Show: Insight Station: KNCO File: 10:26.mp3 Air date: 2026-10-26 Source: OpenAI whisper-1 · shrunk from 98.6 MB to 12.3 MB --- transcript --- Welcome to KNCO Insight, Nevada County Action, KNCO's local issue talk show. This is your chance to gain insight into issues affecting Nevada County. Be a part of the show. Call with your questions or comments. The number, 477-5626, that's 477-KNCO. The opinions expressed are those of the hosts and callers and do not reflect the opinions of the advertiser, staff, or ownership of Nevada County Broadcasters. Now, here is your host, Tom Fitzsimmons. Tom Fitzsimmons, KNCO News Time, just about 907, 54 degrees, beautiful blue skies greeting you this Monday morning here in Grass Valley and happy Monday. I'm Tom Fitzsimmons, always excited about these Mondays where we do History Unfolded with Mike Stewart, who's in the house, do it the second and fourth Mondays of the month. It's like old home week, Mike, because not only are you here, but Bernie Zimmerman's in the house, too. Yes, it's kind of a pattern sometimes. It's a good pattern, though. Sometimes you can get stagnant, but when Bernie comes to the house, he looks all quaffed, he looks all ready, he looks like he's raring to go today. He's been cruising up and down the hallway, I can tell he's just chomping at the bit. You want me to fall asleep now? Maybe so, maybe so. How are you doing, Bernie? I'm tired. How are you? Me, too. Me, too. Yeah, I had some radiation stuff this morning, and last week or so I've been doing cancer treatment, so I got zapped for about five, ten minutes. I don't have an excuse. I just got up too early this morning. There we go. All right, well, we're going to be talking now. We've done this before, haven't we, Mike, where we've cruised down roads with Bernie? Yeah, our virtual wagon rides, so to speak. I had an observation this morning as I was coming in from Washington, coming down Highway 20. I couldn't believe the amount of traffic on that highway now. As a kid, I remember riding with my folks coming into Big Town, as we call it, and you'd pass maybe one, two wagons going in the other direction, and today it's just mobbed. Yeah, it's just mobbed, huh? Sometimes you're wondering, well, I wonder if they closed another road and everybody's driving up this way. But I think it's just that it's now where, through traffic, I think it's able to go up there. It still might get squeezed a bit where that big overpass is being rebuilt on I-80, Immigrant Gap Area, I guess if you want to call it that, but yeah, it's starting to get traffic back up there. So yeah, it's like a bigger road now. It's pretty busy. It's not just that road, but when I came down U-Bit Road this morning to turn onto 174, I sat there for a couple of minutes, I counted, there were over 20 cars just heading into the Big Town, as Mike calls it, and I was trying to figure out, where are they coming from? I mean, are people commuting here from Colfax? But anyway, this is a happening place. It is. It is happening. Well, it's because, Bernie, they knew you were out and about today. That's got to be it. That's got to be it. So what road are we doing today, Bernie? We're going to basically follow Map 1 in our book, as I've mentioned before, Landmarks Commission produces two books, Ghost Towns of Nevada County and Exploring Nevada County, which is a guide to the, by now, almost 300 historical landmarks in the county, and the reason we're doing this today is because we just published, about 10 days ago, a new paperback edition of the book. Not only is it the paperback current, but it's also in color now, and it was published by, Cindy Anderson has taken over Comstock Bonanza Press, so she published it, and she tells me that it's now available in local bookstores and shops and the like, and of course you can always, if you have a device and you're computer savvy, you can always download the electronic edition from Apple or Amazon. So in any event, I thought to myself, well, this would be a good opportunity to remind everybody that there's a new edition out, and we'll use it. So we're going to... Who put the edition together? Was it you? Yeah. Basically, the last electronic edition has been transmogrified into a print edition, if you can see that. I don't even know what that word means. Transmogrified? Is that what you said? I'm still trying to figure that one out. Wow. Is there a definition? We converted it. Yes, okay. Okay. I kind of hurt myself trying to figure that one out there, Bernie. So we're going to start with the westernmost landmark in Nevada County, or site number one in the book, which is the site of the Mooney Flat Hotel. Now, I've got to give you some context about why this has become important. So if you go back to 1848, gold is discovered in Coloma, there were fewer than, if you put aside the Californios, there were fewer than 1,000 white people in California at that time. But some of them start thinking, some of them head up the American River, but others think, no, there's got to be gold elsewhere. So they start heading up the Yuba River. And by 1848, there's some rudimentary camps, let's call them, Rosa's Bar, Park's