Tesla appeared in 1889, as the San Francisco & San Joaquin Coal Company built the Alameda and San Joaquin Railroad line to the coal mines. When clay was discovered in the coal mine, the Carnegie Brick and Pottery Company was formed in 1902, its plant built four miles east of Tesla, to make brick and terra cotta. In 1904, the Pottery sewer pipe plant was built between Carnegie and Tesla. Carnegie became a town with a population of about 300, Tesla had a population of over 1200. The towns were abandoned after a 1911 flood, which destroyed the railroad and workings and the Company could not afford to rebuild. The rail line from Carbona was abandoned by the Western Pacific Railroad in January 1916. 99 years after the abandonment of the town, the unrelated Tesla Factory began operating about 20 miles west of the location of the former town. The canyon turns to the southwest beyond the site of Tesla and ascends into the hills back into San Joaquin County. After passing the site of Tesla, the Tesla Road turns northwestward and winds up the side of a canyon into the Corral Hollow Pass and crosses over to the Arroyo Seco, and follows it as it descends into the Livermore Valley. Today the former town site of Tesla is within the Carnegie State Vehicular Recreation Area. The Carniege town site partly within the Recreation Area, the rest is on the hillside on the north side of the Tesla Road where it intersects Carnegie Ridge Road.