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Destination Nevada County

Premium visitors magazine for Nevada County produced by the Grass Valley Chamber of Commerce

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Photo credit: Matt Guziejka<br />

Photo credit: www.rideboreal.com<br />

Soda Springs. Teeny pin dot on the <strong>Nevada</strong> <strong>County</strong> map,<br />

but, oh my, what a magnificent dot!<br />

Wikipedia notes that Soda Springs (formerly, Summit<br />

Valley, Soda Springs Station, Hopkins, Hopkins Springs,<br />

and Tinkers Station) is an unincorporated community<br />

and census-designated place (CDP) in <strong>Nevada</strong> <strong>County</strong>,<br />

California, United States. Soda Springs is located 3 miles<br />

(4.8 km) west of Donner Pass. The population was 81 at<br />

the 2010 census.<br />

Not very exciting information, and certainly not much<br />

history, so when visiting the Donner Memorial State Park,<br />

I asked the docent about Soda Springs and she said, “Go<br />

talk to Norm, he knows more than I do.” So, I went off in<br />

search of Norm Sayler at the Donner Summit Historical<br />

Society, located on historic Highway 40. I found him, on<br />

a Sunday, ready to fill my cup with espresso and share his<br />

vast historical knowledge of all things Donner Summit.<br />

As my specific objective was to acquire more about Soda<br />

Springs he pointed to several albums loaded with photos<br />

and postcards, and then handed me Bill Oudegeest’s book,<br />

Walking Through Donner Summit History. “Buy This,”<br />

he said, “Bill writes all of our newsletters, and his book<br />

is great.” So, I bought Bill’s book, and of course, Norm<br />

was correct. It has invaluable information about Summit<br />

Valley, and the history of Soda Springs.<br />

In Chapter 3 of his book, when speaking to the history<br />

of Soda Springs, Bill writes, “The arrival of the railroad<br />

changed life along the Summit Valley route. Communities<br />

sprang up and people gained access to Sierra resources:<br />

ice, lumber, recreation and pasturage. Along the route<br />

over Donner Summit, the Soda Springs Station, served<br />

the Soda Springs Hotel and Summit Valley. According,<br />

Mark Hopkins, one of the “Big Four” of the Canadian<br />

Pacific Railroad, built an estate at Soda Springs named<br />

that because there are natural soda springs in the area. He<br />

DESTINATION <strong>Nevada</strong> <strong>County</strong> 175

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