Forest City

Forest City is a former gold mining town in the Sierra County portion of the Tahoe National Forest, laid out in a steep, pine-covered canyon where two branches of Oregon Creek run through the settlement. The district includes houses, a saloon and dance hall, a general store, a meat market, garages and other buildings, most in a Folk Greek Revival style with gable-front forms, balloon framing, rock pier foundations and metal roofing laid over original shingles. The town grew after the 1860s, boomed when the Bald Mountain and Kate Hardy mines struck rich deposits in the 1870s, and by the 1880s supported hotels, shops, lodges, a theater and a newspaper. Fires in 1865, 1883 and 1894 destroyed large parts of it, yet residents rebuilt each time. Its association with settlement, commerce and mining industry, and its largely intact historic buildings, form the basis for its listing.