Bar, places like that. The first reported discovery of gold in California was by a guy named Jonas Specht in early June of 1848, somewhere around where Timbuktu and Smartsville are now. So the road they're following, probably originally a Nissan on trail, meanders along the Yuba, pretty much like Highway 20. Well, you get to just past where Smartsville is now, and the road forks. If you go straight on that road, you're going to go through Rough and Ready and get into Grass Valley and Nevada City. But if you turn left, then you're heading north towards San Juan, there was no north San Juan then, and Downeyville. So we're going to turn left, and that road is now called Mooney Flat Road. And you go up that road about a mile, and you come to the site of the Mooney Flat Hotel. Now Mooney Flat was named after a fellow named Thomas Mooney, who was an Irishman, arrived in what was then all Yuba County, we didn't have Nevada County yet. He arrived here around 1851, and established a large ranch called the Empire Ranch, kind of between Smartsville and what is now, what became Mooney Flat. He doesn't ever seem to have lived in Mooney Flat, and I've never been able to figure out why he got the name, other than the fact that he was a very prominent person in that area, owned a lot of land, probably had interest in some of the mines. So you started off with a mining community, sort of hydraulic mining and the like, but it was also a transportation hub, because it very quickly became a popular stop for all of the teamsters and travelers that were going up towards San Juan and Downeyville and those places, and that's when the hotel came to be built. It was built, it was started in 1856 by a fellow named Schmidt, not an Irishman, and he built it in stages, I think completed it in 1871, at which point it was three stories, if you can believe it or not, a three-story hotel. The first story had, I think, a saloon, and I guess sort of a public room, and it's where the Schmidt family lived. His wife, I forget how many kids they had, and then the second floor had guest rooms and a ballroom, and then the third floor had a big, large dormitory, which is where mostly the teamsters and people like that, you know, they just bunked there for the night. But it became a very popular place, and it actually existed well into the 20th century. It was finally demolished in 1958, because it was kind of deteriorating. Yeah, and there's a picture of it in the book, it was very handsome. It was originally, in fact, called the Live Oak Hotel, because they had this enormous oak tree right in front of it. I can show you a sketch of it. Oh, yeah, look at that, that is a great sketch. So anyway, that's the first historic site, most westernmost historic site in the county. It continued on as a mining community. There's not a lot left of the mining community, but if you kind of cross the road, have you ever been out to the Black Swan? No, I don't think so. Black Swan Recreation Area is run by the Bear Yuba Land Trust, and it's a really nice place to just hike. It's a really beautiful little setting, but it was one of the mines, and it's what's left of the mining operation, the tailing pond, and so on. One of the interesting things about Mooney Flat is, you know, they were sort of at the end of the Excelsior ditch, and the Excelsior mining company, mining and water company, in the late 70s, I want to say 79, I'd have to look that up, did a very interesting thing. They installed a generator, which was powered by their water, and then they put electricity into the mines, and it's believed to be the first industrial use of electricity in this country, and it allowed them to mine at night. Is that right? The first in the country? That's what's been reported. I don't know whether that's true, but I've read that in a number of sites. So as I say, there is a plaque there. The plaque says, it was put in by the Clampers, Mooney Flat Hotel, 1856-1958, site of the first three-story team and stage stop on the Hennis Pass route to the Northern Mines and the Comstock Load. So if you keep going on Mooney Flat Road, you keep heading north, not a historic landmark, but an interesting piece of history, on the left is Engelbright Lake. Oh yeah, sure. Do you know why we have Engelbright Lake? I'm guessing it was dammed for some reason. Yeah, well, Harry Engelbright was the congressman from Nevada City, the congressman for this district for many, many years, and he wanted to revive hydraulic mining on the ridge. But if you remember, after Judge Sawyer's decision, you couldn't, no hydraulic mining unless you could contain your tailings. Engelbright Lake was designed to be the world's largest tailing pond. Wow, like a catch basin. Yeah, the idea was you'd mine, all your tailings would go back into the Yuba River, and then it would be contained in Engelbright Lake. The problem was that by the time the dam was completed, and the lake was filled, World War II, and mining was pretty much banned because it wasn't considered essential for the war effort. So we wound up with a very nice recreation area, which was originally intended to be a tailings pond. Wow, what if we didn't have the