With a blend of old ranches, modern subdivisions and fresh commercial venues, southern Nevada County is a place where pastoral pleasures and progress meet.
About seven miles north of Auburn, the Bear River forms the watery boundary of Placer and Nevada counties. But after the Gold Rush of 1849, hundreds of little mining camps littered both territories. Merchants, tradesmen, entrepreneurs, outlaws and opportunists followed behind the many men — and few women — taming the Western frontier.
The minor settlements swelled and ebbed as the transient prospectors roamed in search of richer digs. Major communities developed around the crossroads, stagecoach stops and, eventually, train stations that routed newcomers, tourists, mail and goods into the foothills.
Auburn grew into Placer’s biggest city, while Grass Valley and Nevada City vied for that title in Nevada County. Today, Highway 49 links these old communities, with unincorporated land strung out between them.
Just as development rippled from Auburn northward, in Nevada County, growth undulated across the rolling hills. In Nevada County’s southern sector, settlements blossomed into villages, such as the Wolf, Magnolia, Lime Kiln and Pleasant Ridge districts.
Some prospectors panned for gold along Wolf Creek and the Bear River, west of modern-day Highway 49. Once the gold played out, the majority of them moved on.
But many miners traded in pick axes for plows, turning to agriculture and animal husbandry for their survival. Small-scale farming, operating dairies and cattle ranching became the economic base of the area and remained so well into the 20th century.
Michael J. Higgins was one of the first to set roots in south Nevada County. A native New Yorker, he arrived in California in 1852, first mining in the Placerville area of El Dorado County. He ultimately moved north, homesteading 160 acres off Wolf Road. In addition to the farmhouse and livestock pens, Higgins’ spread included a blacksmith shop. The land around his farm took on the
moniker of Higgins Corner.
Instead of lone prospectors, the territory was filling in with family units. In 1868, the first of seven schools were constructed in south Nevada County to educate the settlers’ children.
The single-room Lime Kiln School was one of the first erected, standing on the Lime Kiln Ranch property. After being razed in a blaze in 1908, the structure was rebuilt the following year and eventually relocated to a parcel on Duggan Road. Today, the elderly edifice serves as a private home.
In 1874, a Swiss immigrant named Henry Pilliard homesteaded 160 acres on Combie Road to the east. After clearing the wooded plot, he planted vines and orchards. He expanded his holdings over time until the ranch comprised more than 1,200 acres.
In 1885, the south county got its first post office near the nexus of Wolf and Garden Bar roads. As happened in the early days, the entire precinct took on the name of the Wolf postal station. For decades, the post office was the hub of the outlying villages.
Big changes came to south Nevada County in 1947, when the sleeker, more direct path of Highway 49 supplanted the meandering Auburn-Grass Valley Road. Another major alteration to the landscape arrived in the 1960s when the resort-like Lake of the Pines (LOP) subdivision popularized a new style of living.
Much of the old Pilliard Ranch now is home to the Lake of the Pines development, which is built around an 18-hole golf course and 230-acre reservoir. The subdivision holds a wide assortment of homes in a variety of settings, with neighborhood parks, docks, sports courts and beaches scattered throughout.
Outside the guarded LOP security gate, clusters of retail space, commercial venues, churches, eateries and offices fan out along Combie Road. Anchored by Long’s Drugs, the newest strip edges Highway 49 on the east side of Higgins Corner.
South Nevada County also holds the DarkHorse subdivision, with home sites looking out to the lush fairways of its 18-hole golf course. Older residential tracts in the area border Combie Lake, which is formed by the dammed waters of the Bear River.
With working ranches, vacation villas, convenience stores and travelers’ stops, Nevada County’s south country is alternately peacefully pastoral and busily booming. That gives its residents and visitors plenty of options.
