Collection: Books and Periodicals > Nevada County Historical Society Bulletins

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Title: Volume 074-1 - January 2020 Collection Type: Books and Periodicals Collection Name: Nevada County Historical Society Bulletins # of Pages: 8 Download PDF: User Login Required Download OCR Text: User Login Required

Date Scanned: 2023-12-30 11:48:42 OCR Software Version #: tesseract 5.4.1 Item Sourced From: PDF First Created: 2025-03-17 04:06:34 Last Updated: 2025-03-17 04:06:34

Original Held At: Searls Historical Library Location: 161 Nevada City Hwy, Nevada City, CA 95959

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NCHS Bulletin January 2020 readily accessible. Foley recruited Ed Tyson, a retired college librarian, who succeeded her as director. Tyson in turn recruited Pat Chesnut, the current director. A Preservation Movement The Golden Center Freeway prompted a further range of preservation efforts. In Nevada City, preservationists rallied to save the Nevada Theatre on Broad Street, which reopened in May 1968. Preservationists influenced a redesign of the freeway to save historic structures, including the Ott Assay Office. Both Nevada City and Grass Valley created historic districts. The towns’ historic hotels were saved after under-going extensive renovation. Meantime, the State of California acquired the Empire mine for an historic park. While none of these efforts were the direct work of NCHS, all were inspired and led by Society members. Some functions assumed by NCHS in its early years have not continued. In early years the Society sponsored excursions to historic sites, such as Camp Far West, the site of a Gold Rush-era U. S. Army post'*. The appeal of these excursions diminished as the Society’s leaders devoted themselves to museums, research and publications. The one annual excursion still sponsored by NHSC is the You Bet tour, hosted by the Brady family. In its early years, NCHS undertook to erect historic markers throughout the county, but that function passed in 1969 to the Nevada County Landmarks Commission, organized especially through the efforts of Sally Lewis. The most recent museum, Nevada County Narrow Gauge Railroad Museum, developed following a 1983 meeting of railroad buffs and NCHS members, including Madelyn Helling and John Christensen. The vision of the mayors and City Manager Beryl Robinson and others in Nevada City, plus the generosity of landowners and local business leaders like Lowell Robinson, created this newly-built museum, which opened in May 2003'°. The Railroad Museum expanded historical awareness beyond values and stories. It appealed to those, especially men, who could relate to the past through its craftsmanship. These volunteers have told the region’s story by shaping iron and wood to restore the technology of the past and rebuild the rolling stock of the long defunct Nevada County Narrow Gauge Railroad. “The Need for Roots” By the 1990s NCHS had clearly succeeded in its mission. When a journalist searched America for the best old-fashioned towns, she discovered Grass Valley, a town which “had never suffered from inept modernization” but had “maintained its unique sense of place””!’. Others have discovered similar qualities in Nevada City. No doubt someone could point to the lack of manufacturing jobs and young families in the county and wonder whether preservation has succeeded too well. At the same time, heritage has become part of the economics feeding the towns. More importantly, these towns continued to value their elders and respected their memories. People have an allegiance to Nevada County and its past. As its 75th anniversary approached, NCHS had become an organization confident in the future. Prompted by the Searls Library’s need for more space, NCHS acquired the decommissioned state armory in Nevada City. The Searls endowment, the sale of the former library building and an anonymous donor financed the purchase and remodeling. This year the Society unveiled a permanent sign on a rock foundation outside its “History Center,” a complex including its library, archives, workrooms and offices. This was the achievement of NCHS president Daniel Ketcham and other officers, including those listed in this Bulletin'®. Seventy-five years ago, when war still raged in Europe, a young philosopher named Simone Weil worked at Free French headquarters in London. She had experienced a nation and a world uprooted by war. She wrote: “To be rooted is perhaps the most important and least recognized need of the human soul”. Over three-quarters of a century NCHS has helped to root long-times residents and newcomers alike in the foothills of California.