Historic traces mark southwestern Nevada County

The foothills' reputation as a great place to live, work and play draws thousands of new residents to the territory each year. They are following a trend that began more than 160 years ago, with traces of that migration still evident in southern Nevada County. With the route of the Overland Emigrant Trail meandering through its rolling hills, southwest Nevada County was the last leg of a path that pioneers took to new homes in what would become the state of California. The Emigrant Trail sliced through the Garden Bar area on its way to trail's end at Johnson Ranch near Wheatland. But finding rich soil, a temperate climate and sufficient watershed, many settlers peeled off from the wagon trains, homesteading farms along the way. Back then, the trail crossed the Bear River to reach outposts on the sole of the foothills. Eventually, a dam trapped the Bear, forming the Camp Far West reservoir. Now the pavement bridging the two ends of Garden Bar Road lies beneath the lake. Although the landscape now is stitched with pavement and laced with contemporary dwellings, a bit of frontier spirit seems to live on in the old Wolf, Pleasant Ridge and Lime Kiln districts. Before developers transformed three sprawling ranches into the massive Lake of the Pines (LOP) subdivision in the 1960s, the southwest corner of the county was littered with small family farms and large cattle and dairy ranches. The rutted wagon trails linking the Gold Rush communities of Auburn, Grass Valley and Marysville met at a crossroads dubbed Higgins Corner, the name of the earliest landowners to settle there. In 1919, the string of roads connecting former gold mining settlements on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada were officially designated the Golden Chain Highway. Anchored in the south by Oakhurst, the chain pulled through the towns of Mariposa, Sonora, Jackson, Placerville, Auburn, Grass Valley and Nevada City, passing by Higgins Corner. It continued up into the high country, running through Downieville and Loyalton, and terminating at Vinton to the northeast. The state highway was numbered 49 in honor of the thousands of prospectors from around the world who came to mine California's golden hills and rivers in 1849. Despite the new highway, the precinct remained rural, with agriculture as its economic base. In the 1960s, construction began on the Lake of the Pines development, which added a country club community to the pastoral environs. With about 2,000 home sites clustered around a man-made lake, 18-hole golf course, boat launches, beaches, parks and sports courts, the subdivision helped the local population blossom quickly. Commercial enterprises, schools and shops sprouted on the outskirts of the gated neighborhood. Across Highway 49 to the west, development continued at a slower pace, with a few businesses popping up along the edge of the intersection of Combie and Wolf roads. But just a few curves away, the winding roads trailed off to working ranches, with livestock, creeks and open spaces fashioning a pastoral patchwork in the countryside. During the Gold Rush era, the area was known as the Wolf District, with some prospecting done along Wolf Creek. A few miles to the north was the Lime Kiln District, the site of a limestone quarry. The Pleasant Ridge precinct lay between them. The mix of miners, farmers and ranchers grew large enough to warrant a learning center. In 1868, local land owners founded the Lime Kiln School on donated property to serve the growing population of children. When the well ran dry, the building was moved to its current site on Duggan's Road. The old schoolhouse now serves as a private residence, with modern schools taking its place. But working cattle and horse ranches still survive here. The rounded mountains also hold pastures full of shaggy sheep and curious goats. Sitting in unincoporated reaches of the county, the tracts of land also support a bucolic bedroom community and home-based business people who savor a taste of country life. While the signs of progress gleam along the Golden Chain, the land west of the highway still shines with history.