Although the foothills are known as the Gold Country, not every district in Placer County had a significant role in mining.
But all have a heritage: Some that are commemorated on roadside markers; others that have been erased by time.
In north Auburn, the Lone Star district shows few traces of what came before: A weathered barn, staggered fence posts and splintered cattle chutes are scattered remnants of the area’s past life as prime ranching territory.
With a canal snaking from the Bear River to Orr Creek on its east side, prospectors probably probed the area for random deposits of gold in the mid-1800s. But unlike most Gold Rush-era communities, Lone Star does not appear as a settlement in the “Placer County Directory of 1861.”
But by 1881, the rolling hills held enough farms and ranches to warrant the construction of a one-teacher school house. The precinct may have taken on its name then; dubbed Lone Star by homesick settlers from Texas.
The school was on the west side of the wagon road linking Auburn to mining camps across the Bear River in neighboring Nevada County. Now known as Highway 49, the thoroughfare slices through the pastoral province, with country neighborhoods circling up the hillsides to meet Meadow Vista to the east, or spreading across the mountain tops toward the Auburn Country Club to the west.
The east side of the Grass Valley Highway is where the Meadow Creek Ranch holds thoroughbred quarter horse mares and their offspring. Lake Valley Drive veers off Lone Star here, cutting through a broad basin before nicking up the hillside to reach homes tucked into its oak woodlands. Lone Star Road becomes Winding Way as it bends around the hills.
Across the highway, Lone Star Road curls around the mountain before unwinding into a loose lane. The Lone Star school was situated on this side of Highway 49, and the Auburn Union School District still retains ownership of the 8.8-acre parcel where the old schoolhouse once stood.
A secluded bed and breakfast inn hides among the trees here. Up ahead are the security gates to a collection of high-end estates. Working ranches operate within view of novel villas.
Lone Star intersects Bell Road near the links of the Auburn Country Club’s 18-hole golf course. The surrounding hills hold upscale homes on city-size lots and duplexes with valley views. Another adjoining tract offers 20-acre ranchettes.
Bell Road heads back toward Auburn, passing by modern estates and elderly ranch houses cloaked in the trees. Cramer Road leads off to the east, completing a loop back to Highway 49.
More genteel ranches and lavish abodes dot the hillsides, with small herds of cattle and horses grazing near plots of fresh vineyards.
This province holds no special place in history. But bits and pieces of Placer’s past can be found looping through Lone Star and Cramer roads.
