b'FOCUSING ONOld NewB U S I N E S S E SBy Heather MacdonaldN evada Countyearly Gold Rush hotels business burstis still operating today onto the scenein Nevada City: The with gold- National Exchange Hotel. hungry minersThe National, as it is panning its streams ascalled by locals, is the early as 1849. At firstoldest hotel in continual peddlers selling fromoperation since the 1850s wagons brought basicwest of the Mississippi. goods, then a log cabinFrequented over the store was opened by years by the famous, Dr. A. B. Caldwell and the future Nevada City was named Caldwellsyou can sit in the same saloon where Mark Twain spun yarns for the Upper Store. A pound of gold nuggets a day were panned at Deerconsumption of his fellow drinkers. Presidents slept here as well as the Creek as hundreds of men descended upon its banks. infamous such as robber Black Bart.As the population grew, so did business. One of the newly arrivedOver in Grass Valley you can dine and sleep at another 1850s Gold entrepreneurs jumped off her wagon into a foot of mud near DeerRush-era hotel still in operation: The Holbrooke. Famed writer during Creek. Luzena Wilson and husband were flooded out in Sacramento.the Gold Rush Bret Harte slept here and possibly penned some of his They decided their fortune would be made up in the foothills at thisshort stories about miners at this hotel.rough mining town.Wilsons husband hiked up the hill in search of a big board for aThe restaurant business became the backbone of these historic table. When he returned he was flabbergasted to find a line of mendowntowns, and so it is today. As restaurants come and go, owners at his wagon. Many with eggs in hand. They were hungry for a mealare encouraged to keep that Gold Rush days feeling in their made by a woman. Wilson had bacon grease and flour and wasestablishments. Visitors enjoy strolling by the preserved Victorian-already busily making biscuits, pies and frying eggs. Her husband setera buildings and into a restaurant with its own personality and not up the table and the first restaurant was born. Soon they would openfrom a restaurant chain. No McDonalds in the historic downtowns! the first hotel in the newly named Nevada. They christened theirIn both Nevada City and Grass Valley you can find just about any fare hotel The El Dorado. And thus the first restaurant served from ayou desire from Asian cuisine, to Italian, Mexican, Greek, pizza, steak wagon turned into dozens in Nevada County. houses and a variety of coffee shops, wine tasting rooms, brew houses and bakeries. In breakfast diners, such as The Nevada City Classic or Unfortunately Wilsons hotel burned within the year, but morePine Street Cafe, you can still find the menu that Wilson served at that hotels, saloons and restaurants were now going up. One from thosefirst board table: Biscuits, pies and eggs!Tripps GOLD COUNTRYALL MAKES & MODELS COMPOUNDINGFOREIGN & DOMESTIC Customized medicationsAUTO BODY FREE ESTIMATES for individual needs(530)368-2103Serving Our Community For Over 71 Years (530)273-8515 JANELL JONES, PHARMD, PHARMACIST GoldCountryCompounding.com600 FREEMAN LANE, GRASS VALLEY trippsautobody.com Serving our community since 2019 11990 HERITAGE OAK PLSUITE 2CAUBURN 956032025Nevada County Business Focus 5'