war, that thing would be filled up with rock, right? Oh yeah. That way it was filling up Marysville. That's what its purpose was for. So, continue up Mooney Flat Road. We have to take a break. Yeah, we have to take a break. We have to take a break, Mike. Yes, we have to take a break. Pay the bills. See, I'm just fascinated. I wasn't even looking at the clock. But Mike's right. So let's do it. Let's pay a couple of bills as we're traveling the road. What are we going to call it? The Hennis Pass Road? Should we call it that? We will eventually get there. I don't think today we'll get there. Not now. Not at this pace. We can't. We'll be right back. Dad, have you seen how outdated our window treatments are? Yeah. We definitely need to do something about that. What are you thinking? I was checking out Budget Blinds of Grass Valley. They've got so many options. Blinds, shades, shutters, you name it. Sounds good. I wonder if they offer cordless options for safety. They do. They're all about keeping it safe, especially for younger kids and pets. That's important. And where are they located? They're right on 310 Colfax Avenue, plus they do free in-home consultations. Can't beat that convenience. Perfect. Let's give them a call at 530-274-1122 and set something up. Explore a variety of stylish options, including child-safe and cordless solutions. Upgrade your home with Budget Blinds of Grass Valley, located at 310 Colfax Avenue. Or call them at 530-274-1122 to set up your free in-home consultation today. Transforming your windows, transforming your home. Hey, Nevada County. I'm Lucas Mijares. And I'm Jesse Etlin. We're the founders of Zion Capital, right here in your backyard. And if you've listened to Dave Ramsey, you know how important it is to have someone you can trust. That's why we're your local SmartVestor pros. Lucas was named one of eight finalists for Advisor of the Year by Investment News and has been featured in Forbes and the Wall Street Journal. And Jesse's been voted Best Financial Advisor in Nevada County four years in a row. We're backed by firms like Fidelity and Charles Schwab, so you don't have to drive down the hill. You can have Schwab and Fidelity right here in your backyard. That means you get a true hometown relationship with Fortune 500 muscle behind your plan. We work with everyone from entrepreneurs building wealth to retirees focused on maximizing income. And we go beyond the basics, showing you smarter ways to grow your money that most people never knew existed. At the end of the day, we meet you where you're at and help you get where you want to go. Come visit us here in Grass Valley or give us a call today at 530-955-5402. Zion Capital, a mission bigger than money. Securities offered through LPL Financial, member FINRA SIPC, a registered investment advisor and separate entity from LPL Financial. Did the power just blink again? Yep, that's the third time this month. I'm starting to think we need a backup plan. I was just reading about Precision Electric. They designed Generac generators, battery storage, and solar systems that all work together. Fully integrated. Well, that sounds perfect. Last time we lost power, I was charging my phone in the truck. And making coffee on the camping stove. We've earned a little convenience. They're local too, right? Licensed electricians and all that? Yep, they do installations, generator service, and even fix electrical projects that need a professional touch. So instead of me trying to wire anything, we let the experts handle it. Exactly. You're great with projects you're supposed to do. I'll take that as a compliment. Visit PEGV.net and let's keep the lights and the coffee maker running next time the power goes out. Precision Electric, powering Nevada County with expert generator, battery, and solar solutions. Visit online at PEGV.net to schedule your consultation today. When you're shopping for insurance, you might say, What? Huh? I'm so over this. But what you really need to say is something that could actually help. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. When you get a local State Farm agent, they can help make it easy and help you choose the coverage you need. Plus, they're available online, over the phone, or even in person. I'm so into this. Call State Farm agent Mike Bratton in Grass Valley at 530-273-0521. All right, Kenyon City, it's time, 923.55 degrees. Welcome back to History Unfolded. Mike Stewart in the house with me and Bernie Zimmerman's here. As we're cruising down the updated version, newest publication of our historical spots within Nevada County, we're starting in Mooney Flat Road and kind of cruising up the road here. Right, Bernie? We are. And we keep going until Mooney Flat runs into Pleasant Valley Road. Okay. Basically the same road. Now, when you get there, you take a slight jog to the right. And there's a sort of a little, I don't know what to call it, sort of like a little peninsula. It's really a parking lot here. It's graveled and you overlook Lake Wildwood, okay? And that's our second stop. That's the site of the Anthony House. And the Anthony House was, again, built in that same time frame. They tended