Sawyers Bar was a mining camp during the California Gold Rush. Some of the nearby mines were: Star, Yankee, Knownothing, King Salomon, Black Bear, and Evening Star.

The Salmon River area southwest of Scott Valley was a rich gold bearing area in the middle 1800s, with gold being discovered in the spring of 1850 on the North Fork of the Salmon River by a group of miners who came over Etna Mountain.

Sawyers Bar is located in a rugged mountainous region. Supplies could only be brought in by pack trains from Callahan or Etna or over the Trinity Alps or from the coast to the west. A road was not built over Etna Mountain until the 1890s and from Callahan to Cecilville in the 1950s

Today, fewer than two hundred people live in Sawyers Bar.

Source: Siskiyou County Online