Gold was discovered here in 1850, and the place became known as Gold Ridge. The name was changed to Camptonville in 1854 when the first post office opened. A plaque in Camptonville says the roaring town had over fifty saloons had brothels and even a bowling alley at one time. However, by 1863
William H. Brewer passed through Camptonville and described it in his journal as follows: September 10 we started on our way--first to
Nevada [City], a few miles, a fine town in a rich mining region, then to
San Juan North (there are several other San Juans in the state), then to Camptonville, a miserable, dilapidated town, but very picturesquely located, with immense hydraulic diggings about. The amount of soil sluiced away in this way seems incredible. Bluffs sixty to a hundred feet thick have been washed away for hundreds of acres together. But they were not rich, the gold has “stopped,” the town is dilapidated--but we had to pay big prices nevertheless. As gold mining in the area waned, the local economy depended on the timber industry. When Sierra Mountain Mills closed in 1994 putting 75 people out of work, many people moved away. Today the town includes a post office, Camptonville Elementary School; a monument to the
Pelton wheel, the inventor of which lived here in the 1860s; and the original Mayo Saloon, currently home to a restaurant and bar, and the Yuba River Ranger District Office of the Tahoe National Forest, which is also the headquarters of the Tahoe Hotshots fire crew. ==Geography==