to have these stage stops and rest areas, you know, every few miles, depending on how far you would got. So this one was built by a Mr. Anthony beginning in 1849 and it really thrived. You'd mentioned the Hennis Pass Road. So once gold is discovered and silver and what became the state of Nevada around Virginia City and so on, you needed to get there. And the Hennis Pass Road was a much better way of getting there than, you know, the road that became the California Emigrant Trail. For one thing, the Hennis Pass, I've driven it, it's about 5,900 feet, whereas Donner Pass is like 7,700 feet. That's a big difference. So any event, the road, the Pleasant Valley Road would continue on. If we eventually get to Sweetland, I can explain more about the geography. But right now we're at the site of the Anthony House, which is underwater because it was flooded out when they erected Lake Wildwood. The original house was actually, the remains are underwater. In 1970, when they began developing Lake Wildwood, the property had deteriorated and the house, are you ready for this, was burned down as a training exercise by the local fire department. So what do you think, Chief Mike, have you ever burned down any historic houses? I plead the fifth. Probably, that was probably a common practice, I guess. It was a very common practice. Because nobody had that foresight to see what they had. Anyway, the Anthony House, what's left of it is underwater, it's under Lake Wildwood. But you can look out from that spot and there's a plaque there and so on. And there is a plaque there, okay, gotcha. So the next site, now you go into Lake Wildwood and you will come to a very beautiful little memorial I'm going to show to you for Jacob Van Bleren. Lake Wildwood is a gated community, so you need to get permission to go in there. But Mr. Van Bleren was a Civil War bugler who stopped at Anthony House and he died while he was staying there. He was in his forties at the time. And so the Anthony House people decided to bury him behind the building. And then when they were creating Lake Wildwood and they learned of all of this, they created a little park around his burial area, which is called Bugler Park. Very pretty site and interesting piece of history. Wow, and that's in Lake Wildwood? That's in Lake Wildwood. Wow. As you enter it, the park is kind of on the left. And if you can get permission to see it, it's very pretty. So we're back now on what's now called Pleasant Valley Road. We're continuing to head north and we come to the next site, which is the Hartung House. The Hartung House itself is historic. It was built in the 1880s by the Hartung family, but what really makes the site historic is that it is believed to be the site of Rose's Corral. And Rose's Corral is probably the first sort of white settlement in Nevada County. Goes back to kind of 1849, John Rose and there's Rose's Bar. I mean, Rose was one of the original kind of 1848, 1849 prospectors. And Rose's Bar is real close to where gold was first discovered back in 1848 by Jonas Speck. So Mr. Rose and his partner, William Reynolds, operated a trading post and cattle corral. That's why it's often called Rose's Corral, located on this property. And there's a large barn there, which I've seen when we had the dedication ceremony. And that is believed to be one of the original structures going back, if not to the 1850s, and certainly to the 1860s. Wow, impressive. So yeah, it's a very historic site. It was last used as a horse boarding facility and they were actually using the barn and you could kind of walk into it and all the rest of that stuff. So keep going another couple of miles and the next historic landmark that you come to is Bridgeport. Now there's an awful lot of history at Bridgeport. I guess you can start with the bridge, which is believed to be the longest single span covered bridge in the world. I understand there's some dispute about there's some bridges in Europe and here and there, but this is believed to be the longest one. Now the bridge was built in 1862 by a fellow named David Wood with lumber from his mill in Sierra County over in Plum Valley. But before, even before there was a bridge, there was Nye's Landing because this was where you got to cross the Yuba if you were going to go north to San Juan or Downeyville or any of those places. Now the Nye brothers built a landing I've learned means no bridge, but a ferry. Like a ferry. Exactly. And ferries in those days usually meant you took an old wagon and you turned it upside down and many of the ferries you'd stretch a rope or a cable of some kind across the river and you know, you pull yourself back and forth. So there was, before there was a bridge, there was Nye's Landing. All right, do we need to take a break here, Mikey? I think it's a good sign. All right, Nye's Landing. Nye's Landing. Okay. All right, let's do a news break. It's going to take a while. It's going to take a while. We're not going to get very far today. We'll get far enough. But there's always more. Bernie's wound up. That's all I know. So let's get the news break in. Weather forecast, we'll be right back. Good morning, I'm Paul Haas with a