The Nevada County Narrow Gauge Railroad, a 22-mile short line, played a vital role in the development of Nevada County, California, during the Gold Rush era. Built without government subsidies, the railroad facilitated the transportation of goods, including gold shipments worth over a quarter of a billion dollars, between the mines and the Transcontinental Railhead at Colfax. The railroad's construction, spearheaded by local leaders like Judge Niall Searle and John Coleman, began in Colfax in 1875 and reached Nevada City in 1876. The route featured several impressive wooden trestles, including the Bear River Bridge, the highest railroad bridge in California at the time. The railroad faced challenges, such as the decline of hydraulic mining and competition from improved roads and trucks, leading to its eventual closure and sale for scrap metal in 1940. However, its legacy lives on through the efforts of organizations like the Nevada County Historical Society and the Grass Valley Video History Museum, which preserve artifacts and share the story of this once-vital transportation link.

Full Transcript of the Video:

(engine revving) (engine revving) - This is a story of Nevada County Narrow Gauge Railroad.

Countless words have been written concerning the 22-mile short line, at times referred to as Old Man Kidder's Railroad, or more in jest, the never come, never go.

Having been located in the heart of Northern California's mother lode country, the Nevada County Narrow Gauge was certainly worth every notoriety given it, for no other railroad was ever more closely an entrical part of the area it served.

A community project from its inception, and with no subsidy of any kind, the Narrow Gauge would faithfully haul all types of commodities to and from the Transcontinental Railhead at Colfax.

Typically running six trains per day, plus extras, the Narrow Gauge timetable was regarded as sacred.

Gold shipments from the mines amounting up to $60,000 were not uncommon, totaling over a quarter of a billion throughout the railroad's life, with never so much as a robbery attempt.

Improved roads, trucks, and buses led to the decline in railroad traffic in the late 1930s.

Finally, with the onset of World War II and closure of the mines, the old Nevada County Narrow Gauge was sold for scrap metal in 1940, ending 66 years of service.

Welcome to Nevada County.

I'm Ed Schofield, representing the Nevada County Historical Society and the Grass Valley Video History Museum.

With the discovery of gold in California, hordes of prospectors headed west, in what culminated as the Great Gold Rush of 1849.

They sought rivers, streams, and tributaries in the lush Sierra Nevada foothills to stake their claims and establish mining camps.

Around this time, a wagon train descending from the western Sierra Slopes became stalled when their oxen escaped during the night.

A few days later, the beasts were found roaming in the valley of Wolf Creek, where the grouse was so plentiful they strayed no further.

Traces of gold in the creek caused the party to stay, and before long a settlement was started.

By 1854, it incorporated as a town to be appropriately named Grass Valley.

Two miles to the north, similar gold discoveries in Deer Creek resulted in two settlements that eventually grew together adopting the name Nevada, a Spanish word meaning snow-capped.

A year later, the city of Nevada was incorporated, and the county took its name from the city, which became the political influence in the area.

Aside from its primary attraction of gold, Nevada County had excellent forest, meadowland, and an abundance of resources lacking only in good transportation for its development.

Only the barest necessities could be brought to the rapidly growing Twin Cities as they became known.

Winter time saw wagon trains hopelessly stuck in the snow and mud, while summer travelers endured buckboard roads, often snapping the wheels off their wagons.

Great rates from Sacramento and San Francisco were correspondingly high and service was slow.

Then in 1850, a miner picked up a piece of quartz heavily laced with gold on a hilltop near Grass Valley, ushering in the first of hard rock mining in California.

Picks, shovels, and gold pans soon gave way to the need for heavy machinery capable of drilling, crushing, and processing ore by the tons, netting pure gold bound for the San Francisco Mint.

For the next 100 years, Grass Valley area mines would become the richest in California and the show place of mining technology throughout the world.

Between 1852 and 1865, no less than four attempts to build a railroad from Nevada County to the river fronts of Sacramento were made without success.

It was also hoped that the transcontinental railroad would pass through the Twin Cities.

But a more favorable route was surveyed through Colfax about 14 miles away and Donner passed.

If Nevada County wanted a railroad, it would have to be built as a feeder line to Colfax.

And without hesitation, Judge Niall Searle called a railroad meeting in 1874 with the Twin Cities most responsible citizen.

A committee of 20 prominent members, 10 from Grass Valley and 10 from Nevada City, was formed and began laying plans to finance construction through private local investors and no government subsidy of any kind.

A track gauge of three feet was chosen because of cheaper construction costs utilizing lighter rail and rolling stock.

John Coleman, owner of the Mohawk Lumber Company and treasurer of the Idaho Courts Mine, was elected chairman of the committee and would become the railroad's first president.

With the approval of Congress, the Nevada County Narrow Gauge Railroad Bill was signed into law by President Grant.

Construction began here in Colfax during February of 1875.

Founded in 1849 and named Illinois Town, the area served as a major supply route for the Nevada County mines long before the railroads came, as it was situated along the main supply road from Auburn to Dutch Flat.

