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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