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then moved further up the road. Spenceville also had a
Methodist Church and a Templar Lodge, organized in 1865. A Sunday school had 42 pupils in 1864. The town had a popular baseball team, the White Stockings. A Spenceville election district was established in 1862. 50 people voted in the 1864 presidential election, 33 for Lincoln. The election district was discontinued as copper mining declined but reestablished in 1879. Spenceville was connected by stage to Wheatland, Smartsville and Grass Valley. In the early 1900s, there was considerable talk about a railroad being built to connect points in the Sacramento Valley with Grass Valley and Nevada City, running through Spenceville. It was promoted in part as expediting the shipment of copper ore from Spenceville, but the railroad never materialized.
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located above the mine, caved in. The mine continued to operate until 1887, falling victim to declining copper prices. In 1890, the
Imperial Paint and Copper Company acquired the property. It did not mine but worked the refuse from earlier mining to manufacture a brown paint which was touted as fire and water proof and "superior to any of the metallic paints imported from the East or from Europe." Unfortunately, it was soon discovered that during rain, the sulphur in the paint produced sulphuric acid which ate into the heads of the nails holding down wood shingles and siding. In 1897, the property was acquired by the Spence Mineral Company for the purpose of manufacturing sulphuric acid. A fire in 1915 ended that enterprise.
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The town site, renamed
Spenceburg, was used to simulate a German town. In 1964, the United States sold part of the land, and retained the part that became Beale Air Force Base. California acquired some of the land and created the Spenceville Wildlife Area. A lengthy and expensive effort to clean up the environmental contamination was completed by 2013. The Spenceville Wildlife Area has become a popular site for hiking and recreation. There are few traces left of the old town and mine.
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very profitable. Much of the ore was low grade and the early processes for extracting the copper from the ore were not very efficient. Generally ore had to be transported to a distant processing facility such as a smelter. There are even reports of copper ore being sent to Wales for processing. A fall in the price of copper following the Civil War caused a slump in the
Spenceville copper mines.
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while digging a well on
Purtyman's Ranch. The Well Lead (or Lode), later known as the Well Copper Mine, and its surrounding ranch, soon became the town of Spenceville, named for Edward Spence, a druggist and property owner in Nevada City with interests in the Well Copper Mine. Spence also donated the lumber for a new school house built in 1868.
314:< Spence, who held several political offices in Nevada County including County Treasurer, later moved to Southern California, entered banking, and was elected Mayor of Los Angeles in 1885. Comstock, David A, Lives of Nevada County Pioneers, available from Comstock Bonanza Press. Sacramento Union, October 31, 1915.
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With the collapse of copper mining following World War I, Spenceville began a rapid decline. The school district lapsed in 1920. The post office closed in 1932. During World War II, the United States acquired by eminent domain much of the area around
Spenceville and established a training facility.
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World War I saw an increase in demand for copper and a revival of some of the
Spenceville copper mines. Once the war ended in 1918, copper mining around Spenceville was largely shut down. Over $ 1 million of copper had been mined. The dark side of copper mining was that it created a lot of pollution
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Spenceville was never a major gold producing area, in part because the very rich auriferous channel that runs down the San Juan Ridge turns west a few miles north of
Spenceville, towards Smartsville and Timbuctoo. The early settlers were farmers and ranchers. In the early 1860s, copper ore was found
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One of the prominent
Spenceville families was the Kneebones. Joseph Kneebone, Sr. came from Cornwall, England in 1867, and purchased a ranch near Spenceville. He started a successful teaming business transporting merchandise from Wheatland to North San Juan and as far east as Virginia City. He and
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Apart from mining, ranching and farming were prominent. As one historian noted, “Citrus fruits and all kinds of deciduous fruits grow here to perfection.” Just west of
Spenceville, enterprising black farmers grew cabbages, which provided Vitamin C for miners to treat scurvy, giving rise to the town
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During the 1870s, the town had a post office, three general stores, a hotel and was home to about four hundred people. A school was established; it had 48 students in 1867. A new schoolhouse was built in 1868 on land where the Spenceville Copper Mine buildings were later built. The schoolhouse was
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Copper mining at Spenceville expanded with the discovery of the Last Chance Mine, so called because James Downey had just about given up mining when he found a promising spot and proclaimed "this is the last chance - if I don't strike it here I'll give it up". Still, copper mining initially was not
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The area was long occupied by Nisenan Indians, and evidence of their habitation, such as grinding rocks, can be found in the area. White settlers and prospectors begin to arrive in the 1840s. The Nisenan were removed from the area by a series on treaties beginning in 1850, which the Congress never
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In the mid-1870s, a number of the copper mines around Spenceville were consolidated into the San Francisco Copper Company. The Company substantially improved the roasting and leaching method for processing the copper and operated successfully for a number of years. In 1880, the engineering works,
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Another prominent family was the Bitners. Cyrus and Mary Bitner, and their two daughters, moved to Spenceville from Iowa in 1873. A Civil War veteran, Captain Bitner owned interests in a number of the copper mines around Spenceville as well as in gold mines throughout Nevada County. He served as
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his wife Mary had seven children. In a family cemetery overlooking the Kneebone Ranch are buried five family members, including Joseph Sr. and Jr.. murdered about 20 years apart.
