Enter a name, company, place or keywords to search across this item. Then click "Search" (or hit Enter).
Collection: Directories and Documents
Nevada County, California - The home of deep producing gold mines and prolific fruit orchards (1915) (36 pages)
Go to the Archive Home
Go to Thumbnail View of this Item
Go to Single Page View of this Item
Download the Page Image
Copy the Page Text to the Clipboard
Don't highlight the search terms on the Image
Show the Page Image
Show the Image Page Text
Reset View and Center Image
Zoom Out
Zoom In
Rotate Left
Rotate Right
Toggle Full Page View
Flip Image Horizontally
More Information About this Image
Get a Citation for Page or Image - Copy to the Clipboard
Go to the Previous Page (or Left Arrow key)
Go to the Next Page (or Right Arrow key)
Page: of 36
EVADA COUNTY
STATE OF CALIFORNIA
TRETCHING from the high Sierras into the great valley of
the Sacramento, formed of a vast succession of hills and
vales, plateaus and streams, this political subdivision encompasses almost every variety of climate and soil and stands
out unique and picturesque among the sisterhood of counties.
Its early history is most romantic and amazing, harking
back to the early days of gold seeking, when the knight of the pan,
rocker, and stutce-box haunted the gulches and ravines and counted
his day's labor Jost unless it vielded him an ounce of virgin gold.
This was a period of wealth and excitement. Following close, came
the advent of quartz mining. The early efforts being well repaid,
deeper and deeper these veins were followd, honey-combing the
depths with subterrannean passages until the industry has placed the
county first among the gold producing counties of California, with
every encouragement for a greater future production.
Since the earliest days it has been known that the county is well
adapted to horticulture and agriculture pursuits, and the movement,
now a lusty one, is not to supereede or take the place of mining, but
to supplement it, the two flourishing side by side in most perfect
harinony. For many years, however, the pounding of stamps drowned
the call of “back to the land” and the ready reply to many inquiries
as to this indifference was: Why adopt this indirect method of
tilling the soil for wealth, when gold in its native state lurks just
beyond?) This thought, paramount in the minds of the older inhabitants, was instilled in the minds of the following generation, and
nature’s bountiful eift of climate, conditions and soil, to them had the
same significence that a quartz ledge would have to a member of an
agricultural community without a knowledge of minerals. But the
bordering counties not being endowed with that permaneney in
mining, early adopted horticulture and agriculture, and their expansion and development lifted that veil of “mining exclusively,” revealing that nature had been just as liberal in creating our surface as our
depths.
In this brief sketch of modern Nevada County, it is considered
proper to speak of two specific instances, of soil development, which
are typical of many.
One is that of Mr. Horace V. Winchell, a mining engineer of
national reputation, whose training and travel gave him a wide knowedge of what constitutes profitable investments. Coming here
in a professional capacity two or three years ago, after a brief visit
he departed a farmer, having instructed his agents to purchase 400
acres of land upon which he is spending thousands of dollars, planting it to fruit.
The second instance is that of Messers W. F. and C. H. Prisk,
natives of Nevada County, now successful publishers and men of large
3