You Bet, California

You Bet
Unincorporated community
You Bet

Location within the state of California

Coordinates: 39°12′33″N 120°54′00″W / 39.20917°N 120.90000°WCoordinates: 39°12′33″N 120°54′00″W / 39.20917°N 120.90000°W
Country  United States
State  California
County Nevada
Elevation[1] 2,910 ft (887 m)
Time zone Pacific (PST) (UTC-8)
 • Summer (DST) PDT (UTC-7)
GNIS feature ID 1656416[1]

You Bet is a small unincorporated community in Nevada County, California, United States.[1] You Bet is located 5.5 miles (8.9 km) northeast of Chicago Park, and about 7 miles east of Grass Valley.[2]

The town was established during the Gold Rush days, principally by miners from the town of Waloupa, located just to the south. Waloupa had been founded in 1852. As its diggings played out, miners began moving about a half a mile to the north, to the other side of Birdseye Canyon. [3] Lazarus Beard opened a saloon there in 1857. According to local lore, the Waloupa miners gathered one day in Beard’s saloon to name the new town. His favorite phrase was "you bet". Whenever Beard was asked about a proposed name, he would reply “you bet.” After much drinking, the miners decided that You Bet sounded just right. [4]

By 1864, the town had 40-50 buildings, including hotels, stores, shops and saloons. [5] A post office was established in 1868 and served the community until 1903.[6]On April 24, 1869, the town was completely destroyed by fire. It was rebuilt, in part with buildings moved there from Red Dog, a mining town about 1 mile to the north whose diggings were playing out. However, on September 7, 1873, fire again destroyed much of You Bet. [7]By the turn of the 19th century, much of the town had moved north about one half mile to be closer to the diggings.[8]

Mining drove You Bet's economy for over 80 years. Hydraulic mining (dislodging gold bearing ore from hillsides with water under high pressure) was prominent in the early days. [9]Water was brought in by ditches and flumes, and the diggings were one of the largest in the state. The Sawyer decision in 1884 banned most hydraulic mining.[10] It continued legally in areas where the mines could contain their refuse, or tailings. Local lore has it that it also continued illegally, aided by a telephone line from Greenhorn Creek which was used to warn miners that federal inspectors were coming so that they could turn off the water.[11] Other miners turned to drift mining, tunnelling into rock and using explosives to dislodge the ore.[12]

By 1918, an estimated $3 million in gold (about $175 million at 2015 prices) had been mined.[13] Few people remained in the area, many having moved to work in the hard rock mines in neighboring Grass Valley.[14] The town experienced a revival between the wars, and commercial mining continued until World War II. [15]Since then, there have been periodic efforts to revive commercial mining when the price of gold soars. Occasional prospecting has never stopped, especially in the spring when prospectors look for gold washed down by runoff from the Sierra.

Today, You Bet is a community of about 50 residences located within a radius of a few miles from the old mining town. It has a community church, but no commercial establishments. It was declared a historical landmark in 1975. [16] All that remains of the Gold Rush era are the scarred diggings, some of the ditches, and the historic cemetery, which contains gravestones dating back to the 1860s. Interments were resumed in the 1990s. The last remaining historic building, the old schoolhouse, was reportedly dismantled in the 1960s by squatters looking for lumber.


References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "You Bet, California". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey.
  2. ↑ Durham, David L. (1998). California's Geographic Names: A Gazetteer of Historic and Modern Names of the State. Clovis, Calif.: Word Dancer Press. p. 579. ISBN 1-884995-14-4.
  3. ↑ Thompson & West, History of Nevada County - 1880, (1970 ed.) p. 71
  4. ↑ Ibid
  5. ↑ Ibid.
  6. ↑ Salley, Harold E. (1991) History of California Post Offices, 1849-1990, p. 237. The Depot, ISBN 0-943645-27-1
  7. ↑ Thompson & West, Id, p. 71.
  8. ↑ Brady, Jerry, You Bet, California Gold Fever (2002 ed.), e.g., p. 63.
  9. ↑ Brady, Id, passim.
  10. ↑ The Sawyer decision is reported as Woodruff v. North Bloomfield Gravel Mining Co., 18 F. 753 (CCD Cal. 1884)
  11. ↑ Brady, id, p. 66
  12. ↑ Brooks, Clark, Red Dog-You Bet, Mountain Messenger, Jan. 23, 1980.
  13. ↑ MacBoyle, Errol, Mines and Mineral Resources of Nevada County, (1918) p.64; Gudde, Erwin G., California Gold Camps, (1975) p. 380
  14. ↑ Brady, Id, p.149; Harrar, Paul, Red Dog and You Bet, Grass Valley Union, Nov. 30, 1992, p. 16.
  15. ↑ Brady, Id, pp. 161-286; McKinney, Gage, The 1930s: No Depression Here, (2009), pp.361-62.
  16. ↑ Comstock, David A., Exploring Nevada County, (2010), pp.61-62.