We are located in Elk Grove, California where the fight for California's independence from Mexico started in Murphy’s Corral on the Cosumnes River at dawn on 10 June 1846 when Ezekial Merritt and his small band of Americans surprised Lt. Francisco Arce and his men and took their horses. Our Society's beginnings came in 1962 when four local women Anabel Gage, Ada Gage Beattie, Helen Mahon Reynolds and Noreen Wackman formed a group to start preserving the history of Elk Grove. In 1976 this group became the Bicentennial Committee that took on the project of saving and restoring the Rhoads School. From these beginnings grew the Elk Grove Historical Society, dedicated to preserving our past for future generations.