Our History in Goodyears
Our family has been visiting Goodyears Bar since the early 1940’s. In 1942, Vernon and Jesse Taylor bought an old miners cabin to enjoy with their daughters, Nancy and Phyllis. The town had been been established about 100 years earlier by a pair of gold-seeking brothers.
Here’s a brief rundown of Goodyears Bar history, excerpted from www.malakoff.com:
The brothers Miles and Andrew Goodyear, along with a Dr. Vaughan and a Mr. Morrison, prospected here in the summer of 1849 and found gold enough for their liking to settle down at this crossing of the Yuba River. The Goodyear boys built a sturdy cabin and before long the rich deposits attracted a number of miners to their camp, which was given the name Goodyears Bar in honor of its founders.
Goodyears Creek was incredibly rich along its entire length, having been literally fed gold for thousands of years as it chewed through gold-bearing ledges and the beds of ancient rivers and streams. At one spot near the upper end of the bar, a group of men cleaned up $2,000 in gold from a single wheelbarrow of dirt.
By 1852, Goodyears Bar had all the trappings of civilization; express office, saloons, stores, hotels, bakeries, restaurants, churches, and many cabins and dwellings. The post office was established on Oct. 7, 1851. More than 600 men voted in a 1852 election. Mining was being carried on extensively, mostly with flumes erected to divert the waters of the Yuba so the rich bed could be worked thoroughly.
The town’s first school was a private one begun in 1856 with a Mrs. Massey as the first teacher. The money needed for the erection of the schoolhouse and for the teacher’s salary came from donations made by the townsfolk. If additional monies were needed for books or furnishings, a fund raiser would be held, generally raising the amount needed.
Nothing much from the mining days remains in Goodyears Bar, but the beautiful setting of this historic gold camp more than makes up for any lack of Gold Rush remains. Situated at an elevation of 2,700 feet, the town rests on a small flat on the south side of the Yuba River, almost upon the abandoned diggings themselves. Towering mountains surround the old river camp—Saddle Back, Monte Cristo, Fur Cap, Grizzly Peak, and others—cloaked with a thick green mantle of pines, oaks, maple and dogwood, except for spots where the granite rock of the Sierra remains uncovered.
