Pleasant Flat on Deer Creek, a tributary of the South Yuba, is where Dr. A. B. Caldwell started his store. Then in October he opened a second one, called Caldwell’s Upper Store, seven miles up Deer Creek. This was the beginning of Nevada City, first called Deer Creek Dry Diggings. Before the end of 1849 another store opened at Boston Ravine, and with a cabin at Gold Run, a couple of sawmills near Grass Valley and the mule pens called French Corral these were the only settlements in the area until 1850 when activity increased dramatically
Nevada City, built on both sides of Deer Creek and in a mountain basin surrounded by oaks and pines, hazel bushes and chaparral and infested with rattlesnakes, was rich with gold deposits but there were no reliable all year streams around to bring in water to process the ore. A ditch was dug from Mosquito Creek, about a mile and half away, and supplied ample water to the diggings at Coyote Hill. This ditch served as a model for other areas, like Placerville, where water was in short supply and soon the gold country was covered with them.
The town had a population of several hundred people at the completion of the ditch. A meeting was held and the name of Nevada adopted for the town. Later, when the state of Nevada entered the union, the name of the town was changed to Nevada City. By the winter of 1850 there were some 250 buildings there, but a fire in March of the next year destroyed half of them and an extremely dry winter seriously hampered mining. Many men left, but the town bounced back and even grew larger. The Nevada Journal, the first newspaper in the northern mines was started, a theater opened and, in 1851, the town was made county seat of Placer County.

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Empire Mine State Park

George Roberts, a lumberman, discovered the Empire Mine originally in 1850. While surveying timber in the area the lumberman happened to glance down at his boots, which were covered with tiny gold flakes. Believing the land held little gold and too hard to mine, George sold the land and rights for only $350. Within 13 years of this sale over a million dollars in gold was brought to the surface. Eventually the mine produced over 5.6 million ounces of gold before its closure in 1956.

      Today the Empire Mine still hoards its treasure as geologists figure that only 20% of the gold has been removed from the mine. The Mine boasts an unbelievable 367 miles of now abandoned and flooded shafts and extends 11,000 feet on the incline a mile below the surface. The task of keeping track of so many tunnels was handled in what was called the “Secret Room” where a scale model was created and updated. Today the model can be viewed in the Park’s museum.

     The men attributed to the success of the Empire Mine were William Bourn Jr. and his mine superintendent, George Starr. The later, Starr is credited with most of the technological innovations that helped to make the mine so successful

     In addition to the museum, visitors can walk up the path to the Bourn Mansion. Built entirely of waste rock from the mine, the home is beautiful example of late 1890's architecture. Designed to resemble an English country lodge, the home was built by Willis Polk. Surrounding the home are 13 acres of gardens and manicured lawns, Rose gardens, and reflecting pools.

At Thanksgiving and Christmas, the grounds are decorated for the festive season. It is recommended to call ahead for the Guided tours and audio-visual presentations offered throughout the day at various times by Park Rangers and local Docents.

The park, purchased by the state of California for over $1 million in 1975, boasts 22 miles of hiking trails that surround the 805 acres.

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French Corral Ghost Town

Equal to the wealth of the gold ridges is the treasure of history & romance that lies in the rugged San Juan Ridge. Not only from the pits of the long-deserted mines, the hundreds of miles of rotting flumes, overgrown, debris-filled ditches, and still more from the picturesque towns that are found along the mountain roads, does one get a sense of the comedy and tragedy that made up one of the most stirring periods in the great epic of California's mining era. Some of these cities of the past can claim about 100 inhabitants today, while others, far off the usual routes of travel, are mere ghosts, deserted, crumbling obliterated, and unmarked except for the inevitable diggings which are everywhere visible in spite of the smoothing over by the passage of time. Beginning at the lower tip of the ridge, the road passes thru French Corral, the 1st of the historic mining camps to spring up along the ancient San Juan River channel. There in 1849, the 1st settler, A Frenchman, built a corral for his mules. Very soon it was discovered that the locality was rich in placer gold, and a town quickly grew up on the site of the Frenchman's corral. Later, as hydraulic mining developed, French Creek became 2nd only to North San Juan in size & importance, numbering its population in the thousands. Now a village of only a few dozen people, French Corral retains a flavor of ro-mance in its historic landmarks. The office of the Milton Mining & Water Co., in which one terminus of the 1st long-distance telephone line was located, has long been torn down, but that site is marked. The brick walls of the old Wells Fargo Express office built in the 1850's and equipped with iron doors, and window shutters, which once guarded millions of dollars in gold against would-be robbers, look as though they could stand for generations to come. The former schoolhouse was used as a hotel in the 1850's; and a number of houses are still in use today. Written by. Bob Stelow Looking for Gold mine property or what your home is worth in Nevada County. I can tell you. Free Nevada County Home Evaluation

Gold Hill, in Grass Valley, California, was the site of one of the first discoveries of quartz gold in California. While quartz gold was also found in other areas of Nevada County, California during the same time, it is this find near Wolf Creek that led to quartz-mining frenzy and subsequent creation of the Gold Country quartz-mining industry. The location is honored as a California Historical Landmark.
George Knight (sometimes known as McKnight) was a California Gold Rush miner. In October 1850, he was on a Grass Valley hillside when he came across an outcropping of white quartz rock laced with yellow. He pounded the rock with a cast iron skillet and hammer, then washed out the gold. Searching for more gold in the same spot, he dug down into the outcropping and found a four inch gold vein. His find was announced by another miner, George Crandall (1825–1908), who ran down to Boston Ravine, a small settlement, with the news.
Knight named the location Gold Hill and his claim became the Gold Hill Mine. He and friends constructed a crude stamp mill made out of the local forest's pine tree logs and equipped it with metal boots. The contraption was propelled by Wolf Creek's rushing water.
By March 1851, there were 150 buildings in the area, including hotels, saloons, stores, and even the first school. Before the end of the year, thousands of people had moved to Grass Valley and neighboring Nevada City, California.