In 1865, it became known as Central Pacific Camp 20 for the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad.

Then Colfax, after Schuler Colfax, a proponent of the route who decidedly made a hit with Californians and later went on to serve as vice president under Ulysses Grant.

Colfax rapidly developed into a bustling community.

And for the 66 years of the narrow gauge, the main transfer point of all manners of freight, passengers, petroleum, and circus events, as well as gold shipments out of Nevada County.

A few hundred yards north of downtown was Oilville.

Here kerosene, heating oil, and gasoline was gravity fed into narrow gauge tank cars supplying the Twin Cities petroleum need.

Oilville also served as a fueling stop for the narrow gauge locomotives and featured this turntable as trains would enter town, switch their cars, then need to be turned around for the trip back to Nevada County.

Two miles north of Colfax was Long Ravine, where the Transcontinental Railroad crossed the narrow gauge over this magnificent bridge prior to making it to the scent over Donner Pass.

Today, Highway 80 occupies a portion of the old narrow gauge right of way under the bridge.

From here, the narrow gauge proceeded northwestward through deep canyons and lush scenery before beginning the first of four spectacular crossings on high wooden trestles, including the Bear River and Greenhorn Creek.

At 742 feet in length and 96 feet high, the Bear River Bridge was the highest railroad bridge in California.

Between the Bear and Greenhorn bridges was a station and tunnel which was named U-Bett after a road that was extended from the mining camps of U-Bett and Red Dog to the railroad.

From Greenhorn Bridge, the railroad began its climb out of the river canyons now occupied by Rollins Lake, making a U-turn over still another wooden trestle.

Joseph Shibley, a prominent rancher, built a picnic ground here featuring a small grove with a pond suitable for boating and swimming.

The trestle circled the west end of the pond, which is the only remnant today as part of the Greenhorn camp ground.

Climbing southerly now along the canyon wall, affording a spectacular view of the rivers below, the narrow gauge turned west into Orchard Springs and Chicago Park, where a station was built near what is now the Happy Apple Kitchen here on Highway 174.

In 1888, there was a flurry of land speculation here when a Chicago syndicate bought 3,000 acres of farmland for development, advertising exclusively in Chicago newspapers.

This was a time of great land booms in the state.

However, the project died after only three months when the syndicate and its officers seemed to vanish into thin air.

The name Chicago Park endured, and those who did stay found the land ideal for growing peaches, pears, and apples, and by 1891 were commanding top prices in the east, the narrow gauge hauling it to coal facts for transfer to Southern Pacific refrigeration cars.

By 1907, after 32 years of operation, concerns were raised about the safety of the wooden trestles and occasional cave-ins at the U-Bett Tunnel.

An ambitious rerouting took place between Chicago Park and Long Ravine.

From Long Ravine, a steel viaduct was built crossing a creek and Highway 40, followed by the new Bear River Bridge standing 170 feet 9 inches above the river.

A third wooden bridge was added, elevating the railroad through a marsh just high enough to cross over Colfax Highway, where the narrow gauge now entering Chicago Park from the south, and the travel distance to Colfax now shortened by nearly two miles.

The station was moved from Orchard Springs to a new location near the intersection of Mount Olive and lower Colfax roads behind the Chicago Park store.

A water tank for the engines was installed, as was a fruit packing shed, where in 1931 enough Bartlett pears and gross plums bearing the inscription grown in Nevada County, California, were shipped out on the narrow gauge to fill 50 full-size Pacific Fruit Express cars in Colfax, bound for Eastern and auction export markets.

The fruit shed endured to this day used for many years as a cabinet shop.

The new Bear Bridge stood intact until 1963, when it was ceremoniously demolished for construction of the Rollins Lake Dam.

From Chicago Park, the narrow gauge tracks paralleled Highway 174, crossing it three times to the intersection of what is now Brunswick Road.

Here in the vicinity of Lakewood Lane and Bear River Pines, a huge picnic grounds was set up, complete with bandstands and dance platforms.

For many years, beginning in spring, every available flat car would be rounded up and benches and canopies installed.

Long picnic trains would be assembled in Nevada City and Colfax, carrying jubilant locals to the area for large celebration, sanctioned by Sunday schools, the minor union, Knights of Pythias, and many other organizations.

It was a proud tradition, with usually 1,500 to 2,000 in attendance.

Here near the location of Yubet Road and the highway was the Buena Vista Station.

For many years, a lumber loading site for local sawmills had later served as a section house for railroad maintenance crews.

After crossing the highway, the tracks entered Paredale and the station name for the Hatton family, who operated a sawmill here for many years.

Following Paredale Road and crossing the highway again here at North Day Road, which itself is the railroad bed, the 2,850-foot summit here at Cedar Crest was the highest point on the railroad before descending down along Brunswick Road and through the mine, which is the present site of the abandoned Bohemia Sawmill.

From here, the line crossed, then followed Bennett Street to the Grass Valley Depot, which featured a large station, freight house, and complete servicing facilities for locomotives and cars.

