Spenceville Wildlife Area

Waldo Junction (formerly Waldo and Cabbage Patch) is an unincorporated community in Yuba County, California. It is located on Dry Creek 9.5 miles (15.3 km) northeast of Wheatland, at an elevation of 256 feet (78 m). A post office operated here from 1898 to 1915. Originally called Cabbage Patch in 1852, the name changed to Waldo upon the opening of the post office. The name honors William Waldo, an early settler. Other sources, however, state the name honors Waldo Johnson, a prominent attorney of Marysville.

[1] Round Tent is a former settlement in Yuba County, California. It was located 1.25 miles (2.0 km) east-southeast of Waldo Junction.Round Tent was a hotel, stage stop, and mining camp, located in the East Bear River Township of Yuba County, California. It appears on the 1853 Canal map of Nevada County, the Township and County map of the central part of California of 1868, and on the 1887 official map of Yuba County, California, in Township 15N, Range 6E, Section 34. The Round Tent Hotel and Station was established in 1851, by Jonathan Edwards Slater and his wife, Caroline F. (Powers) Slater. Prior to this, in 1850, and part of 1851, stages from Sacramento to Nevada City crossed the Bear river at Johnson's (Ranch), and came up by way of Watson's on Dry creek, Trip's place, and the Empire Ranch. When the Round Tent was put up in 1851, the route was changed, going from Johnson's (Ranch) over the hills, by way of Penn Valley, and past Round Tent. Horses were changed at Round Tent Station, on the Slater Ranch.The Grass Valley Telegraph of 3 February 1854 wrote "Mr. and Mrs. Slater keep an excellent table and accommodations, and it is worth the time and expense of any one to ride down and spend a few days with this accommodating couple, who spare no time or effort in making their visitors comfortable."A post office operated at Round Tent from June 21, 1853, to November 12, 1860, of which J. E. Slater was postmaster.The Slaters Jonathan Edwards Slater was born in New York on 21 Aug 1820. He died on 20 March 1881 at Round Tent, Yuba County, California. Caroline F. Powers was born in New York on 26 January 1826. She died on 16 January 1917, at Oakland, Alameda County, California. They are buried together in the Roseville, Placer County, California Public Cemetery. They married on 2 January 1849, in Cook County, Illinois and the crossed the plains to California that year. They had no children. J. E. Slater was president of the Union Valley Quartz Mining Co. which held a meeting at Slater's Round Tent House, on Thursday, February 15, 1854.Mining Considerable surface mining was done here. Mining had been done in the vicinity since 1850, and the ground had paid well, but in consequence of the scarcity of water, that but little work had been done. The diggings at Round Tent are in a most prosperous condition, and those that are mining are realizing from eight to ten dollars each. The gold is coarse, and superior to any other gold seen for some time. It has the appearance of Sonora gold, and sells for $17.50 per oz.Few visible signs remain of the site, which is now located within the Spenceville Wildlife Area.

Spenceville was a ranching, farming and mining community located in the southwestern part of Nevada County, California, 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 Spenceville Wildlife Area.

Smartsville is a census-designated place in Yuba County, California, United States, in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. It is one of the many historic towns in California's gold country, and is today a California Historical Landmark. Located at an altitude of 669 feet (204 m), Smartsville lies about 15 miles (24 km) east-northeast of Marysville, along State Route 20. The population was 177 at the 2010 census.

Timbuctoo is an unincorporated community in Yuba County, California. It lies northwest of Smartsville, at an elevation of 397 feet (121 m).

The Sand Hills are a low mountain range of the eastern Sacramento Valley, located in Yuba County, California.

