Editing Nevada County, California (section)

===Boundary dispute with Sierra County===
Since the enactment of the statute in which the [[California State Legislature]] defined the common boundary between Nevada and [[Sierra County, California|Sierra]] Counties in 1874, no survey was conducted to determine where the straight line segment of the common boundary between the two counties ran. In particular, the statute, at the time codified as Section 3921 of the California Political Code, at the time stated:
{{quote|...thence south on said state line (state of Nevada) to the northeast corner of Nevada County, a point east of the source of the South Fork of the Middle Yuba River; thence west to the source of, and down the South Fork of the Middle Yuba River to a point ten miles above the mouth of the latter.}}
Since the line had never been [[Surveying|surveyed]] and the legislature never defined where the "point east of the source of the South Fork of the Middle Yuba River" was, the location of the straight air line between the state line and this point was unknown. As such, both counties claimed that the point east of the source, which itself was also unknown, was located in different places. This created a situation where a strip of land averaging 1.22 miles in width and around 31.29 square miles were under dispute, with Sierra County claiming that Nevada County was encroaching on their jurisdiction when attempting to levy [[property tax|property taxes]]. The [[trial court]] of [[Plumas County, California|Plumas County]], sided with Sierra County, declaring that the disputed area had always belonged to Sierra, since the legislature defined the boundary in dispute by referencing [[Public Land Survey System]] lines. It also determined that the source of South Fork of the Middle Yuba was that of several springs in the [[Sierra Nevada]], rather than the artificial English Lake, which ceased to exist after the [[Dam failure|failure of its dam]] in 1883, which is where the source of the South Fork was in the eyes of Nevada County. The [[California Supreme Court]] affirmed the trial court's decision on December 28, 1908.<ref>{{cite court|litigants=County of Sierra v. County of Nevada |vol=155 |reporter=Cal. |opinion=1, 12 |pinpoint= |court=[[California Supreme Court]] |date=December 28, 1908 |url=https://casetext.com/case/county-of-sierra-v-county-of-nevada}}</ref>