About Us:

Nevada County was organized by an act of the legislature, approved May 18, 1851. Before that time it had been a part of Yuba County, but the growth of population and business following the gold rush of 1849-50 plus the distance of the courts for trial of important criminal and civil business, resulted in the move for a separate county organization.

Today in Nevada County traces of the past can be found everywhere. A visit to Grass Valley will revive memories of the stories about Lola Montez, Lotta Crabtree, and John Rollin Ridge. Alonzo Delano (Old Block), relative of President Franklin Roosevelt, left his mark here; John Hays Hammond mined here. In Nevada City, just over Sugar Loaf, is located the Selby Flat and Rock Creek area so vividly portrayed in Canfield's Diary of a Forty-Niner. Local hero Henry Meredith is buried beneath an imposing monument in the Pioneer Cemetery. The beautiful southern mansion of Nevada's bonanza-days senator, William Morris Stewart, stands on Piety Hill. On Main Street, the old assay office where Comstock ore was first tested still stands. A former President, Herbert Hoover, once mined here.

Interested tourists can still visit Rough & Ready (Republic for a month), You Bet, Red Dog, Gouge Eye, Walloupa, Chalk Bluff, Washington, Jefferson, Alpha and Omega, up through Gaston Ridge, through Bloody Run, and God's Country. At the top of the Sierra there still exist the site of Meadow Lake. In the Meadow Lake Cemetery is the grave of Henry Hartley whose gold discoveries started one of the most picturesque and short-lived boom towns in history.

By the end of the nineteenth century California had been discovered by artists and writers, attracted to the magnificent landscapes and natural beauty of the state and to the fascinating spectacle of rapid social and economic change. This was felt in Nevada County as elsewhere throughout the state. For the interested reader, numerous excellent reading lists exist for guidance into any phase of our history.