KNCO local news update. It was a beautiful day for a parade yesterday and one of the most unique events took place on the Mill Street Plaza in downtown Grass Valley. It was the 12th annual Dog Costume Parade. Event organizer Lauren Hayes says it was full of excitement. It was fantastic. We only had 30 registered for the costume contest, closed those early. But I would say there was like 200 to 300 dogs. The highlight of the parade was the Dolly Parton entry featuring Candice Livingood and her dogs. I found out about it last year and I was instantly inspired to do this every year for the rest of my life because it's so fun. Of course, I thought of doing Dolly Parton because, you know, Dolly just passed and she is an icon and amazing. So my mom, myself and my two giant dogs went as Dolly and the boobs won. And just what does it sound like when a few hundred dogs are together and a fire truck siren goes off? It was a good time on the Mill Street Plaza and a recent survey shows where drivers are falling short on taking proper precautions when another vehicle is pulled over to the side of the road or highway. The nationwide survey from AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety shows that 90 percent of motorists reported moving over or slowing down the last time they passed a disabled vehicle, tow truck or police car on the shoulder. But spokesman David Caltabiano says a previous foundation research found that only 64 percent of vehicles subject to slow down, move over laws were actually observed changing lanes or reducing speed. 30 percent did neither. Whether it's just a mom returning from the grocery store who was stranded on the side of the road or whether it's one of our roadside heroes in those big yellow tow trucks that you see that's trying to help somebody out, they should all be treated with the same respect by slowing down and moving over. And moving over, obviously, is really important because it gives those people a safe buffer where they feel they're okay to make sure that they can get home safely. Join us for our next local news update at the bottom of the hour for news, traffic and weather. Anytime, visit knco.com. I'm Paul Haas, KNCO News Talk 830. Why is my lawn still drinking like it's July? Good question. Even when it's still hot outside, it's a good time to check your water use. Check your irrigation timer, look for leaks and broken sprinkler heads and don't forget to check faucets and toilets for leaks around the house. A small leak may not seem like much, but over time, those drops add up. Take a few minutes to make sure you're using water wisely. Nevada Irrigation District, serving our community since 1921. Hi, this is Lisa Risdahl with Acres of Hope, where we offer a two-year residential renewal program for homeless women with children, where they have the opportunity to remove every barrier to future success, to learn to be strong, independent women, and most of all, they're learning to be loving and nurturing moms. Visit us at acresofhopeonline.org or give us a call, 530-878-8030. This from the KNCO-BNC ACE Home and Garden Center Weather Center. ACE is the place. Here is your forecast on KNCO News Talk 830. Sunny with today's high in the low 60s and a light southwesterly wind. It'll be clear and cooler overnight, tarlow near 40, then sunny on Tuesday with a high in the upper 50s near 60. Tuesday night, mostly clear, our low upper 30s, low 60s and sunny on Wednesday. For weather anytime, click on the Weather Center at knco.com. I'm meteorologist Dan Holliday on KNCO News Talk 830. And KNCO News Time, 935-55 degrees. Welcome back to History Unfolded, Mike Stewart in the house with me and Bernie Zimmerman our guest as we are traveling tonight's landing when we last left right by Bridgeport, old landing area, and of course we're heading up towards French Corral I would think and all that stuff, Bernie, right? But as I said, there's a lot of history at Bridgeport, more than just the bridge. There was quite a little town that grew up around the bridge, and there are remnants of that left. Remember, it's now a state historic park, which tells you a little bit about the historic value of Bridgeport. The Kneebone family was very prominent in that area. They have a family cemetery there. So there's really a lot to do at Bridgeport besides just walking through. You can't drive through the bridge anymore. So it's something, people who are interested in history, go to the Bridgeport Historic site. It's actually called the South Yuba Historic Park, I believe. And you can walk through the bridge, and if you go there in the spring, they have nice wildflower walks. Yeah, wildflower walks. Right. So then we keep going north, as you said, we're going to hit French Corral. French Corral, again, a lot to say about that, which we probably don't have time to. Originally, like many of the places on the bridge inhabited by the Nisenan, but it was then settled by French settlers. An awful lot of the towns on the ridge were settled by French. Why they claimed that area, I'm not exactly sure. There were a lot of French people who came here in the 50s, and in 1849, a Frenchman built a mule corral