HISTORY

Shortly after gold was discovered on the American River at Sutter’s Mill in 1848, a similar discovery was made on the Yuba River by Jonas Spect at Parks Bar. Just upstream a trading post to supply the miners was established by John Rose and his partners but the place was  called Rose’s Bar which gave its name to the township .

Rose’s Bar, or Rose Bar as it is sometimes called, sprang up at the edge of the Yuba River approximately due north of the present town of Smartsville.  After several winters with high water in the river, the Rose Bar inhabitants realized that they would have to relocate to higher ground.

At about the same time, miners noticed that there had been a prehistoric river channel in the  hills south of Rose Bar, and that the gravel above the elevation of the present river also contained gold. Mining was already being conducted  in the ravines and up creeks and so Timbuctoo became the next center of business for the miners. It quickly became a bustling place with hotels and saloons and all the necessary services.

  Since the founding of the towns of Smartsville and Timbuctoo there have been a number of their citizens who have become famous or have distinguished themselves and today are remembered as early pioneers.  Here are some brief stories of a few of these noteworthy pioneers. 

For about five years he traveled between San Francisco and Los Angeles working on Pacific Coast vessels and during that time he learned to speak Spanish and became a Mexican citizen.  In 1843 he settled in Monterey where he worked as a ship carpenter and cabinet-maker.  Because of his carpentry skill he was in demand for the construction of boat landings, wharves and helped construct one of the first vessels in California.  He was prominent in civic affairs and became the first Treasurer of the town of San Francisco.JOHN ROSE was born in Leeds, Scottland in 1817.  Because of the death of his father, young John was only 10 years when he was apprenticed to learn the ship’s carpenter trade from his uncle who owned a shipyard.  At age of 16 he signed on as a seaman on a sailing vessel bound for Valpariso, Chile.  After the ship landed in Los Angeles it sailed north along the coast and sailed into San Francisco Bay In 1839.  He got permission to lay off until the ship made port again, but although he had no intention of spending the rest of his life in California, that was to be his fate.

 In 1848 Rose was building a barley mill for Salvitor Vallejo in the town of Vallejo when gold was discovered.  All his men wanted to quit and head to the mines but Rose convinced them to finish their job by promising to take them to Sacramento as soon as the job was completed. 
After arriving at the American River in June of 1848 Rose and his men heard of discovery of gold on the Yuba River.  Traveling in a straight line they headed to the new gold strike over a vast open territory without the benefit of roads.  Finding the Yuba River just west of what was to become Timbuctoo, Rose continued upstream to Rose’s Bar where gold had been discovered. 

As the mines developed  the pioneers families settled the towns. Family homes, Churches, Schools, Business and services were established.  They became little oasis of civilization where people built their lives.