Historical Marker · No. 799
Overland Emigrant Trail
Grass Valley, Nevada County · California
Erected by State Department of Parks and Recreation, and Nevada County Historical Landmarks Commission, 1976
This is the arrival end, and the plaque is written from the emigrants' relief — creaking wheels, footsore travellers, the long trip almost over. Some thirty thousand came through in 1849 alone. What they were arriving into was Nisenan country, the Bear and Yuba watersheds worked and burned and fished by people who had lived there for thousands of years and who are not mentioned. The trail was the last easy part of the journey for one party to it.
What the plaque says
At this point the Old Overland Emigrant Trail approaches the present highway. More than 100 years ago the trail resounded to the creaking wheels of pioneer wagons and the cry of hardy but footsore travelers buoyed by the realization their long trip to the goldfields was about over.
Where it stands
39.06188, -121.08855 · Directions
Worth the stop nearby
- Empire Mine State Historic Park — 9.9 miThe oldest, deepest, richest hard-rock gold mine in California, with 367 miles of flooded tunnels underneath.
- Nevada City — 14 miGaslamps, brick storefronts, and the Nisenan who are still fighting to be recognized on their own ground.
- Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park — 21 miThe tailrace at Coloma where a carpenter found gold in January 1848 and the world came running.
- Malakoff Diggins State Historic Park — 24 miA canyon washed out of a mountain by water cannon, and the lawsuit that ended hydraulic mining.