The American River in California was the site of a gold discovery in 1848 that sparked a massive influx of prospectors and transformed the region. Nevada City, with its historic buildings like the City Museum and the National Hotel, became a central hub in the Northern Mine area. Grass Valley, another prominent mining town, owes its growth to the discovery of gold-filled quartz by George Knight. The mines in Grass Valley and Nevada County produced immense wealth and led to innovations in mining technology. The region also boasts a rich history beyond mining, with figures like Lola Montez and Lotta Crabtree leaving their mark. Transportation routes, including stagecoach lines and toll roads, played a crucial role in connecting the mining communities. Remnants of the mining era, such as abandoned buildings and equipment, can still be found throughout the area. Despite the decline of mining, towns like Grass Valley continue to thrive, preserving their historical legacy while embracing modernity. The enduring beauty of the Sierra Nevada foothills, with its rushing streams and picturesque landscapes, further adds to the allure of this region steeped in gold rush history.

Full Transcript of the Video:

The American River flows quietly past the town of Coloma, California.

On the left bank of the river is a monument marking the site where James Marshall found the flakes of gold that were to change the destiny of a country.

In 1848, Captain John Sutter, pioneer California merchant, was building a sawmill here.

The structure is now long gone from our time, but the story will ever live on.

On a brisk day late in January 1848, Captain Sutter's foreman, James Wilson Marshall, was inspecting the raceway of the nearly completed mill.

As he walked along the channel, a yellow flake in the sand caught his eye.

He stopped, picked it up, curiously examined it.

It had the look, it had the feel of gold.

But whatever his thought, he could not know that this was to open the most dramatic chapter in California history.

Almost overnight, thousands of Americans answering the cry of gold converged on California.

They did not come by balloon or rocket ship as eastern cartoonists satirized, but they did come.

Shipping lines flooded port cities with posters and competition for passengers to the new land, and fast flippers began record-breaking runs to the California coast.

By late 1849, the water route to San Francisco was white with the canvas of hundreds of these speeding vessels.

Those who could not obtain passage or did not wish to come by boat came over land, seeking out their own roads, putting up with untold hardships.

The immediate goal of these first Argonauts who rushed west was the American River and Coloma.

Subsequently, however, the flood of the gold rush divided at Coloma through south and north.

Rich discoveries to the north drew thousands of eager prospectors to the region to become known as the Northern Mine.

In the heart of this Northern Mine area lies Nevada City, a small, pleasant mountain town on the west slopes of the Sierra.

Today, 100 years later, its narrow streets and historic buildings still echo the romantic background of the gold rush.

In this county seat city are many buildings with a rich history.

One of the most charming is the City Museum.

In its time a firehouse, the building now serves to house scores of artifacts of the gold rush period.

Another famous building is the National Hotel, oldest continuously operated hotel in California.

Its balconies and balustrades make it one of the most attractive tourist stops in the mother lode.

Not all of Nevada City's buildings are old, however.

The modern architecture of the courthouse stands out in striking contrast to some of its neighboring structures.

One of the fine old brick buildings of the city is the Broad Street Firehouse, which was the home of one of the earliest volunteer firefighting companies of the region.

Still another fine specimen of early California inns is the New York Hotel.

One of the most historic buildings of the town, and one of which the citizens are most proud, is the Ott Assay Office, where ore from the Comstock load of Nevada was first analyzed and found to be rich in silver.

Perhaps more artists have sketched and photographed this building than any other single structure in the mining regions of California.

Most of Nevada City's streets are very steep and very narrow.

There is a dignity and character about these narrow byways, and a charm that is emphasized by the occasional iron shuttered buildings that line them.

At the foot of Nevada City's Broad Street, the town's main business street flows a small stream called Deer Creek, a favorite fishing hunt for the kids of the town.

A short distance from Deer Creek is a small wooden sign marking the old dry diggings, where some of the earliest miners took portions from an ancient river course.

In the fall of 1849, many hundreds were searching for nature's yellow treasure within a few miles of this spot.

In the wake of these miners came the bankers, the merchants, the gambling halls, the graveyards.

As though by magic, the medley of community life was established.

Among the first permanent buildings to be constructed in this mining camp were the churches.

Reverend Isaac Owen founded the Methodist Church here in 1850, and its present members are proud of their historic building, now well over 100 years old.

Nevada City's Episcopal Church is another very early structure.

