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The Maidu Indians were the first to reside in what is now known as Penn Valley. They migrated from the Sacramento Valley in 1833. Four camps settled in the area at sites now called Bridgeport, Lake Wildwood, Mooney Flat and Indian Springs.
In 1848, discovery of gold in California brought the first white settlers to Penn Valley which is believed to be the earliest settlement in Nevada County. They traded bows, arrows and rifles to the Indians in exchange for animal skins.
Many feel that Penn Valley is named for a Madame Penn who had a 320 acre homestead at the intersection of Squirrel and Grub Creeks. A gold miner turned rancher named James Ennor purchased the
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property from her in October of 1852. Eventually, the 320 acres grew to 700 and became a good part of what is now Penn Valley. Early settlement of the area occurred in part due to its location on a freight wagon route established between mining regions to the east and Sacramento. Penn Valley was an important stop with livery and blacksmithing services available.
Growth of the area also came about when discouraged miners gave up their gold pans for plows and the valley became an agricultural community. Known as the “Pantry of the Northern Mines,” the area had some of the finest land in the state and supplied fresh fruit, vegetables and meat to freight wagons heading to mines as far away as Nevada.
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There is a lot of history in Penn Valley, California! Below, you will find links to pages detailing our rich and varied past. Sit back and enjoy the tour!
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Life was good in Penn Valley in those days, says Susan. “I remember the gas station and market – the wood floors would creak. Where the shopping center is were trees – that’s where people would park when they had the rodeo. “Everyone would come to the rodeo. That was a big thing.” “I was there for the first rodeo,” says Susan’s mom, Kathy Robinson. Susan was, too – she was a year old. “You sat on bales of hay. It was Father’s Day, and it snowed,” says Kathy.
For more information on Pegars Y,
please click here.
Includes photos and documents
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In the summer of 1848 Jonas Spect went prospecting up Deer Creek from his diggings at Timbuctoo, where on June 1 he had discovered gold. He later wrote, “I came to the finest kind of valley, which I think they afterwards called Pen Valley, but nothing occurred which would be of interest”. Of course, Mr Spect’s interest was gold. Many who came after found a different kind of value in the land. The present site of Penn Valley’s commercial center developed long after Indian Springs and Pleasant Valley (around the Anthony House) had post offices, schools and businesses.
For more information on Penn Valley,
please click here.
Includes photos and document
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At the drop of a hat, Alice Magonigle can recite Penn Valley history – first person. After all, she has lived through 86 years of it. Sitting in the living room of her 100-year-old home, originally built by homesteaders the memories flow as sweet and free as gurgling creek. We’ve always had cattle,” Alice said. In addition to the 160 acres she still owns, Alice and her husband Henry at one time owned over 300 acres near where Williams Ranch School now stands They owned an additional 1700 acres in the vicinity. “It took a lot of land for 200 head of cattle,” she said.
To read the rest of this document, please click here.
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The Bridgeport Covered Bridge on the South fork of the Yuba River is one of the longest single-span wooden bridges in America measuring in at over 230 feet. The bridge here was originally constructed in 1862 and was part of the Virginia Turnpike Company Toll Road that served the northern mines and traffic to and from Virginia City and the Comstock Lode in Nevada.
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Click here to learn more about Bridgeport
(Includes vintage and modern photos, events, newspaper articles and more!)
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The Kneebone Family which figures so prominently in the history of Bridgeport, had its beginning in two widely separated events the first was the birth of Andrew Reed Kneebone to Joseph and Mary Kneebone in Cornwall, England in 1860; the second event was the birth of a baby daughter, Victoria Marie to early settlers, Mary and Charles Cole, in 1862 at Bridgeport.
Click here to learn more about the Kneebone Family
(Includes vintage and modern photos, events, and more!)
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The Rough and Ready school was established in March of 1868 and served five generations of Rough and Ready children. The school was closed in 1953, after being consolidated with another one room school. The new school, Ready Springs Elementary, located in nearby Penn Valley, serves approximately 350 children.
Click here to learn more about the area’s historic schools
(Includes photos, articles and more!)
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The old gold town of Rough and Ready, between Grass Valley and Penn Valley, Calif., has two reasons for its fabulous fame.
For the first reason you have to go back in time to April 1850. This feisty little town of 3,000 gold miners, honky-tonk women, and gunslingers decided to secede from the United States of America.
Click here to learn more about Rough and Ready
(Includes photos, events, newspaper articles and more!)
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In addition to being known for its rich gold mines, French Corral is famous for being the terminus of the world’s first long-distance telephone line. The sixty-mile long line was built by the Edison Company in 1878 at a cost of $6,000. It stretched up the Ridge from French Corral through Birchville, Sweetland, North San Juan, Cherokee, North Columbia, Lake City, North Bloomfield, Moore’s Flat, Graniteville, Milton, and Bowman Lake.
Click here to learn more about French Corral
(Includes photos, events, and more!)
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