The station was destroyed by fire in 1940, while some of the remaining structures survived intact until 1984.

Today, all that remained are the foundations of the machine and blacksmith shops atop the huge retaining wall built in 1875.

An energetic and influential man was John F.

Kitter.

Having surveyed, engineered, or constructed 15 other railroads across the US, John and his wife, Sarah, were overtaken with the beauty and the prosperity of the county and decided to settle permanently.

He became the railroad's first superintendent, then second president in 1884 after Coleman.

Having immense pride in the narrow gauge, the couple built a palatial mansion on the edge of the Grass Valley Yards, which rapidly became the social center of town.

Under Kitter's reign, railroad operations were first class, highly polished and always on time.

Complications from diabetes led to his death in 1901, with his shares in the railroad passing on to his wife, Sarah, who became the first woman railroad president in the United States, and arguably the world.

For 12 years, Sarah improved and maintained the narrow gauge as a showpiece of its kind.

There wasn't a financial center in all of San Francisco who hadn't heard of her having deep admiration for her ability to accomplish so much in a job traditionally reserved for men.

From Grass Valley, the tracks fall at Idaho-Maryland Road, past the mine, crossing Brunswick Road once again, then entering Loma Rica Ranch.

A steady climb up town talk brought the line to the tunnel through the ridge separating the Glenbrook Basin from Nevada City.

The tunnel was excavated in 1963 for construction of the Golden Center Freeway, and site is marked today with a banner lava cup overcrossing.

For many years, the Glenbrook Basin was a site of the district fairgrounds, which featured horse racing, dancing, auto racing, as well as swimming, boating, and ice skating on nearby Lake Olympia.

The narrow gauge built a 2,800 foot spur track to the area in 1887, providing practical transportation of circuses, minstrel shows, and picnic trains.

Grass Valley and Nevada City were distinctly differing communities in those days, particularly when it came to politics.

Glenbrook was considered neutral territory, and a good time was generally had by all.

However, mystic encounters did occasionally occur, especially when a girl from one town fell in love with a guy from the other.

Few traces remain today of the former Glenbrook.

Only the trapeze, which was used to hurl the young and the old into the Lake Olympia, is still standing.

From the tunnel at Town Talk, the narrow gauge descended past Pittsburgh Mine, then along Gold Flat Road, crossing the last wooded trestle here before entering Nevada City along what is now Railroad Avenue.

The tracks ended here at the corner of Sacramento and Adams Street, where the last spike made of highly polished steel was driven on a rainy May 20, 1876, in a ceremony that may have rivaled promontory.

This 13-star flag, along with hundreds of roses and other decorations, adorned the front of engine number one on that day, and is now proudly displayed at the Video History Museum at Grass Valley's Memorial Park.

From Nevada City, the narrow gauge indirectly served mining districts further north, hauling supplies from Colfax, which were placed on wagon trains bound for North Bloomfield, Downey ville, and North San Juan.

Hydraulic mining was introduced here in 1852.

As the easy gold was panned from the rivers and streams, miners turned their attention to the ancient river beds located above Nevada City, erecting high-pressure water nozzles called monitors.

These in turn were fed by mountain reservoir flumes and pipelines generating tremendous pressure, washing away the hillsides at a rate of 50,000 tons per day into sluices where the gold could be separated from gravel.

The runoff from these operations wreaked havoc with the farmers below, prompting a survey in 1878, which revealed that at least 18,000 acres of once prime farmland along the Uber River had been buried under tons of debris.

Finally, a court decision in 1884 brought an end to the hydraulic mining, resulting in the first economic setback for the narrow gauge.

The Nevada City Depot survived intact until 1963, when it was razzed for construction of the Highway 20 and 49 freeway.

During its 66-year life, the narrow gauge owned 11 locomotives, nine steam, and two gas powered.

The first five burned cordwood for fuel until around 1906, when they were converted to oil burners, as wood was becoming costly and in short supply.

Undoubtedly, the most famous was engine number five.

After serving the narrow gauge for 41 years, she was sold to Universal Studios for use in the John Wayne movie, The Spoilers.

After she starred in a myriad of TV westerns, including the Virginian, Alias Smith and Jones, and many more before being relegated to Universal's back lot in 1968, a valiant effort from the Nevada County Historical Society's Transportation Museum Division resulted in her return in 1985.

Cosmetically restored for now, she is the proud centerpiece of the museum's display at the Northern Queen Inn in Nevada City.

Railroad cars included 14 passenger coaches, 60 box cars, 65 flat cars, seven gondolas, 20 tank cars, two snow plows, and one caboose.

A replica of this caboose was built by the museum's division chairman, John Christensen, and is also on display at the Northern Queen, as is tank car number 187, looking good as she did in the early 1930s.

Will the Nevada County narrow gauge railroad ever run again?
In the minds of those who still remember, and to those who love history and railroad, the old never come, never go will always be a working line.

My name is Ed Schofield.

And on behalf of the Nevada County Historical Society and the Grass Valley Video History Museum, I hope you've enjoyed the ride.

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