This church is one of the most architecturally attractive of the gold country, and its graceful spire and cross, rising into the blue mountain sky, attest to this claim.

St.

Canis is another classic example of the church architecture of the period.

Some of the town's religious history is also preserved in the name of its streets, streets named by the 49ers.

But while much of the town's history has been carried down to our time in old street names, old business buildings, and churches, the endowments of history that still remain in greatest number are the grave markers in the pioneer cemetery.

If these markers have carried down a single story to our time, it is one of courage and high adventure.

Many are the tales that have died with the Argonauts who are buried here, but a few have been handed down.

Behind this marker is an example of such a tale.

The message chiseled in the soft granite simply states that one Henry Meredith, Virginia born, died fighting an Indian uprising in the state of Nevada.

These are the sparse facts, but the detail of this battle and something of the life and death of this adventurer are preserved in the old news files of the Nevada City Library.

On May 12, 1860, this young attorney took part in a short bloody Indian war at Pyramid Lake, Nevada.

Ambushed by the enemy, Meredith received a mortal wound from an arrow.

When his friends found him, he was dying, but with his last strength he turned to them and uttered these words engraved on the two marker where he rests, "No, leave me here.

I might put you in peril.

"
Many were the footsteps of important personages echoing through Nevada City's path, and not the least of these was Emma Nevada.

Nevada County-born world renounce who had the zenith of her career returned to Nevada City to sing for her town folk.

However, Nevada City needs no literary buildup.

It is enough to stand on one of the high streets overlooking the town and know that here is where much of California's old rush history was born.

Near neighbor to Nevada City is Grass Valley, one of the largest cities in the gold country.

A river along these streets in the passing parade of history scrolls the imaginative Mark Twain, penmaster Bret Hart, and newspaper founder George Hearst.

Modern faces have covered many of the buildings that they knew, but many business houses still maintain the quaint wooden sidewalk awning inanimate determination to preserve historical tradition.

In 1950, Grass Valley was only a tiny mining camp where grazing pastures attracted early prospectors to tarry and feed their pack animals.

Its gravel diggings were not rich.

However, one day, George Knight, an early prospector, stumbled over a piece of quartz while pursuing his cow.

The glitter of yellow and the fragment of rock proved to be gold.

This discovery started the town that is today the busiest shopping and trading center in the Northern Line.

To preserve the significance of Knight's discovery, the community some years ago erected an appropriate monument at the site.

The deposit that George Knight uncovered proved to be so extensive that they were mined for over a century.

How much gold was taken from these mines?
No one knows.

But for over 100 years, a continuous molten stream of wealth flowed from the smelting furnace.

Today, while there is still much ore under the ground in the Grass Valley area, the high cost of mining has closed all the workings, and most of the mining equipment has passed under the auctioneer's gallop.

Unlike many camps that became ghost towns when mining ceased, Grass Valley continues to grow and prosper.

Modern business buildings are changing the face of much of the town, but Mill Street, with its awning covered sidewalks, still reflects the romance of the early mining era.

One of the town's famed historical sites is this house on Mill Street, where world famous dancer Lola Montez lived for two years after she had cost Ludwig of Bavaria his throne, a result of scandal.

In 1853, when the illustrious Lola came to America, Eastern periodicals depicted her arrival with these sketches.

In that same year, San Francisco was still very much in its infancy, but in spite of the fact that some 5,000 San Francisco men turned out to welcome her, she did not tarry there and chose instead to make her home here in the heart of the gold country.

Interestingly enough, this Grass Valley Mill Street home was the only one she ever owned.

The sultry enchantress, whose conquest included Franz Liszt, Alexander Dumas, the King of Bavaria, and other lesser vulnerable males, lived a secluded life here in Grass Valley.

Although she entertained very little, she had a frequent visitor by the name of Lotta Crabtree, an eight year old youngster with a talent for dancing.

Lola gave her attention to Miss Crabtree and taught her dancing and stagecraft.

Later, the young beauty became a talented entertainer and accumulated a fortune of millions.

Lola Montez was fond of animals and birds, and a pigeon coat which she had built can still be seen at the rear of the home.

The dwelling itself has been much remodeled since her time.

Lola left Grass Valley in 1855, but in the scrapbook of history, her story lives on along with that of Lotta Crabtree, two illustrious women whose lives brighten the early scene.

