Smartsville

Just five months after the strike that started the Gold Rush, Jonas Spect discovered gold on the Yuba River on June 2, 1848. Small placer operations occured at Parks Bar, before moving upstream to Rose (or Rose's) Bar - named for John Rose. After a few winters where the river's level rose, it was decided to relocate to higher ground. Timbuctoo became the new business center. When hydraulic mining came to the area, another community called Sucker Flat was established above Rose Bar as a company town.

In 1856, James Smart built a hotel on the ridge south of Sucker Flat. A new town, called Smartsville, formed and soon had a school, post office, Masonic hall, and two churches. Of note is the Church of the Immaculate Conception - built in 1871 following a fire that destroyed the earlier building. Smartsville continued to thrive until the end of hydraulic mining in the 1880s.

Today Smartsville maintains a small population. In 1909, the United States Post Office Department changed the name of the town to Smartville, but in 2008 the 's' was formally returned.

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