Nevada County Life

The Foothills Celebration in Downtown Grass Valley on March 7th is an excellent opportunity to come and visit the gold mining town of Grass Valley, California, and sample local wines and local chef specialities prepared by Grass Valley restaurants.  

Walk the streets of downtown and drop in on local stores selling local goods and crafts, with each of the participating stores also featuring locally prepared snacks and local wines.  We’ve attended this event for a number of years now and it has never disappointed.

Plan to look at some of the streets away from the downtown area and see examples of the historic homes that are frequently found in Grass Valley (consult the Heritage Homes booklet, available from the Bookseller on Mill St, for a list of local houses worth viewing.).  Also make some time to take in the gold mining history of the area, including the Empire Mine State Historic Park, and the Northstar Mine Powerhouse and Pelton Wheel Museum. 

The event itself runs from 1pm to 4pm on March 7th, 2009.  For ticket prices and information on how to get tickets, please contact the Grass Valley Downtown Association at 530-272-8315.

Why does this rural area of California have so many Victorian homes? Gold and gold mining. To give you an idea of how rich the area was, the Empire Mine in Grass Valley produced 5.8 million ounces of gold between 1850 and 1956, when it closed. It’s currently on record as the oldest, largest and richest gold mine in the state of California.

Nevada City and Grass Valley were boom towns during this period, and many fine houses were built. Although there were a number of fires in both towns, many Victorian houses survived them, and more importantly survived the redevelopment of the towns in the 20th century. Then the end of mining operations in the 1950s ushered in an economic downturn for the area, with some of the Victorian properties falling into disrepair at this time, but the economic revival that has taken place in Nevada County based on tourism and an influx of high technology companies has been accompanied with a new appreciation for these wonderful properties. Many have been renovated and restored, and in turn they provide visitors with one more thing to appreciate in our local area.

The best way to see the Victorians in Grass Valley and Nevada City is to walk through the neighborhoods surrounding the downtown areas.