Mooney Flat was an important mining and transportation hub in western Nevada County, California, just east of the Yuba County line. It was situated on modern Mooney Flat Road, about 1 mile north of modern Highway 20, at an elevation of about 800 ft. Mooney Flat lies at the western end of the auriferous channel that runs down the San Juan Ridge. The channel disappears past French Corral and then reappears around Mooney Flat for a few miles, encompassing the communities, from east to west, of Mooney Flat, Sucker Flat, Smartsville and Timbuctoo, Smartsville was the principal town and still exists today. It is often hard to separate the history of Mooney Flat from the history of Smartsville. While the boundary drawn between Nevada County and Yuba County put Smartsville in Yuba County and Mooney Flat in Nevada County, in ensuing years, the Smartsville residents petitioned unsuccessfully to become part of Nevada County.

Sicard Flat is an unincorporated community in Yuba County, California, USA. It is located 3 miles (4.8 km) west-northwest of Smartville, at an elevation of 348 feet (106 m). The name honors Theodore Sicard, miner and merchant, who settled here in 1848.

Camp Far West Reservoir (also known as Camp Far West Lake) is a small reservoir in the foothills of Northern California located approximately eight miles (13 km) east of Wheatland, California and 45 miles (72 km) northeast of Sacramento. The lake forms the meeting point of three California counties, Placer, Nevada and Yuba. The lake was formed by the Bear River and Rock Creek, near what was formerly the confluence of the two streams. The dam was constructed in 1963 as part of the California State Water Project to control flooding in the Central Valley (California), and to provide hydroelectric power to the surrounding area. The facility is owned and operated by the South Sutter Water District.

Englebright Lake is an 815 acre reservoir on the Yuba River, impounded by Englebright Dam, in the Sierra Nevada, Northern California, United States. The reservoir stores 45,000 acre feet of water with nearly 24 miles of shoreline.It is located in Yuba County and Nevada County. The boat launch and marina, named Skippers Cove, are located in Smartsville. It is located in between Grass Valley and Marysville. The reservoir, as well as the dam, were named for former U.S. Representative Harry L. Englebright, who represented the district in which Englebright is located. The California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) has developed a safe eating advisory for the Englebright Lake based on levels of mercury found in fish caught here.

Englebright Dam is a 280 ft (85 m) high variable radius concrete arch dam on the Yuba River in the Sacramento River Basin, located in Yuba and Nevada counties of California, United States. It was put into service in 1941 by the United States Army Corps of Engineers. The dam was constructed in 1941 for the primary purpose of trapping sediment derived from anticipated hydraulic mining operations in the Yuba River watershed. Hydraulic mining in the Sierra Nevada was halted in 1884 but resumed on a limited basis until the 1930s during the great depression under the California Debris Commission. Although no hydraulic mining in the upper Yuba River watershed resumed after the construction of the dam, the historical mine sites continued to contribute sediment to the river. Today, Englebright Lake is used primarily for recreation and hydropower. Englebright Lake is nestled in the scenic Sierra foothills east of Marysville. Constructed for the storage of hydraulic gold mining debris, Englebright Dam is a concrete arch structure. It spans 1,142 feet (348 m) across and is 260 feet (79 m) high. The dam is in the steep Yuba River gorge known as the Narrows, holding back a 9-mile-long (14 km) lake with a surface area of 815 acres (3.30 km2; 330 ha). The lake is unique in that it offers boat-in camping only. The 70,000-acre-foot (86,000,000 m3) Englebright Reservoir provides water-based recreational benefits to the region and provides 45,000 acre-feet (56,000,000 m3) of stored water-right capacity, which is released each year through dam operations to benefit fish downstream. Water is also diverted for regional domestic and agricultural uses. Hydroelectric generation from water stored behind Englebright produces about 294 million kilowatt hours of energy each year, or enough for the annual energy needs for 50,000 homes.A new flow bypass system was installed in 2006 by the Yuba County Water Agency and Mitchell Engineering so that river flow requirements can be met during shut-downs of the Narrows II Powerhouse at the base of the dam. Narrows 1 Powerhouse is further downstream and smaller than Narrows 2 Powerhouse.

The Oat Hills are a low mountain range of the eastern Sacramento Valley, located in Yuba County, California.