Wallace

Located on highway 12 northeast of Lodi and west of Burson. Wallace residents can enjoy all the water recreation at Camanche Reservoir. In addition to fishing, swimming, windsurfing, water-skiing and jet-skiing at the lake there is horseback riding and golfing. Wallace is also at the far west edge of Calaveras County. The population is 220, the elevation is 560 feet above sea level. It is 58 miles to Sacramento 36 to Stockton and a three hour drive to the bay area. Our Map of Wallace.

It was assumed that the town site was named for the surveyor, John Herbert Wallace. Though his name appears on a 1883 map of the area the town is named for John Herbert Wallace’s father, John Wallace. According to historian Sal Manna in the July 2006 issue of Las Calaveras, the quarterly magazine of the Calaveras County Historical Society.

John Wallace was also an elder brother of Alfred Russel Wallace, a leading 19^th century British naturalist who independently developed a theory of natural selection around the same time as Charles Darwin. While Alfred Wallace went off to net butterflies in the jungle, John Wallace headed to the California Gold Rush. After he failed as a miner, he succeeded as an engineer and surveyor, working for water companies and railroads. He moved to Stockton in 1865 and in 1868 won election to the post of San Joaquin County surveyor. More detailed information from West Calaveras History’s webpage

In 1887, while giving a series of lectures in the United States, Alfred Wallace came to Stockton, and the two brothers saw each other for the first time in 40 years. They traveled to Calaveras Big Trees and Yosemite, and Alfred Wallace gave a lecture on evolution in Stockton that was “warmly applauded,” according to the June 2, 1887, issue of the Stockton Daily Independent.

The conversations between the two long-separated brothers must have been lively at times because of their very different views on religion and politics. Alfred Wallace was a devout socialist who pushed for higher wages. He was a vegetarian, liked to attend seances, believed women should have the right to vote and advocated ideas that today would be considered those of an environmentalist. John Wallace was a Republican who once wrote to his brother that if workers were unable to support their families, it was likely because they “lost time through their drunkenness and violence.” John Wallace was also a “steadfast member of the Episcopal Church,” Sal Manna wrote. From an article by Dana M. Nichols, Recordnet.com, July 10, 2006.

Wallace Zip Code: 95254

US Post Office –
8271 Camanche Parkway South
209-763-5335

• New Hogan Reservoir
• Lake Amador
• Lake Pardee
• Lake Camanche