Before building the essential elements of the system, it was first necessary to get into the mountains with packers and guides, often using chartered stagecoaches and freight wagons out of Groveland, a small mountain town left over from the Gold Rush. It sits astride the Big Oak Flat road into Yosemite. With the coming of San Francisco’s work forces into the area, Groveland was revitalized, booming for a decade as headquarters for the Hetch Hetchy Project. The quiet mountain village found itself suddenly with office and hospital buildings, homes for officials and their families, and shops and operating headquarters for a full scale railroad, bringing the first locomotives and cars that some of the Grovelanders had ever seen. Hetch Hetchy workers and equipment helped with extensive road improvements in the district. They improved the water supply and started a sewer system. They also resurveyed Groveland and nearby Big Oak Flat to correct inaccurate surveys made during the Gold Rush days.