on the site, and then somebody else built a trading post next to it and so on, and before you knew it, you had a town. It was a mining town as well as an agricultural town, you know, usual hydraulic mining and so on and so forth, but one of the things that distinguished French Corral was the French especially planted a lot of grapevines and orchards and the like, and for a while, it was kind of the, well, Nevada County in the second half of the 19th century was sort of the Napa Valley, or the Napa County of California. Wow. It's a very large... How about that? ...wine-producing area. I've got some statistics here if I can call things up, but any event, it was, and a lot of it is due to the French influence, and many of those vineyards were kind of in the French Corral area. A couple of other interesting things about French Corral, there is a cemetery there, and actually we still accept some internments. There's also a very, there's a historic building that has a sign on it that says it's Wells Fargo. I know that. Yeah, that big brick building. But it isn't. Yeah. It isn't. That sign was put up there by the owner who was trying to gin up, he wanted to sell the building basically. He thought it would sell better as a Wells Fargo office, and I know it was on the market a couple of years ago for something like a quarter of a million dollars. I don't know whether it sold or not. Well, there was a Wells Fargo office in French Corral. Right, but it was just up the road, which is where we're heading next. Okay. Okay? So you go up the road, I don't know, maybe a hundred yards or something like that, and there was a Wells Fargo office, but what was important about that site, more than the Wells, there were lots of Wells Fargo offices, but this was the westernmost outpost of the world's first long-distance telephone line. Yes. So it ran, was put in by, well, the mining interests basically created something called the Ridge Telephone Company, and in 1878, they built, actually, yeah, they built the first long-distance line. It started up, and there's some dispute whether it started at French Lake or it started at Bowman Lake, whether it was 58 miles or 60 miles, it basically linked all the mining towns down the ridge, and the way I look at it, it was sort of, you know how these on-demand inventories are very popular now, manufacturing? Well, this was on-demand water. So the Milton Mining Company, the mining companies controlled the water, and when they needed water at a certain town, they would call up to the tender up at French Lake, which is where I think it probably was, release some water. Open the gates. Open the gates, and water would come in, and it would be delivered to whatever mining community then needed the water. So, and then you could use, they did have a system where they were allowed, the local folks could use it for communications, but I don't think you could actually, I think you had to kind of tell somebody what the message would be, and they would relay it. I don't think you could just sort of go on and say, I want to, you know, call Tom Fitzsimmons now. Yeah. But isn't that remarkable in that? It was. The first long-distance telephone calls. And 60 miles, there are other claims. There was actually a, about the same time, there was a telephone line that linked Dutch Flat with the towns up on the Lowell Hill Ridge, but it was much shorter. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And whichever one of them came first, I don't exactly know. The line is, there are parts of it that you can still see if you know where to go. Mike's friend, the Brownings, actually have one of the original phone poles on their property. Have you seen it? Yeah. At the Browning Ranch. Wow. Yeah. There's a picture of it in the book. And another interesting thing about it is that the first telephone instrument is in the Smithsonian Museum. Well, yeah, it's a nice, it's a nice piece of history. Out of that little area. That is amazing stuff. Yeah. So the, there is a plaque. There's no plaque for French Corral, but if you go, as I say, about a hundred yards past it on the left, there is a plaque that's, it's on a monument. It's in front of a private home. And the plaque says built in 1877. That's actually incorrect. It was 78 by the Ridge Telephone Company. It connected French Corral with French Lake, 58 miles away. And it was operated by the Milton Mining Company from this building, which was built around 1853. So the building is sort of, would have been behind it and a little bit to the right. That building was torn down in 1955. And then the plaque was placed on the sort of shoulder of the road in front of it. Okay. So that takes us care of French Corral and the Ridge Telephone Company. We keep going up the road, go a couple of more miles and you'll come to Birchville. And there's a really beautiful monument off to the, on the right-hand side of the road. Now, Birchville was a mining town that, whose heyday was probably in the 1960s, I'm sorry, 1850s. I think it was, it was founded, as I remember, in 1851. I'm having connectivity problems here, looking up my notes. It was founded in 1851 by a fellow named Johnson. And