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An in-depth discussion of copper ore processing at Spenceville is posted on the Western Mining History website. See Russell, Daniel E., The Spenceville Copper Mine, at
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and environmental contamination. Contemporary news articles report on the fumes from the copper smelter killing the greenery, including trees, in the area.
181:, on Spenceville Road just east of Waldo Road, about 17 miles from Grass Valley. Its elevation was about 400 feet. The former townsite is now part of the
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The name Spenceville appears in newspaper reports in early 1864. See e.g. Nevada Transcript, March 31, 1864; Marysville Daily Appeal, April 1, 1864.
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Lardner, W.B. and Brock, M.J. (1924) History of Placer and Nevada Counties California, pp. 976-8; Bal, Peggy, (1993) Pebbles in the Stream, p. 23.
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Bean, p. 355; Lampkin, Bedford, The Spenceville Copper Mines, Nevada County Historical Society Bulletin, Vol. 53, No.2 (April 1999) p. 1.
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Weeks, Clara A., Early Schools of Nevada County, Nevada County Historical Society Bulletin, Vol. 10, No.2 (April 1956) p. 2.
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Meals, H., The Spenceville Wildlife Area: Rolling Hills Under A Big Sky, posted Dec. 28, 2018, (hereafter Meals). Viewed at
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of Cabbage Patch, later Waldo. Sheep and cattle were pastured, wherever alfalfa and other grains were not grown.
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California State Mining Bureau (1902) Copper Resources of California, Bulletin # 23, p. 163.
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Thompson, Thomas H. and West, Albert A., ( 1970 ed.), History of Nevada County 1880, p. 91.
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Grass Valley Union, June 6, 1897;Sacramento daily Union, October 31, 1906; July 5, 1907.
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Bean, Edwin F. (1867) History and Directory of Nevada County (hereafter Bean), p. 355.
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http://yubatreadhead.blogspot.com/2018/12/the-spenceville-wildlife-area-rolling.html
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was a ranching, farming and mining community located in the southwestern part of
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Janicot, Michel, (1994), A History of Nevada County Post Offices, pp. 35-6.
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Sacramento Union, June 20, 1920.; Grass Valley Union, August 4, 1920.
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Gudde, Erwin G., (1998, 4th ed.) California Place Names, p. 372;
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1148:‡This CDP also has portions in an adjacent county or counties
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Poingdestre J. E., (1895) Nevada County Directory, p.125.
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https://westernmininghistory.com/library/5577/page1/
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489:Bal, Peggy, (1993) Pebbles in the Stream, p. 33.
1188:Former settlements in Nevada County, California
604:: 11,213-acre (45.38 km) Wildlife Preserve
602:Spenceville Wildlife Refuge & Shingle Falls
16:Former settlement in California, United States
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246:Spenceville's justice of the peace.
408:Sacramento Union, October 31, 1915.
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648:Municipalities and communities of
498:Grass Valley Union, July 29, 1879.
453:Nevada Transcript, April 10, 1867.
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612:Gold Rush Towns of Nevada County
480:Nevada Transcript, May 19, 1864.
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372:Placer Herald, August 21, 1880.
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507:Placer Herald, July 3, 1880.
399:Lampkin, supra fn. 2, p. 4.
390:Lampkin, supra fn. 2, p. 4.
363:Lampkin, supra fn. 2, p. 2.
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651:Nevada County, California
265:Spenceville Wildlife Area
237:The Kneebones and Bitners
183:Spenceville Wildlife Area
179:Nevada County, California
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89:39.11472°N 121.26833°W
61:Location in California
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345:viewed April 5, 2023.
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1166:United States portal
228:Ranching and farming
94:39.11472; -121.26833
588:Meals, supra fn. 1.
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807:Chicago Park
777:Soda Springs
741:Graniteville
691:Grass Valley
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1000:Hunt's Hill
980:French Lake
970:Coyoteville
960:Chalk Bluff
915:Badger Hill
902:Ghost towns
847:Mooney Flat
802:Cedar Ridge
794:communities
767:Penn Valley
731:Alta Sierra
696:Nevada City
673:Nevada City
666:County seat
194:ratified.
175:Spenceville
92: /
80:121°16′06″W
55:Spenceville
23:Spenceville
1182:Categories
1110:Union Hill
1080:Snow Point
1070:Sebastopol
950:Bridgeport
925:Birchville
837:Hirschdale
832:Hills Flat
782:Washington
271:References
119:California
77:39°06′53″N
1144:Footnotes
1105:Tsekankan
1100:Town Talk
1095:Sweetland
1085:Snow Tent
990:Gold Hill
985:Glenbrook
930:Blue Tent
842:Lake City
822:Gold Flat
736:Floriston
136:Time zone
975:Democrat
965:Cherokee
867:Peardale
746:Kingvale
259:See also
1125:Wokodot
1120:Waloupa
1055:Red Dog
1040:Newtown
1025:Maybert
1005:Iceland
892:You Bet
872:Polaris
701:Truckee
105:Country
1135:Yamako
1115:Ustoma
1075:Shands
877:Relief
852:Norden
817:Gaston
125:County
1045:Omega
910:Alpha
162:UTC-7
141:UTC-8
115:State
935:Boca
887:Wolf
723:CDPs
166:PDT
155:DST
1184::
669::
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748:‡
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