Nevada City

Nevada City looks the way gold towns are supposed to look and almost never do: a compact grid of brick and clapboard storefronts with iron shutters and balconies, still lit at night by gas lamps, tucked into steep wooded ravines. The whole downtown is a historic district, and the buildings are in use rather than curated, which is why it works. The National Hotel has been operating since the 1850s, and the Nevada Theatre, built in 1865, is one of the oldest theatre buildings in the state.

The town also sits at the center of the Nisenan homeland, and their story here did not end with the rush. The Nevada City Rancheria was set aside for them, and then taken back: the federal government terminated the rancheria in the 1960s, and the Nisenan lost their standing as a recognized tribe. They never left, and the campaign to restore that recognition is ongoing, backed publicly by California State Parks and by neighbors in town. Ask at the museum rather than assuming the story is over.

From here the road climbs to the ruined hydraulic pit at Malakoff Diggins, and CA-49 runs south past Grass Valley into the rest of the Mother Lode. In winter this is snow country; storms close the ridge roads with little warning.