Grass Valley

Sunset, Dec, 1998 by Lora J. Finnegan

A CORNISH CHRISTMAS

Four nights a year, downtown Grass Valley closes off the main streets to celebrate a Cornish Christmas. Vendors line the nighttime streets, and shops stay open late. The savory smell of warm Cornish pasties (meat-filled pastries) mixes with the tang of hot cider. And the voices of a Cornish choir peal like bells in the cold night air.

Grass Valley lacks the dainty beauty of neighboring Nevada City. It does have a rich store of Victorian homes, but they're generally smaller and less elegant than ones to the north; its chain restaurants and fast-food outlets don't evoke nostalgia. The town more than makes up for its contemporary "shortcomings" in its rich heritage, however.

While the mine managers built their homes on Nevada City's hills, many blue-collar miners made Grass Valley home. Originally from Cornwall, where they had learned hard-rock mining while digging for tin, they were given the nickname "Cousin Jack."

The city's downtown core, along Mill and Main streets, has a homey charm, with a mixture of building periods and styles. At the stately brick Holbrooke Hotel, you can lay your head where luminaries like Mark Twain and President Ulysses S. Grant stayed. The Grass Valley Museum, a restored 1865 orphanage and convent, gives you a slice of early Gold Rush life. Worth a stop, the replica of Lola Montez's house, at Mill and Walsh streets, is the area visitor center. (For more on Lola, see Points West, page 42.)

At the nearby Empire Mine State Historic Park, once one of the richest gold mines in the West, you'll see the best displays in the region explaining hardrock mining (kids love going down into the mine shaft to check out the monstrous equipment). Docents in period dress take you through Bourn Cottage, the grand former home of the mine owners. As with the town itself, you'll find the Bourn all decked out for a turn-of-the-century Christmas.