Another Day -cation adventure...Part One

On Monday, hubby, Robert and I decided to head the opposite direction on one of our day-cation adventures out. Keep it pretty close. We drove up the state, to Penn Valley area of Ca, in Nevada County, and just took a country drive , enjoying the scenery, seeing things we had not seen before that were not much more than a 30-40 minute drive away.

We had actually wanted to go to the Yuba River State Park and see the longest single span covered bridge and the museum that is also at the park where you can read about all the history, and it was supposed to be open daily, but alas with the time of year, this day it was closed. It was disappointing, but there are other days...next time we will do a bit more research..it happens. We got to see it, just not actually walk through it.

On the way back to our next destination, the city of Grass Valley, we drove through a small town called Rough and Ready. The sign actually said "The Tiny Republic of Rough and Ready". According to the travel guide we have it was one of the first settlements in Nevada County here in California. It sits about five miles from the city of Grass Valley, to the west. It was established in the year 1849. It grew to a thriving town of 3,000...though what remains today would do little to convince you of that fact....though the web page says there is still 2000 people who reside there. *** CLICK HERE FOR THE WEB PAGE***  The guide book says that was to be a tax on all mining claims and in 1850 the miners met and succeeded from the Union and became a republic, that was in April of that year, by July when the Fourth of July hit, they flew the American Flag and that was that.

There are some historic buildings there still, and a lot of reproduction buildings too...these are a few shots I got while driving through the town....I think there must have been a side street that we missed , because there seems to be some things shown on the web site that we just did not see....guess that means another trip out there, next time we are in that area...this was after all just a unexpected drive by. 

And before leaving town we of course had to stop at the cemetery! 

  I simply can not resist a historic cemetery....Here is what I found out about this one...

Historic Rough and Ready Cemetery

Located a few hundred yards up Stagecoach Way, above the Old Toll House, the Rough and Ready Cemetery has many weather worn headstones dating back to the Gold Rush era.

The oldest one marks the grave of a 23-month-old infant girl, Susan Isabel Buffington, who died in 1855.  As shown on the headstone, her parents were A.C. and Amanda Buffington, two of the town’s earliest settlers.* I was going to take a photo of this one and you can see it on the web page...but it was just so sad....could not bring myself to do it.

 

So that was our little drive through Rough and Ready. Tomorrow I will share a pictorial of the historic Grass Valley, Ca. A very active town full of wonderful places to eat, sample wines from vintners of the area, and poke into wonderful shops with everything from gifts to furniture and everything in between!