Grass Valley, however, was not all minds and mistresses, for it can claim Josiah Royce, famed teacher and philosopher, who was born here in 1855.

The city library today stands at the site of the birthplace of this famous American.

Inside the library on a wall of the reading room, this brass plaque pays tribute to this scholar.

Many of the gold country towns can boast of men who became merchants or financiers of tremendous wealth, but only Grass Valley produced a thinker of the stature of this honored philosopher.

A few miles west of Grass Valley lies the quaint little town of Ruffin-Reh.

This quiet village, which appears to be anything but what its name implies, was founded by a band of Mexican war veterans who took the name from their ex-commander, General Zachary Taylor, old Ruffin-Reh.

History has it that it was here in this decaying blacksmith shop that Lotta Crabtree danced and sang as a child, captivating the miners who had gathered about.

Ten miles below Ruffin-Reh and just off the beaten highway is another little hillside community by the name of Smartville.

About 1,500 miners lived here in the boom days of hydraulic mining.

Today, the town boasts of a single store and post office, and the stately white church should be a machinist conception.

Travel in and about this country today is easy and comfortable.

However, during the mining boom days, there were very few passable roads.

For the early merchants and miners, one of the easier ways of getting from San Francisco to the northern mines was by riverboat to Sacramento and Maryville, jumping off places to the mountain community.

This part of the trip was an easy and pleasant journey.

The stagecoaches and Wells Fargo wagons met the steamers at Maryville and then wound their way up the mountain to the outlying way station.

In summer, this was not an unpleasant trip, but in winter, the natural air conditioning of the concord coaches attracted very few passengers.

One of the first stops on this journey was Timbuktu.

Once a prosperous community of several hundred residents, this old Wells Fargo stop is all the remains of the more than 100 buildings that the town boasted in 1867.

All along this old route to Nevada are the ruins and tattered remains of a great stream of stage stops and other way stations that flourish during the mining boom.

Anthony House, however, one of the most famous of the wayside houses, is still in use today as a private residence.

Other former stage stops have not fared so well, and about all that remains of them are foundations weathering away under summer sun.

Many of these can still be seen along the old wagon road that ran from Maryville to the Comstock in Nevada.

The road crosses the Yuba River at Bridgeport on this shingle bridge, which is still in use and which is claimed to be the longest single-spam covered bridge in the world.

After crossing the bridge and looking back into the river canyon, one can imagine what it must have been like to have lurched around the turns in this road in a concord coach.

One of the little towns along this route that made big history was French Corral.

This little brick building is about all that remains of the town that was.

However, further down the street is a small monument giving evidence that French Corral was one of the terminals of the first long-distance telephone line in the world.

Perhaps the most historical of all the stage stops was one situated high in the rugged Sierra.

This way station called Slaveville House was destroyed by fire in recent years, but the sign was saved and now hangs on an adjoining structure.

This way house was one of the first toll stations on the highway system connecting the states of Nevada and California.

The toll road itself was built by a man by the name of Peter Yohar far ahead of the Comstock rush.

The Yohar family rests in a family cemetery near the site of Slaveville House.

It is interesting to note that one of the markers bears the date 1853.

The precious but precarious tracks through the mountains that were laid down by Peter Yohar and other early engineers can still be followed to date.

However, travel over this highway is exceedingly difficult in places.

But even in the days when this road was the lifeline to the Comstock silver mines, it was no boulevard and the rocky defiles brought destruction to scores of strong wagons and death to many of the animals of all along these back roads of the gold country are hundreds of reminders of a life that was decaying buildings, rotting wagons, rusting mining machinery.

Of the scores of little communities that once died of these hills, most are today only place names.

No homes, no businesses, only an occasional weather sign to mark the site.

One of the most prosperous of the former towns was Lake City, located far back in the Nevada County Hills.

In 1852, this town was a bustling, wealthy mining camp.

Once hosting a great hotel and scores of other businesses, this rotting foundation, the remains of a stage barn, is all that is left of the town.

These remaining timbers, hand-hewn and held together with hand-forged nails, resist the efforts of nature to take over this last vestige of a once populous community.

Nature will be the sure winner, however, and within a few years, even these weathered sills will be gone.

Another one-time prosperous mining camp is North Bloomfield.

A few families still live here and a few of the old commercial structures of the town still stand.

An empty stage barn, a former general store and post office, a decaying firehouse with its accompanying bell tower.

