Forest, also known as Forest City, is a small

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

town site in Sierra County,

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, United States, in the

Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada ( ) is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primari ...

. The town site of Forest is located at in elevation.

History

Gold was discovered here in 1852. The name of Brownsville was adopted as the name of the camp, after one of the sailors who had found the gold. By the next year, the population of Forest had swelled to over a thousand during the

California Gold Rush The California gold rush (1848–1855) began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California from the rest of the U ...

. A vote was held in 1854 and the town's name was changed to "Forest City". The Bald Mountain

drift mine Drift mining is either the mining of an ore deposit by Underground mining (hard rock), underground methods, or the working of coal seams accessed by adits driven into the surface outcrop of the coal bed. A drift mine is an underground mine in whic ...

was founded in August 1864, and was the largest of its kind in the state at the time. Large fires in 1865 and 1883 devastated the town, after which little was rebuilt. Today, Forest is primarily a historic

ghost town A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economi ...

, though there are a few year-round residents. Old buildings still line its Main Street, including a former

general store A general merchant store (also known as general merchandise store, general dealer, village shop, or country store) is a rural or small-town store that carries a general line of merchandise. It carries a broad selection of merchandise, someti ...

, saloon and dance hall. A one–room schoolhouse, two cemeteries, and a few scattered residences can be found in the hills around the town. The National Socialist Kindred had its beginnings in Forest before moving to a nearby property on Alleghany Ridge Road between Camptonville and North San Juan. The town was also home to several associates of the National Alliance up until the late 1990s.

Notable residents

* Rich Brooks, former

Oregon Ducks Football The Oregon Ducks football program is a college football team for the University of Oregon, located in the U.S. state of Oregon. The team competes at the NCAA Division I level in the Football Bowl Subdivision, FBS and is a member of the Big Ten Co ...

and

Kentucky Wildcats football The Kentucky Wildcats football program represents the University of Kentucky in the sport of American football. The Kentucky Wildcats, Wildcats compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) ...

head coach * Jeanette Lawrence, writer and lecturer; born and raised in Forest * Stephen McNallen, white nationalist activist and founder of the Asatru Folk Assembly; former resident

References

External links

Ghost town explorers.org: photos of Forest, California
Unincorporated communities in Sierra County, California Ghost towns in California History of Sierra County, California Unincorporated communities in California {{SierraCountyCA-geo-stub

History

Notable residents

See also

References

External links