While Gold Hill Mine produced $4,000,000 between 1850–1857, it "pinched out" by 1864 and closed

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Gold mining Property for sale in Grass valley - Nevada city

Nevada City developed along the banks of Deer Creek in 1849.

 

Early reports told of miners who pulled a pound of paydirt a day from gold deposits along the creek. The town was first known as Deer Creek Dry Diggins and later as Caldwell’s Upper Store. Several major fires in the 1850s and early 1860s convinced the townspeople to use more brick in rebuilding their structures.
Civic leaders named the town Nevada, Spanish for “snow-covered,” in 1850 and the next year the newly-incorporated city became the Nevada County seat. The town’s name was later changed to Nevada City after its title was borrowed by the state to the east.
The town has had its share of firsts and famous people in California History. Former U.S. President Herbert Hoover lived and worked here as a gold miner in his younger days. Three former U.S. senators, George Hearst, A. A. Sargent and William Morris Stewart, lived in Nevada City.
The consolidation of water companies that formed the Pacific Gas & Electric Co. occurred here and PG&E’s first general office was located in the National Hotel. The area boasts several inventions in the fields of mining, water and electricity.
It was in May, 1853, that Professor Henry Durant, formerly of Yale University, met with a committee in Nevada City to formulate plans for an academy that was incorporated two years later as the College of California. It would later become the University of California, Berkeley.
In recent years, the Nevada City lifestyle has attracted a number of well-known writers, artists and musicians. The area also draws high-tech business entrepreneurs who are able to locate their enterprises away from the stresses of big city life.
While many California gold rush towns have disappeared into the pages of California history, Nevada City has rebounded time and again to emerge as unique blend of yesterday and today. Nevada City’s current cultural and economic renaissance is again proof of the town’s indomitable spirit.
“After more than a century of pioneer heritage,” says Edwin Tyson, “Nevada City remains the most complete gold rush town in California. It is a genuine small town and a living museum.

Nevada City Victorian Christmas

Welcome the holiday season in style in historic Nevada City, a quaint, Gold Rush town nestled in the foothills of the snow-capped Sierra where each year the town’s picturesque downtown transforms into a genuine Christmas card come to life. It’s a magical setting of hilly streets outlined with twinkling white lights and authentic gaslamps, wandering minstrels and carolers dressed in Victorian attire, and a myriad of visitors sharing holiday cheer and good tidings.

This annual, family tradition takes place three Wednesday evenings and two Sunday afternoons in December and features holiday activities for all ages.

Throughout the 1850s and 1860s, the city of Nevada grew in size and prominence, despite a series of seven disastrous fires that roared through town. Each time, the citizens quickly rebuilt, utilizing an ever- increasing amount of brick, to the point where the Nevada Brick Yard was established at the foot of Broad Street. The city of Nevada’s final name change came about in 1864. In that year, the western part of the Utah Territory was formed into the State of Nevada so the word "city" was added to the name of our town to distinguish the two for the benefit of all, particularly the U.S. Postal Service. The hardly-ever snow-covered state won out over the hardly-ever snow-covered city, but we are just fine with the result.

Defined By Mines

During the mining heydays that followed, Nevada City and its sibling city, Grass Valley, were surrounded by mines with stamp mills crushing ore to extract gold twenty-four hours per day, 364 days per year. The mines closed only one day per year, for the annual Miner’s Picnic. Mines such as the Empire, Northstar, Pennsylvania, Idaho-Maryland and Brunswick were world-famous dream makers. Empire Mine State Historic Park in Grass Valley is an enjoyable place to fuel your imagination of those times, as it is the site of the oldest, largest, and richest gold mine in California. Mining remained “king” until the operations closed during the 1950s.

An interesting cultural aspect that arose with the dominance of the mining industry is that the working miners tended to live in Grass Valley while mine owners, managers and professionals primarily lived in Nevada City. This began a rivalry which carried over in several ways, including spirited contests between school sports teams and even reports of Saturday night confrontations between groups of young men. These typically occurred at Lake Olympia which was midway between the two towns where today’s Brunswick Basin shopping center now exists. Perhaps they were there to debate who had the fastest horses and prettiest girlfriends, or vice versa, but old-timers report incidents of fisticuffs breaking out. Lake Olympia itself is an interesting part of Nevada County history.

Built to Last

Utilizing the wealth that came with the gold, many merchants, bankers and mine owners and managers settled in Nevada City and built homes in the style of their day. The reign of Queen Victoria generated one popular style of architecture known as "Victorian,” while Colonial, Greek Revival and California Gothic expressions in building are represented here as well. There are some lovely neighborhoods, thanks to the taste of the original builders and the care with which they have been maintained by owners since.

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