An Introduction to Nevada City

Other Historical Topics: Aristocracy Hill - Chinese Quarter - Introduction to Nevada City - Historic Lodging Facilities - Gas Lights/Horse Carriages - Grass Valley - Miner's Foundry - The National Hotel - Nevada City Night Life - Nevada County's Lunarscape - Nevada Theatre - Parades and Parties! - Pine Street Bridge At Hallidie Crossing - Pioneer Cemetery - Sargent House - South Yuba Canal Building & Ott's Assay Office - Stewart House

When James Marshall found those first few precious specks of gold in the American River on January 24, 1848, the place now called Nevada City was a year-round home to Maidu Indians. In fact, this special spot on the globe had been a Maidu village for over 2,000 years. As the local Chamber of Commerce motto proclaims, we're "Above the Fog and Below the Snow." What better elevation and climate could anyone hope for?

In the spring of 1848, Marshall himself led a small party into the Deer Creek Basin-- the natural bowl in which Nevada City lies-- in search of gold. His camp was near the confluence of today's Deer Creek and Little Deer Creek, a chip shot from the front door of Cornerstone Realty Group. Indeed, the ground under and surrounding our office building is ground that James Marshall explored. No wonder we feel so special about this place.

Although Marshall left after a couple of weeks, convinced that our area didn't hold enough gold to make a long-term excavation profitable, Deer Creek proved to be one of the richest gold sources anywhere in California. By the fall of 1850, approximately 8,000 men (and scant few women) were living here in tents, shanties and, in some cases, burrowed into the side of the hills. All in search of the same thing: A burlap sack full of nuggets so that they could return to their homes back east and live like kings.

In the early years of statehood, Nevada City was the third-largest town in California. Needless to say, if a young man wanted to make a name for himself out West, Nevada City was the kind of place a reputation (both good and bad) could be acquired in short order.

By 1851, with newly-created Nevada County created out of Yuba County, and with Nevada City fixed as the county seat, we began to show signs of permanency. This was destined to be a city built to last--not a boom town that would vanish with the whims of itinerant prospectors. Not even the devastating fires of 1851, '56 and '63 could deter our citizens from taking root here.

During the early years of the gold rush, five future United States Senators called Nevada City home. And five future California State Supreme Court justices lived and worked here as well. Three of the five state jurists rose to become Chief Justice of our state court, and one of the three-- Stephen Johnson Field-- served 34 years on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Nevada City pioneers William Morris Stewart, later serving from Nevada, Richard Oglesby from Illinois, George Hearst from California, Edmund Pettus from Alabama and long-time local resident Aaron Augustus Sargent, all held a seat in the world's most exclusive club. In fact, on March 23, 1873-- when Sargent was took the oath of office in Washington, D.C.-- Senators Stewart and Oglesby were the first to shake his hand and welcome him aboard. Three pioneers from Nevada City's gold rush days were colleagues in the U. S. Senate.

To the State Supreme Court we sent Niles Searls, Lorenzo Sawyer, Addison C. Niles, Thomas McFarland and Field; with Searls, Sayer and Field each serving in the top post during the 19th century. Other local members of the bar, including the flamboyant David Belden, who served as a judge both here and in Santa Clara County, left their names permanently etched in the annals of California jurisprudence.

And while all of these distinguished people made Nevada City home for a few years, it was gold, after all, that brought them here.

Letter, journals and newspaper accounts of the gold rush confirm that perhaps as many as 10,000 men once worked Deer Creek as it meandered from the canyon above Nevada City and eventually worked its way to the valley below. Ten thousand men in search of a fortune that few of them could have imagined when they left their farms, cities and villages to become modern Argonauts.

With the discovery of gold by Marshall and the attendant publicity that followed, people came from all over the world to try their hand at mining. And when President James Polk, in his December 1848 State of the Union Address urged Americans to strike out for California, they heeded his suggestion.

So too did the Chileans, Kanakas from the Sandwich Islands and Chinese. Poverty-stricken Irish, driven from their land by the potato famine, heard about the gold of California and sailed to what they hoped would be a better life. Cornish miners, faced with a collapsed in market, came here to be part of the grand adventure. And from within this country came African Americans, Native Americans and, of course, the native Californians with roots in Mexico. Together, for at least the first year of the rush, they represented perhaps the most egalitarian society in the history of the world. What you got from the creeks and hills was yours.

Soon came the women and children, called from their homes by optimistic husbands who believed in the future of California. And with families came churches, schools and a standard of living that wasn't part of the 49er's early experience.

And from this amazing dynamic grew not only a new state, but new communities. Communities like Nevada City. But, of course there really isn't any other community like Nevada City. If you don't believe us, read on and learn about who we are and why we live here.

Copyright Cornerstone Realty Group and Steve Cottrell
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