so it was originally called Johnson's Diggins. He was basically a miner. Okay. But then as the town started to grow, it changed its name to Birchville, which was the middle name of kind of its most prominent citizen, Luman Birch Adsit, who actually became, he kind of made his fortune there and then he moved on to the Bay Area and he was one of the founders of the San Francisco Stock Exchange. Wow. That's a lot of money. Now, the interesting thing about the monument is, for years it didn't have a plaque on it. And Chuck Shemaka, who I think is going to be here next, we drive by it and kind of wonder about this monument and did some research and found out that the native daughters of the Golden West had put a plaque on there. And the plaque was to the St. Colm Ciel's Church in Birchville. The plaque, I'll just read you the plaque. What happened was, to go forward, we got permission from the owners of the property to put the plaque back on the monument. So it looks like that. Yes. Okay. And I'll read you the plaque and then we can talk a little bit more about it. For many years, Birchville was a major center of hydraulic mining on the San Juan Ridge. David Johnson, a prospector, first arrived here in 1851 and the town became known as Johnson's Diggins. The town grew rapidly and in 1853 was renamed Birchville in honor of Luman Birch Adsit, a local store owner. Here's where it gets interesting. In 1865, the San Juan and Bridgeport Union Guard, under the command of Captain Francis Coffey, built its armory on the hill above this monument. In 1869, the armory building became St. Colm Ciel's Catholic Church and served as a place of worship until 1955. In 1949, the native daughters of the Golden West erected this monument to commemorate the church. In 1969, the church building was purchased by Big Penalia, locally known as Mr. San Juan. I think he ran the bar and saloon in San Juan. What's it called? The Brass Rail. The Brass Rail. I believe so. Yeah. He donated the building to the state of California and it was dismantled and moved to the Malakoff State Historic Park where it now sits. Oh, in that town of Humbug or whatever they call it? Yeah. Yeah. And what happened to the original plaque? So we wound up putting up a new plaque, in effect. All right. We're going to have to take our last break. Okay. All right. So we're up there, Birchville. Birchville. We're going to come back to Birchville in a minute. All right. Let's do it. Let's take our last break down the homestretch here at History Unfolded. We'll be right back. Hi, I'm Steve Nally, manager of the Les Schwab Tire Center here in Grass Valley. Before you head out for winter travel or a holiday visit, I'd like to invite you in for a free pre-chip safety inspection. 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Come visit us here in Grass Valley or give us a call today at 530-955-5402. Zion Capital, a mission bigger than money. Securities offered through LPL Financial, member FINRA SIPC, a registered investment advisor and separate entity from LPL Financial. All right. Down the home stretch here of history unfolded, Bernie Zinner in the house as we've made it up to Birchville. Not lost on me was an armory turning into a Catholic church. Let's talk about the armory for a minute because that's a fascinating story. It was a Union Guard armory. Do you know what the Union Guard was? I'm guessing it's post-Civil War stuff. I'm not really sure though. In the 1850s, California gets admitted in 1850 as a free state. The reality was that the political and judicial machinery in California was controlled by the Southerners who really kind of ignored the California Constitution. For all practical purposes, there was slavery in California in the 1850s. In fact, up here, I think we've talked about this before, the Kentucky Ridge Mine was run by a slave owner who had about 40 enslaved people that he brought with him from his plantations in the South to run the mine. What happened was as we get close to the Civil War, there are all kinds of efforts by the Southerners who are kind of controlling the state to try to turn it into a slave state. At one point, there was an effort to cut the state in half so that the South could in effect join the Union as a slave state and that didn't fly. Then there was an effort to in effect have a coup and California would succeed and become an independent country, which would then ally itself with the Confederacy, kind of like Britain was sort of allied with the Confederacy. The reason for all of that was to get the gold away from the North and use it because that was what would finance a lot of the war and would get it to finance the Confederacy. Now to do that, they started stockpiling weapons and all that. There was actually plans for a coup. I won't spend a lot of time on that. The Union clubs and the Union guards arose at that point to be a kind of a militia to fight off the Southerners who are going to try to take control of the state. Most towns had Union clubs or Union guards. I know there was a Union club in Nevada City. There's a Union guard up here. These are people training to fight the Southerners. It was not that they were