History of gold mining through the thirty's. History dates back to 1864. Submitted by: Ace C. Young

Forest, aka Forest City, 14 miles south of Downieville via Goodyear's Bar, was one of the livliest camps in Sierra County. According to Fariss & Smith, the 1st whites to come to the site, were a company of sailors who found gold there in the summer of 1852. They named their camp "Brownsville", after one in their party. Hittell, however, cites a Michael Savage, who came there in 1853, as the probable discoverer. When the place began to look like a town, with the 1st store or trading post built, it was sometimes called by its Indian name "Yomana", said to designate the high bluff just above the town. This was also an Indian sacred hill, or holy ground. Forest was also called "Forks of Oregon Creek". Hittell concludes that the present name of Forest was derived not from the magnificent forest of conifers surrounding it, as is generally supposed, "but from a Mrs. Forest Mooney, the wife of Captain Mooney". This woman had a knack for writing newspaper articles, and invariably signed her journalistic contributions "Forest City". Having worked out the streams, bars, and banks around Forest City, the miners began to tunnel into the mountains to the south. The name of one of these tunnels, the Alleghany, was given to a flourishing camp on the opposite side of the mountain, where paydirt was struck in 1855. The town of Alleghany increased in importance so rapidly, that the entire population of Forest flocked to the new camp, leaving the old place an empty shell. When a rich strike was made in the Bald Mountain district in 1870, Forest City awoke from its Rip Van Winkle sleep only to relapse after a few years, into the quiet hamlet of today. A few empty stores still stand along the main street, and a little Catholic Church crowns the hill above. Some steep-roofed houses on either side of the canyon give the little town sort of an "Alpine" flavor. Submitted by Bob Stelow.

Forest
Courtesy Dolores Steele