Folsom

Site in New Mexico, USA, where in 1926 a flint point was found embedded among the bones of an extinct type of bison, thus proving that humans had existed in the Americas in the Palaeolithic period.

Folsom

Town in Sacramento County, north-central California; population (1990) 29,800. It is situated on the American River and Folsom Lake, 32 km/20 mi northeast of Sacramento. In an area producing livestock, citrus fruits, and other crops, it is a rapidly growing suburb.

In the 1840s Folsom was on the road to the goldfields. In 1856 the first railroad in California reached here from Sacramento, and in 1860 the settlement was a Pony Express stop. Damming of the river began in 1866. Folsom State Prison was built in 1880. A hydroelectric plant, California's first, was operational in 1895.

Folsom Lake, now the third-largest lake in the California state park system, is impounded by a 1955 dam; part of the Folsom State Recreation Area, it has 120 km/75 mi of shoreline. One of California's most popular recreational sites, it is fed by the north and south forks of the American River.