In a Friday afternoon meeting, the State Parks and Recreation Commission voted unanimously to rename a day-use area in the Folsom Lake Recreation Area from Negro Bar to "Black Miners Bar" in a temporary move before an official name change happens. The call to have this popular rec area undergo a name change is not new, but this is the first point of action by the commission to moving towards a name change after years of calls to do so. The commission says they are going to temporarily change the name while they start the process to find a new name for the area, which could take up to a year. Following this vote, research will be conducted to find a better suited name for the area.
The rec area sits along the American River in Folsom near the city's historic downtown area, about 20 miles northeast of Sacramento. The day-use area offers paddle boarding, swimming and bike and walking trails. Government records show the historic town site of Negro Bar housed 500-600 residents in the 1850's. The State Parks website says this about the name's origins: “the historical use of the name appears in reference to Black miners during the gold rush including from an 1850 newspaper article noting Black miners finding gold at this location in 1848.”