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California State...
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California Counties
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California Counties
The U.S. state of California is divided into fifty-eight counties.
On January 4, 1850, the California constitutional committee recommended the formation of 18 counties. They were
Benicia, Butte, Fremont, Los Angeles, Mariposa, Monterey, Mount Diablo, Oro, Redding, Sacramento, San Diego, San
Francisco, San Joaquin, San Jose, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Sonoma, and Sutter. On April 22, the counties
of Branciforte, Calaveras, Coloma, Colusi, Marin, Mendocino, Napa, Trinity, and Yuba were added. Benicia was
renamed Solano, Coloma to El Dorado, Fremont to Yola, Mt. Diablo to Contra Costa, San Jose to Santa Clara, Oro
to Tuolumne, and Redding to Shasta. One of the first state legislative acts regarding counties was to rename
Branciforte County to Santa Cruz, Colusi to Colusa, and Yola to Yolo.
The last California county to have been established is Imperial County in 1907. |
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Nevada County, California
Nevada County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education
County Seat: Nevada City
Year Organized: 1851
Square Miles: 958
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Court House: 950 Maidu Avenue
County Administrative Center
Nevada City, CA 95959-8617
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Etymology - Origin of County Name
Named after the mining town of Nevada City, a name derived from
the term "Sierra Nevada." The word nevada in Spanish means "snowy" or "snowcovered."
Demographics:
County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick
Facts
History
Nevada County was created in 1851 from parts of Yuba County.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF NEVADA COUNTY
By Ed Tyson
Nevada County was organized by an act of the legislature, approved May 18, 1851. Before that time it had
been a part of Yuba County, but the growth of population and business following the gold rush of 1849-50
plus the distance of the courts for trial of important criminal and civil business, resulted in the move
for a separate county organization.
The earliest settlement in Nevada County was made in the summer of 1848 at a place called Rose's Corral
which was located between the Anthony House and Bridgeport. Early in the spring of 1849 a group of
mountaineers from Oregon known as the Greenwood Company mined for gold at Illinois Bar on the South Yuba
River. They were followed by emigrants from Indiana. In the fall of 1849, the Greenwood Company made
winter camp at Jefferson, and the Indiana group moved further upstream to Washington. It was that same
autumn that Captain John Pennington's party struck rich diggings on Deer Creek and built the first cabin
on Gold Run, the site that was to become Nevada City.
By late August, 1850, Washington was the highest point on the South Yuba at which gold had been
discovered, and a large population grew around the town as well as at the town of Jefferson.
Water was one of the most important agents for developing the resources of the county, and ditches for
transporting water became indispensable to the miners. The first such ditch, in March 1850, brought
water from Mosquito Creek to Coyote Hill, a distance of a mile and a half. Another ditch in May, 1850,
took water from Deer Creek to Phelps Hill a short distance away.
In August, 1850, a man named Moore began a ditch designed to take water from Deer Creek, just above
Nevada City, to Rough and Ready. After completing only one mile of his ditch, Moore was forced to give
up his project. The following January, A. L. and B. O. Williams succeeded in getting the water ditch
completed, a distance of thirteen miles.
By 1867, the total length of ditches in the county had reached 850 miles at a cost of construction of
$4,250,000. The two leading systems were the Eureka Lake and Yuba Canal Company and the South Yuba Canal
Company. By 1880 there were more than 1000 miles of ditches, and construction costs had reached
$7,000,000. It was the elaborate ditch systems that made hydraulic mining possible. This form of mining
dominated all other methods of obtaining gold until it was stopped by court order in 1884. Today that
network of ditches have been absorbed by the Nevada Irrigation District, with some of the old ditches
still in use.
The deep quartz mines or "hard rock" mines, some of which date back to 1850, produced huge amounts of
gold. Notable mines were the Empire, Idaho-Maryland, North Star, Pennsylvania, Allison Ranch, Work-Your-
Own-Diggings, Golden Center, Spring Hill, Murchie, Champion, Providence, Fortuna, and Banner Lava Cap.
The first gold was hauled out of the county by stage coach, the property of the early express companies.
One of the most famous of these was Wells Fargo. Later, when the Central Pacific Railroad was built, the
Nevada County Narrow Gauge connected Nevada City and Grass Valley to that transportation giant at
Colfax.
Today in Nevada County traces of the past can be found everywhere. A visit to Grass Valley will revive
memories of the stories about Lola Montez, Lotta Crabtree, and John Rollin Ridge. Alonzo Delano (Old
Block), relative of President Franklin Roosevelt, left his mark here; John Hays Hammond mined here. In
Nevada City, just over Sugar Loaf, is located the Selby Flat and Rock Creek area so vividly portrayed in
Canfield's Diary of a Forty-Niner. Local hero Henry Meredith is buried beneath an imposing monument in
the Pioneer Cemetery. The beautiful southern mansion of Nevada's bonanza-days senator, William Morris
Stewart, stands on Piety Hill. On Main Street, the old assay office where Comstock ore was first tested
still stands. A former President, Herbert Hoover, once mined here.
Interested tourists can still visit Rough & Ready (Republic for a month), You Bet, Red Dog, Gouge Eye,
Walloupa, Chalk Bluff, Washington, Jefferson, Alpha and Omega, up through Gaston Ridge, through Bloody
Run, and God's Country. At the top of the Sierra there still exist the site of Meadow Lake. In the
Meadow Lake Cemetery is the grave of Henry Hartley whose gold discoveries started one of the most
picturesque and short-lived boom towns in history.
By the end of the nineteenth century California had been discovered by artists and writers, attracted to
the magnificent landscapes and natural beauty of the state and to the fascinating spectacle of rapid
social and economic change. This was felt in Nevada County as elsewhere throughout the state. For the
interested reader, numerous excellent reading lists exist for guidance into any phase of our history.
And for the reader who has time, nothing can be more rewarding than browsing through the old newspapers.
Newspaper files dating from 1851 to the present are available in the Nevada County Public Library.
Geography
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 974 square miles (2,524 kmē), of
which, 958 square miles (2,480 kmē) of it is land and 17 square miles (44 kmē) of it (1.73%) is water.
The western part of the county is defined by the course of several rivers and the irregular boundaries
of adjoining counties. When the county was created, the founders wanted to include access to the
transcontinental railroad, so a rectangular section was added that includes the railroad town of
Truckee. What is remarkable about this is that the final shape of the county closely resembles the
Deringer pocket pistol, a favorite at the time of the more urbane residents of this gold rush county.
Neighboring Counties:
- Northeast: Washoe County, Nev.; Sierra County
- South: Placer County
- West: Yuba County
Cities and Towns:
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- Grass Valley |
city |
Incorporated Area |
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- Nevada City
(County Seat) |
city |
Incorporated Area |
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- Truckee |
town |
Incorporated Area |
County Resources:
Enter County Resources and Information Here
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County Resource Guide
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The history of our nation can be seen as a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names we've given our counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic
features of our country!"
But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn't the only reason to explore counties' role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.
Today's counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990's political slogan "Think globally,
act locally." |
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