A few rusting fire hydrants still maintain their vigilance along the main street, reminders that here once was a fit.

Most of the buildings, however, have fallen on evil days.

The rock wall of this old cellar still resists the years that claimed the house above.

But nature here too is slowly taking over.

Some 15 miles west of Nevada City on Highway 49 lies North Sand 1, a town that in the boom days was the home of thousands.

But the town was extremely prosperous and is evidenced by the fact that scores of business buildings were built of brick and stone.

North Sand 1 is still a trading center for a delightful rural area, but with the cessation of gold mining, population drained away and many of the buildings abandoned have been gutted by fire or left to feel the slow fury of the elements.

This building, which once housed the offices of a former water company, is considered to have been one of the finest examples of brick architecture in all of the gold countries.

Almost all roads running through these western Sierra foothills pass through historic mining communities.

Nestled deep in the canyon of the roaring South Cuba River is the very old town of Washington, a town that came into being with the gold rush.

Many of the buildings that the Washington gold miners knew have suffered the neglect of the passing years.

A great many decades have passed since this old vast deal has hosted any prisoners, and no one remembers when the last mass was read in this crumbling church.

Of all of the thousands of miners who scoured the beds of these Sierra Rivers for gold, the Chinese labored the hardest.

Regrettably, about all of the physical evidence that remains to show that they were here in great numbers are the mounds of boulders in and near the town of Washington, which they laboriously removed from the river bottom to better guess at the gold.

Inch by inch, foot by foot, mile by mile, these Oriental miners followed the white men up the riverbed.

They were the gleaners of the golden harvest, but it is written that they too profited by the record.

While there are but few artifacts to support the fact that the Chinese miners made any lasting impress on the land, a complete altar from one of their many joss houses has been preserved in the Nevada City Museum, attesting in part to the fact that they were a humble, cultured, and religious people.

In many places in this gold country, the visitor can stand beside the road and look down into abandoned placer mines.

To recover the gold from these deposits, the miners turned great streams of water against the gravel banks.

This washing process separated the gold from the gravel.

This type of mining is long gone from our time, but a few of the great water nozzles or monitors can still be seen in the abandoned diggings, rusting sentinels, reminding the visitor of the great engineering accomplishments of another century.

In the boom days of this type of mining, the roar of the water rushing through these giant monitors was a pleasing sound to the miner, for much wealth was recovered from this mining process.

Water was important to the early miners, just as it is today the lifeblood of the growing Californians.

Here on the west slopes of the Sierra, hundreds of rushing streams were the mecca of the 49er gold secrets.

Since that era, many have been damned to conserve and divert the water for domestic and industrial use.

When the miners were here, they used these streams to operate their monitors and to drive their machinery, which they harnessed to crude water wheels.

These wheels were clumsy and inefficient, but they were as modern as any in the world at that time, for the method of obtaining power from water had advanced little in over 200 years.

A luckless gold seeker who saw these wheels determined that the waste water was held too long in the bucket.

Probably by noticing the tremendous power of the hydraulic monitors, he decided that water under pressure, when directed against smaller cups, would speed the wheel.

He took his plans to Allen's Foundry in Nevada City and here the cups for his first crude wheel were cast.

Today, pelton wheels, in principle, the same as the first prototype invented by Lester A.

Pelton, perpetually spin in hundreds of hydroelectric plants throughout the world.

A few of these early pelton wheels can still be seen scattered about the fear of football.

Little reminders that one of the great cornerstones of industrial progress is securely anchored here in these enduring mountains.

One of these wheels, the largest ever built, is the center of attraction in a grass valley park.

The people of the northern mines are proud of their historic past, and of the fact that here is where rivers were first harnessed to provide power for the growing West.

The water of these rivers has slaked the thirst and bathed the bodies of countless thousands of Californians, washed out gold, turned the wheels of industry, and nourished the vines and plants of hundreds of agriculturists.

But if the people of the area are proud of their history, they are even more proud to share it with visitors.

For here is the land of beauty and serenity, a land of rushing streams, of melting snow, of soft breezes and warm summer suns, majestic mountain lakes, springtime wildflowers, and timbered hills as virginal as when the first prospectors gazed upon them.

Here is one of nature's wonderful gardens.

Here is a country still filled with beams of unsullied charm.

Here is a tradition-proud land that carries on a golden legend that will never die.