Christian Valley: An unincorporated Placer treasure

Some people think it is part of Meadow Vista; others believe it is a little town of its own. But Christian Valley is just a large subdivision with a mix of amenities and a blend of bucolic characters.Wedged between Interstate 80 and Highway 49 about five miles north of Auburn, the 1,500-acre rural residential tract has a distinct identity, with a park, small reservoir, the Placer Nature Center and California Conservation Corps complex edging its assortment of country estates.Officially named Christian Valley Park, the subdivision was carved from the mountains in the 1960s when a developer purchased several large ranches and split the land into approximately 600 building sites on small chunks of land. The sprawling neighborhood filled in over the next four decades with custom single-family homes. Reflecting the architectural trends of each era, the tract holds a medley of home styles in a symphony of settings.There are oak woodlands, pine forests, steep hills, sunny meadows and deep ravines that combine to create a rich landscape with abundant flora and fauna. In the spring, Pacific Coast iris and other wildflowers pop up in profusions; in autumn, specimen trees and deciduous native oak put on a colorful display while doffing their summer coats to go bare in winter. And with boulder-strewn Orr Creek meandering through the territory, there are many scenic stream-side properties along its course.Naturally, Native Americans were the first to inhabit the region, making seasonal camps among the oaks to hunt game on Sugar Pine Mountain while harvesting acorns, berries, tan oak bark and tarweed seeds in the valley below. A few of their grinding rocks still scar outcrops on private property.In the middle of the 19th century, when gold miners gushed into the foothills, the indigenous people were swept off their traditional food-gathering and hunting lands. They eventually were forced down to an informal reservation in south Auburn.Although no large mining settlements were founded in the area, white settlers moved in to farm and ranch the district, constructing a communal hall that served as a meeting center, school and church. Erected at what is today the corner of Christian Valley and Dry Creek roads, the initial structure and several subsequent buildings were destroyed by fire. Today, a cinder-block clubhouse that was constructed in 1957 serves as a community gathering site and child care center. The adjoining park, which has a few picnic tables scattered around the edge of a playing field, is operated by the Auburn Recreation District.As the village grew, a few hotels, a mail delivery station and a stagecoach stop were added, but the area remained rustic until 1880 when the California Iron Company founded an iron ore mine on approximately 7,600 acres at the north end of valley. Furnaces, kilns and foundries were used to transform the raw ore into molten metal that was cast into bars of iron "pigs", which could be further refined into steel or wrought iron.Laborers were hired to construct smelting furnaces and foundries, mine the ore, cut firewood to feed the kilns, tend the charcoal and fuel the fires. Teamsters handled teams of oxen, mules and horses pulling buckboards and wagons full of pig iron to the Central Pacific Railroad station a couple of miles to the east at Clipper Gap.Superintendents and most of the company's employees built homes in the surrounding hills, which became a hamlet known as Hotaling; a company town with a store and service businesses to accommodate the workers. When the mine closed after a series of cave-ins and fires, the ore harvesters, wood choppers and teamsters moved on and Hotaling became just another name in the history books.But the region found renewal in 1913 when the Pacific Gas & Electric company expanded its hydroelectric network down the western slope of the Sierra Nevada and formed the Halsey Forebay reservoir in a natural basin of the valley. The 240-surface-acre manmade lake sits near the informal entrance to Christian Valley, just off Bancroft Road, with walking trails, fishing spots and a picnic area open to the public.The next major addition to the valley was in 1951 when the California Division of Forestry established a conservation camp near the old ore mine at the base of Sugar Pine Mountain. First used to house minimum security inmates, the facility later was converted to area headquarters for the California Conservation Corps (CCC). The Placer Nature Center - a public hands-on science lab for exploring native resources, wildlife and habitats - was added decades later.In the early 1960s, the Christian Valley Park subdivision was developed, offering its first phase of building sites for country homes.With no sidewalks or street lights, and a combination of county and private roads, paved paths and gravel drives, Christian Valley has become a village again, this time populated by people looking for a little space to breathe, a natural environment, privacy, room for gardens, barns and corrals - or all of the above.Now the common name used for all parcels in the land cradled between Meadow Vista and Saddleback Estates, Christian Valley is not a part of Meadow Vista, not a suburb of Auburn, and not an independent municipality. It's just a serene subdivision laced with unique amenities and another of Placer County's unincorporated treasures.