phase began. The third and final stage of Briggs Ranch was the Heritage series, which connect the previous two stages together with more custom and tract homes. These houses were built from 1992-1995 and were the final houses to built in the Briggs Ranch area.
Many people in the area are attracted to the beautiful scenery of rolling hills and protected heritage oak trees.
There are currently four bridges in the area. Many people refer to them as The small bridge next to the rainbow bridge, The Rainbow Bridge, The New Bridge, and The New New Bridge. Here are pictures in the same order so you can know which bridge people talking about!