going to go to fight in the war back East, though some of them did, but they were going to fight in California if there was an effort to take the state over. Something broke out. Yeah. So what happens here is you've got people from San Juan, people from Bridgeport. They want to build an armory. They can't decide where, so they split the baby and they put it in Birchville. The problem was, kind of like Englebright Lake, by the time they finished the armory, the war is over. Yeah. Yeah. So the Union guard disbands. What are they going to do with the building? Father Dalton, connected with Grass Valley, with the orphanage and the church and all that, steps in, buys the building, becomes a Catholic church, and it was actually served by sort of like circuit riding priest who would come in and have services once a month or whatever. One month they'd do it here and one month they would do it in North Columbia or wherever. But in any event, that's the story of the armory, which became a church, which is now sitting and unfortunately falling apart in the Malakoff in the park. So that's pretty much it for Birchville. There's not much you can see there. The school, the old school, Birchville, as I say, was quite a town in the 1860s, and the only building that I'm aware of that's still left is the old schoolhouse, which is now a private residence. Whoops. Well, I guess I lost it. But in any event- They've converted that house- Yeah. Yeah. It's now a private residence. Yeah. If you know where to look, you can still see some of the diggings and so on, but that's all that's really left. There was no cemetery. The cemetery, as I say, was up in French Corral. So we keep going on that road. Now, there are no more historical landmarks until you cross 49, but before you do that, you come to Sweetland. Sweetland. Yeah. It's a very interesting place, founded in 1850 by Henry Sweetland, a very prominent person in these parts, eventually elected to represent the county in the state assembly. His brothers joined him, Charles and James. Charles died early, but James was also elected to the assembly. It was an important mining center. The Manzanita Mine, run by the Milton Mining Company, is one of the major mines up that way. But it was also a transportation center. So get back to our road geography. You're coming up what's now Pleasant Valley Road. When you get to Sweetland, there's a big intersection. If you turn left, you go up to San Juan and Downeyville. Sure. Okay. And then you go back to Nevada City, and you can ford, again, there's a bridge across, it may have been a landing at one point, but there's a bridge across the Yuba at that spot. If you go straight, then you're going to North Columbia, North Bloomfield, Columbia Hill, Bloomfield, Graniteville, eventually across the Hennis Pass and into Nevada. So Sweetland becomes not only an important mining community, but an important transportation center because, you know, it's a four-way, it's kind of a four-way crossroad. There are a number of interesting stories connected to Sweetland. A very weird one involving a young girl named Clara who died from a chemical abortion administered by her uncle who had raped her. This was a big thing up there. And there was another very interesting thing called, I think the Burnett land claim. As the towns, you know, after, again, it was one of those towns that started to ghost after the Sawyer decision, some guy named Burnett came in and claimed the town because he said it was being abandoned. So he was going to keep it all up. There was some litigation and eventually the general land office decided no, the town was still there and he lost. But it was a big thing for a few years because nobody really knew what was going to happen to their homes. Not much left there now, except there is a historic cemetery, which you have to be very careful because it's guarded by two big dogs. I went up there once and they frankly scared me off. Yeah. I mean, so if people are looking for these markers, that's the thing, they have to be aware that a lot of this is private property at this point, right? Yeah. We try to put our landmarks in places where the public can access them. But you know, there are some things you just can't control because the dogs are just owned by, I mean, they're not supposed to be there. Yeah. You know, we've tried to tell people to control your dogs, but. Yeah. So much for that. Well, we've made it up to Sweetland. We did. All right. That's not too bad. Not too bad. A quarter mile, half a mile, you come to 49 Peterson's Corner and all that. And I think we've been there before. The only thing we haven't talked about, Millie, is Sebastopol. If you, again, if you. Well, you're going to have to wait until the next showdown, Bernie. That's what happened right here. We're out of time. That's fine. The music's playing. That's fine. Great job. And your wife's waiting patiently for you up front there. She's a sweetheart. Hopefully patiently. No, she is. She's been waiting. Bernie, great job today. Mike, as always, great job as well for History Unfolded. Look forward to the next show. It'll be a good one. All right. --- end of transcript ---