For 66 years, the Nevada City Depot served as the northern terminus of the Nevada County Narrow Gauge Railroad, affectionately known as the “Never Come Never Go.” In 1874, a group of seven men led by lumber mill and gold mine owner John C. Coleman organized the railroad, and engineer John Flint Kidder was hired on January 14, 1875, to build a 23-mile narrow gauge line from the Central Pacific Railroad connection in Colfax to Grass Valley and Nevada City. On a snowy May 20, 1876, Coleman drove the last spike in Nevada City to dedicate the railroad’s completion. Kidder controlled the railroad from January 1884 until his death on April 10, 1901; the following day his widow, Sara, was elected president and successfully managed the company until its sale on April 24, 1913, to the Oakland, Antioch and Eastern, a predecessor to the Western Pacific. On May 13, 1926, the railroad was purchased by a group of local investors and operated until December 1942, and its scrapping was completed by May 5, 1943.