Collection: Books and Periodicals

About This Item:

Title: A Memorial and Biographical History of Northern California (1891) Collection Type: Books and Periodicals Publisher: Lewis Publishing Company Published: 1891 Copyright: In the public domain or published before 1925 Source(s): Google Books # of Pages: 713 Download PDF: User Login Required Download OCR Text: User Login Required

Date Scanned: 2024-07-22 00:25:09 Item Sourced From: PDF First Created: 2025-03-17 03:11:29 Last Updated: 2025-03-17 06:30:36

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

Page: of 713  

178 HISTORY OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA. it from Placer-County on the south. There are several small lakes in the upper part of the county. Of these, Donner, some two miles long, and situated east of the main summit of the Sierra, is the principal. Except a narrow strip along its western border, the county is well timbered.. Nevada County is known almost the world over for the excellency of her Bartlett pears. The vicinity: of Grass Valley, Nevada City, and Rough and Ready, once the most typical of mining camps, seems the natural home of that fruit. Every year a large quantity of the fresh fruit is shipped from the two first named places, the shipping points of the western end of the county, say a million pounds from Grass Valley, and half that quantity from its neighbor. Every year is seeing the increase in the number of trees, while the planting of other fruits, grapes, and garden stuff is also going forward rapidly. ‘Chicago Park” is a Bartlett pear colony from Chicago, a strong and prosperous company who publish semi-monthly the Chicago Park Horticulturist, having their office temporarily in the Chicago Opera House building, with C. H. Briot as editor. Their colony or park is of course jin the midst of the pear belt. Until the completion of the Nevada County Narrow-gauge Road, May 20, 1876, the county had practically no outside market, the haul by wagon or stage being too rough and far for the favorable handling of fruit. The completion of that road, however, from Colfax, on the line of the Central Pacific to Nevada City, a distance of twenty-two miles, has developed the agricul-tural and horticultural interests of the county, and has opened to tourists a series of views of magnificenceand grandeur. Invalids visit the county, also, in great numbers, seeking relief from the malarial or pulmonary troubles of other parts. John F. Kidder, of Grass Valley, president of the road, was prime mover in its building. NEVADA CITY is the county-seat, and one of the handsomest cities in the State. Its buildings are scattered about in a most picturesque way upon a number of adjoining hills, while in the city and its outskirts are about twenty quartz mines and mills. It is a place of great trade, being the supply point for much of the mining country above. Stages leave for all the adjacent camps, there being no less than five lines centering in the city. It is a thriving and wide-awake place, possessing a large number of active business houses, two foundries, excellent hotels, a fine theater, an efficient fire department, and is lighted by gas and electricity. The surrounding country is a strange mingling of quartz mines, abandoned gravel mines, beautiful gardens and orchards, vineyards and grain farms, the support of the city being drawn from all these sources. It is said that one of the best quartz mines in the county was discovered by a man named Schmidt, who had purchased a piece of land to start a vineyard. He bought the land for $300, and while digging a post hole struck a rich quartz vein, which he immediately sold for $15,000. The court-house is a handsome building occupying a splendid site. The county hospital, a little way from town, is a commodious and well managed institution. The town has a fine school system and live churches. Three miles or less from Nevada City is the city of GRASS VALLEY, the twin towns being connected by two lines of busses, in addition to the railroad. This beautiful mining city, for a long time the second but now the “rst in size and importance in Nevada County, lies in a lovely little valley, surrounded by gracefully sloping hills whose sides are dotted with the hundreds of quartz mines that have made the city so famous and prosperous. The first visitors here were David Stump, Mr. Berry and another man, from the Willamette Valley in Oregon, during the fall of 1848. Starting northward on a prospecting tour from Placerville, they discovered on Bear River evidences of crevicing, and continued their journey still further north in