Located on a tributary of Oregon Creek, the camp was first settled in 1852 and given the name Brownsville, which was changed to Elizaville, and then in 1854 Forest City. The post office was established in 1854 and the name of the town was abbreviated to Forest in 1895.
  Boy, could you imagine trying to ask for directions to this town!

  In 1854 the "Sierra Citizen" reported that all the companies in the district were doing quite well. Some miners earned $100.00 per week to the hand and some mining claims sold for 1 to 4 thousand dollars. That same year a lump of gold was found here weighing 42 ounces!

  The town prospered till the late 1860's, and by 1869 the chief claim, The Live Yankee was just about worked out. In the 1870's a ancient river channel was found on Bald Mountain and in 1872 the Bald Mountain Mine commenced operation. It was destined to become the greatest drift mine in the state for 15 years. The mine sported a coal burning locomotive to haul the ore, but since the engine was too heavy to descend into town, it would lower the ore cars into town down an incline using a cable to Main Street below.
  The town prospered and over 1000 individuals called Forest City home. With a new schoolhouse, newspaper, 4 hotels, 10 saloons, a brewery, dance hall, dairy, jail, firehouse, and a Wal-Mart. The town also sported the office of the Young America Mining Company that operated the mine of the same name just below the Sierra Buttes.
  Forest City was a shining star till a fire hit in 1883 which destroyed 82 buildings. The fire occurred at the same time the Bald Mountain Mine began to play out, thus marking the decline of Forest City.

  The Bald Mountain Mine yielded $3.1 million and the Live Yankee about $3/4 of a million. One of the early gravel mines of the district was the North Fork Mine which was also worked as a lode mine and produced around $125,000.

  Forest City is a cool site to explore and we found the locals very friendly and happy to talk about their town, unlike some Nevada ghost towns where we were followed and watched by toothless pot bellied guys.

  When we explored Forest City our time was cut short by a summer thunderstorm as we hiked thru the "Blair Witch" forest to one of cemeteries located just outside of the town. The downpour prevented us from exploring the cemeteries and mining sites, so I guess we will just have to come on back!

 We made it back to Forest City in order to find the long lost Pioneer Cemetery. This was the original cemetery of the town and dates back to the 1850's. The towns folk found that this cemetery was too hard to get to in the heavy snows of the winter so they built a new cemetery below the town. The original cemetery is located deep in the forest and is not shown on any maps. The old road to this cemetery is totally over grown and is very hard to find.