 Following the establishment of Merced County and the independence of California from Mexico , many settlers came to the Merced River area and established small towns on the Merced River . One of the first was Dover , established in 1844 at the confluence of the Merced River with the San Joaquin River . Dover functioned as an " inland seaport " where boats delivered supplies from the San Francisco Bay area to settlers in the San Joaquin Valley . Some towns that followed were Hopeton , Snelling and Merced Falls , the latter named for a set of rapids on the Merced River near the present @-@ day site of McSwain Dam . In the late 1880s a flour mill , woolen mill and a few lumber mills were constructed at Merced Falls . The Sugar Pine Lumber Company and Yosemite Lumber Company operated lumber mills at Merced Falls for over thirty years , relying on narrow @-@ gauge railroads to ship lumber from the Sierra Nevada along the Merced River . Following the construction of the Central Pacific and Southern Pacific Railroads , many of the river towns on the Merced River were deserted . Several cities that did achieve prominence , however , include Merced and Turlock , both located on the railroad . 
