1979 Article about locals dreading tourist influx from New Melones (PDF)

Detailed article outlining local concerns over the impacts of tourism from New Melones Dam – increased traffic, sheriff patrols, lack of local economic purchasing and more. These impacts were based on absurdly high projections of the reservoir’s use which was promised to be over 800,000 visitors annually – in 2008, those had been downgraded to 600,000, but the Bureau of Reclamation has no rigorous system for tracking visitor use and it’s very possible the actual numbers are far, far below that lowered estimate (800,000 annually is over 2,000 per day, every single day of the year – given the reservoir has two campgrounds with 300 spots and several other day use areas and a couple boat ramps, this is just a fantasy number).

Another take on this is in Jeff Aronson’s account of a bittersweet encounter on an Angels Camp street in 2008.