Brush up on pioneer history at these three state parks
Three of Nevada County’s state parks let you imagine life unfolding between the mid-19th century, when the first pioneers crossed the Sierra in search of new beginnings, to the mid-20th century, when the county’s last big gold operation closed.
Exhibits tell of wildlife in the area (taxidermy beaver, bobcat and squirrel, pine marten, raccoon and mole are energetically posed), Native American culture (view the re-created cooking site), the Chinese experience (learn how immigrants blasted railroad tunnels) and the 1913 Lincoln Highway construction (see photos of early autos crossing the mountains).
The story gets reasonable treatment under headings like “Desperation,” “Starving” and “Final Struggles;” but what gets only alluded to is a concern rangers say fascinates many visitors:
In one of six guided hikes on Saturday and an interpretive walk on Sunday you can explore emigrant routes, railroad snow sheds and Native American petroglyph sites.
Tickets cost $55 ($65 after Sept. 30) for the Saturday hike plus live music and an afternoon talk by Frank Mullens, author of “The Donner Party Chronicles”; and $80/$90 for both Saturday and Sunday events.
If you can’t go that weekend, park experts such as Greg Palmer lead free camp site tours every weekend (check at the visitors center information counter for start times), where you might pause by a boulder feathered with 170-year-old wood fire char, and discuss the question that has burned for well over a century:
A 45-minute drive along the San Juan Ridge northeast of Nevada City leads to a red-rimmed mountain cavity that could be a cousin to South Dakota’s Badlands — hillsides are scalloped bare, their guts piled into Mars-like mounds in the rumpled flats below.
Carefully restored by E Clampus Vitus members, its buildings showcase the more civil parts of miners’ lives as lived in a remote forest such as this.
The company built more than 100 miles of canals for delivering stream water into nozzles the size of cannons to blast away the sleeping hillsides.
Fresh and tidy as if the owner has just opened for the day, the store’s merchandise ladders are ready to slide on ceiling rails to where a box of, say, Booth’s sardines waits to be sold or a ball of red yarn is looking for a sweater.
Ceiling hooks dangle steel animal traps, tea kettles and a coffin-like wash basin.
Softened floor planks by the wood stove are spiked with nails to keep miners from slipping on the snow melting from their boots.
At the visitors center, a first stop should be a room off to the left where a model of the mine’s tunnels lurks in half light, looking like an explosion in a spaghetti factory; in fact, its many lines represent the lattice of tunnels underground beneath you.
At a machine shop, see how water running through Pelton wheels generated electricity.
In the blacksmith shop, see how workers fabricated tools and hinges.
A spooky highlight is the shaft viewing area, where stairs descend to the start of a cavernous tunnel that, blocked by a gate, disappears into the earth.
Volunteers populate the Bourn Cottage on weekends, dressed up as family members to answer questions about early life at the mine. 10791 Empire St., Grass Valley.