Dutch Flat was originally called Dutch Charlie's Flat after Charles Dornbach, one of two German brothers who settled here in 1851.

Dutch is a common corruption of Deutsch, as in the Pennsylvania Dutch, who emigrated from Germany, not from the Netherlands.

In his book, California Place Names, Erwin Gudde notes that California has almost one hundred places with Dutch in their names, but only two with German.

In his 1857 book, Three Years in California, John David Borthwick, a Scottish artist and gold prospector, wrote: "Europeans...save French, English and 'Eyetalians,' are in California classed under the general denomination of Dutchmen."

The entire town of Dutch Flat, which is also California Historical Landmark 397, shows classic Gold Rush architecture.

In addition to the historic buildings listed below, there are forty-five woodframe houses built before 1900. All are on their original sites and little altered.