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Page: of 3
A BRIEF HISTORICAL REVIEW
ci By H. P. DAVIS : :
Author of “Gold Rush Days in Nevada City,” “Black Democracy, a History of Haiti,’ and
: handbooks of various mining districts, ete. :
For almost a century the restaurant, bar, and lobby of the historic National Hotel has been a
_ favorite rendezvous for menconcerned in-the development of the resources of the stupendously
‘rich gold bearing area of which Nevada City is the center—gold mining, lumbering and water
ROWeGaeemaes : Feat criti eda LS
Many of the most significant “deals” in the fascinating history of gold mining in California
have been planned and consummated in this hotel and here one of the world’s greatest public
utility organizations was initiated, . : ;
P. G. & E. HERE INITIATED
It was in the famous old bar of this hotel that two men, each of whom had been called
“Father” of the P.G.XE., met and planned the Nevada County Electric Power Company which,
years later, became an important unit of the far flung public utility empire of the Pacific Gas
and Electric Company.
In old registers of this hotel, yet preserved, may be found names of men to whose vision, initiative and courage was due the unexampled development of industries upon which the prosperity
of this State was founded. mee dl Bayer
§
A MECCA FOR STUDENTS OF HISTORY ee a
_In more recent years the National restaurant, bar, and lobby have become the mecca of students of California history, of tourists, and of visitors from “below,” attracted to this picturesque
old town by yet existing evidences of the hectic activities of the ‘days of gold,” when Nevada City
was the center of the most productive area of the‘‘Northern Mines.”
Within a radius of 25 miles of this restaurant not less than a fourth of all the gold produced
by the placer and quartz mines of California since *49, have been recovered, prens:
In this area are the deepest and some of the most extensive underground workings in the’
United States. i :
400 MILES OF UNDERGROUND MINE WORKINGS
In the mines of Grass Valley and Nevada City are more than 400 miles of shafts, drifts and
tunnels and—incidentallydirectly under where you are now sitting is the old tunnel of the
Nevada County vein from which, in the early days, spectacular rich gold bearing quartz ore was
extracted.
Within five miles of this spot hydraulic mining was inaugurated in 1853. The successful operation of lode (gold-quartz) mines and the economic recovery of the gold, from the vein material
was here first achieved. ;
On the site of the present County Court House was, in 1851, enacted the first “quartz mining
regulations,” now, in part, incorporated in the mining law of the United States.
HEADQUARTERS OF WELLS FARGO
The bar room adjoining this restaurant was, in the sixties, the principal office, for the “Northern Mines,” of Wells Fargo Express Company, and in this old building was the headquarters of
stage companies which served the innumerable boom mining camps of this area.
STAGES FOR FAMOUS MINING CAMPS
A brass gong, now hanging in the upstairs lobby, served for many years to announce the departure of four and six horse stages for such flourishing mining camps and communities as Downieville, on the North Fork of the Yuba, North Bloomfield, once called Humbug, Brandy City,
North San Juan, center of the huge hydraulic operations of the San Juan Ridge, Alpha, birthplace
of the famous concert singer Emma Nevada, and its twin hydraulic camp Omega, You Bet, Red
Dog, Gouge Eye, Dutch Flat and beyond to Virginia City and the enormously productive silvergold mines of the Comstock Lode.