Main Street, Sierra City: then and now

1934 vs 2019 · Northern Sierra, CA

NowThen

Then, 1934A survey photo looking along Main Street, with wooden storefronts and balconies. It is a street view, so it does not necessarily show the same buildings as today's photo.Photo: Roger Sturtevant (Historic American Buildings Survey) · Public domain · Source · resized

Today, 2019A wooden building with a white balcony and a restaurant sign, beside the highway. Not necessarily a building in the old photo.Photo: Kobnach · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source · resized

The story

Prospectors arrived in spring 1850, and a settlement was founded that year. In the winter of 1852 to 1853, an avalanche destroyed it. It was rebuilt several years later near the Sierra Buttes, and had about 3,000 people at its peak.

The Sierra City area produced more than $30 million in gold over the years. The town sits on Highway 49, about twelve miles northeast of Downieville. The 2020 census counted 235 people.

On Main Street are the Masonic Lodge No. 164 and the Old Sierra City Hotel, built in 1886. The three-story brick Busch & Heringlake Building, laid with local bricks in 1871 and used by Wells Fargo Express, burned in 1948.

Did you know? The Sierra Buttes above town rise to 7,818 feet.

Historians argue about this. The town's peak population (about 3,000) has no stated year in the sources. Wikipedia mentions a two-story brick Busch Building on Main Street, but a state marker describes a three-story Busch & Heringlake Building that burned in 1948, so this app leaves that building out of the stop. The 1934 photo is a general street view and may not show the buildings in today's photo.

Fact or tall tale?

SolidAn avalanche destroyed the first Sierra City in the winter of 1852 to 1853.
Wikipedia says an avalanche destroyed the settlement that winter, and it was not rebuilt for several years.
Not trueThe Old Sierra City Hotel was built during the 1850s gold rush.
Wikipedia gives its date as 1886.

Sources

More: Look for historic photos at the Library of Congress

Stamp it in person

Go there, answer the question that only someone standing at Main Street, Sierra City can answer, and add the stamp to your passport. Free, no sign-up.

Play Northern Sierra

More in Northern Sierra

Next: Kentucky Mine and Stamp Mill. Written from the cited sources, not yet walked on site unless noted.