Bear River Plant

Located at the end of Taylor Crossing Road where Willow Creek joins the Bear River, just inside the Nevada County border, Hansen Bros.’ Bear River Aggregate Plant currently produces exclusively crushed rock ;products and building stone in earth-tone colors varying from grey to tan, with an occasional white quartz vein running through the rock. Products range from quality road base and sub-base materials to slope stabilizing “rip-rap” and square edged, sized stone and boulders popular for retaining walls, fireplace facings, landscaping and similar decorative and functional purposes.

In use since, at least, the early 1940’s, the aggregate plant, purchased by Hansen Bros. in 1954, was converted from a combination river rock and hillside extraction process, to an exclusively crushed rock quarry operation after the Rollins Dam stopped the downward flow of rock and sand from the Bear River to the plant site. The river now flows on bedrock, with only pockets of the black and white river rock remaining as reminders of the massive quantities of sand and gravel washed into the local Sierra Nevada rivers by hydraulic mining during the gold mining hey-day.

 

The Greenhorn Aggregate Plant

The Greenhorn Aggregate Plant is located on Greenhorn Creek, about 1 mile upstream from the You Bet bridge and produces over 20 sized varieties of crushed, uncrushed, washed and unwashed sand, gravel and rock products.

Sand and gravel have been used from the Greenhorn Creek since hydraulic mining stopped prior to 1900. Gravel from Greenhorn Creek was used to make the roadbed for the Nevada County Narrow Gauge Railroad. Since that time there have been several gravel operations in Greenhorn Creek in the vicinity of where Hansen Bros. began operating the current plant in 1973 on Mule Canyon Road near the remains of the mining towns of You Bet and Red Dog.

Though children may say the (sand box) sand is its best and most important product, much of the Greenhorn Plant material is used as the basis for ready-mixed concrete, gunite and asphalt products in the Nevada, Placer and Sacramento counties. The famous black and white rock, also known as “salt and pepper”, is used in the Sacramento Valley, the Bay area and beyond for landscaping and other decorative purposes.