My view: Nevada City is about to lose one of its institutions

Steve Cottrell could often be found at one his favorite haunts, The Mine Shaft in Nevada City. He plans to move to Florida after 33 years in Nevada City.

Steve Cottrell served for 16 years on the City Council, which he says makes him the third longest serving city councilor in Nevada City’s history. He should know. Steve’s knowledge and passion for the city and its history are hard to match.

It was in 1974 when Steve Cottrell first saw Nevada City after he took a wrong turn on while traveling on Highway 49.

Steve decided that as long as he was here, why not have a beer and look around. He would return three years later as a bartender at the National Hotel on Broad Street.

The rest, as Steve would certainly say, is history.

He served for 16 years on the City Council, which he says makes him the third longest serving city councilor in Nevada City’s history. He should know. Steve’s knowledge and passion for the city and its history are hard to match.

Steve was the editor of three weekly newspapers, has edited the chamber’s newsletter for a decade, spent six years on the county’s Board of Education, served as a city planning commissioner and since 1992 has taught gold rush history through the national Elderhostel program to an estimated 3,500 people from across the country.

But now he is turning the page on this long chapter of his life. After 33 years here, he has decided to move to Florida to reunite with a woman he was engaged to in 1967.

Steve told me about his plans in April during one of our regular meetings at the Mine Shaft where he can be found most mornings sitting at the same table, drinking coffee or a beer, watching news or sports on TV, and taking care of business.

He asked that I not publicize the news until he was ready to go public. It was a no-brainer for me to honor his request. Steve is a rich source of information, a man I respect and someone I consider a friend.

Besides, I couldn’t imagine he would actually leave a town he knows better than most everybody.

“I’m going to miss the people, the friends I have made over the last 30 years. The rest is just bricks and mortar and that doesn’t change much,” Steve replied when asked what he would miss the most about Nevada City.

Steve has been here to see or has researched the battles that have marked the history of Nevada City, which got its start as a rough-and-tumble gold-mining town in 1850.

It’s been battles over the Highway 49 project, the Historical District, neon signs and most recently the Business Improvement District that has marked our more recent history.

As Steve reflects on where Nevada City has been and where it is going, he is concerned about how we handle the discourse that is part of every community’s history and integral to how it meets future challenges.

“I’ve noticed in the last 12 to 15 years that as a community we continue to lose our sense of humor. We’re taking ourselves too seriously,” he said. “In the ‘60s and ‘70s we could disagree without it lingering. We need to restore our sense of humor.”

When Steve moves on to the next chapter in his life, we lose a deep source of institutional knowledge that can’t be replaced as well as man who has put the interests of the city ahead of his own for more than three decades.

While I wish him the best of luck and happiness in his new venture, it’s not going to be the same place without him.

Pat Butler is the editor and publisher of the Nevada City Advocate. He can be reached by e-mailing pat@nevadacityadvocate.com.