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Volume 055-1 - January 2001 (6 pages)
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Page: of 6
NCHS Bulletin January 2001
The author’s Lone Pine spoon.
Pat Chestnut at the Foley Library was checking a January
31,1911, Union newspaper for other purposes when she
found information on the Lone Pine Tree. The article in the
paper said in part:
“Lone Pine toppled by winds. Memorable evergreen
drops to the bottom of the diggings. The Lone Pine situated
in the Hirschman diggings near bedrock and known to
nearly every resident in Nevada County ended its existence
yesterday when it was blown from the few feet of soil in
which its roots were encased. The Lone Pine is just an ordinary pine tree, but it has a memorable history. Its fame is
statewide.
“In the days of hydraulic mining, this tree was the only
one of that section that was not washed away by the violent
force of the monitor. For years it stood, roots exposed, and
people who viewed it have wondered how the lone tree bore
its weight in such a small amount of earth. Photographers
have pictured it on postal cards and artists have painted it,
but the lone pine has passed into history.”
I then called Tony Smeaton of the Firehouse Museum at
Nevada City to give him the information I had collected. He
told me that he had just found a July 1971 Nevada County
Historical Society Bulletin on the famous Jewish people in
the county during the gold rush, and it contained a small
picture of the Lone Pine Tree. It mentioned that the Native
Sons had anchored the tree with supporting chains. Hirschman and Grover Company purchased the American Hill digThe Lone
Pine tree as
pictured ona
1906 postcard
acquired by
the author.
gings near Lost Hill in Nevada City in 1866. The glory hole
seen in the article was known as “Hirschman diggings.”
I then called NID to let them know what I had found,
and told them that I did not know where Hirschman digv aS ( A.
Photo.)
4
Hirschman Diggings with the mining flumes in foreground. (Author’s
gings was located. They sent me a map to show me the o
location of the diggings.
Based on this information, I wrote a short article for the
Southern California Spoon Club newsletter and enclosed a
picture of the tree and the spoon. I ended the article by stating that I was looking for a post card showing the tree.
Within a week I had a copy of a post card with the Lone
Pine Tree. The card is postmarked “Nevada City, Cal” and
dated September 17, 1906, and had a one-cent stamp. It
would be nice to find other articles showing the Lone Pine
Tree.
(The location of the Hirschman diggings has
not been conclusively identified, but clues indicate that it is an area on Cement Hill just off of
Indian Flat Road.—Editor)
Note: Henry Hirschman his brother Moses
operated two or more cigar and tobacco stores in
Nevada City during the years 1853-1858. Heavy
losses in the fires of 1856 and 1858 caused
Moses Hirschman to declare insolvency in 1858,
and by 1861 he had moved to Virginia City,
where he was a selling groceries and dry goods
on C Street, a business he and his partner, Mr. sili
Ottenheimer, had acquired from A. Fleishacker.
In 1862 Henry Hirschman was running a stationery store on B Street, Virginia City, and
another member of the family, A. Hirschman,