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About

Rough & Ready Grange #795

Community Service Organization

The Rough & Ready Grange, located in the historic town of Rough and Ready, California, is a vibrant community center that serves as a hub for local residents and visitors alike. Nestled in a scenic, rural setting, this Grange hall has been a cornerstone of the community for generations, offering a welcoming space for various events, gatherings, and activities.

The Rough & Ready Grange plays a vital role in the town’s social fabric. The hall hosts a wide range of events, including public meetings, educational workshops, and social gatherings. Its versatile space is equipped to accommodate both intimate gatherings and larger community events, making it a popular venue in the area.

 

Rooted in the Grange tradition of fostering community spirit, the Rough & Ready Grange continues to uphold the values of collaboration, education, and civic engagement by providing a place where neighbors can come together to celebrate, learn, and support one another.

This Grange is a testament to the enduring importance of community spaces, offering a place where the rich history of Rough and Ready meets the vibrant energy of its present-day residents.

History

We are a small building and community organization in the town center of historic Rough and Ready, California, formerly known as Kai'em Pakan by the original occupants of the area, the Nisenan, who continue to keep their culture, language and history alive. Learn more about them with this brilliant, interactive map here.
Rough and Ready Grange formed with the purposes of sharing local ranch and farming information, trading and bartering. Today we serve our small, rural community by providing a hall for meetings, social occasions, lectures and special seminars, and hope to soon provide a wide array of tools to help our community members grow healthy, nutrient-dense food, process organic and plastic "waste", and share time, energy and resources to make the entire community more resilient and self-sufficient.
Rough and Ready Grange was originally built as the Mountain Rose Lodge of the I.O.O.F, an Independent Order of the Odd Fellows, in 1851. Completely destroyed by fire in 1854, the hall was rebuilt almost immediately and managed to survive the following terrible fires of 1856 and 1859. After I.O.O.F. joined with the Grass Valley lodge, they deeded the building to the town for use as a community center.
Our members have been proactive in developing agriculture and domestic animal husbandry for over 50 years. They have being active participants in the preservation and restoration of historical buildings, and in the sharing the colorful (and often dark) past of our beloved, historic town of Rough and Ready; with its roots in gold fever and the eclectic group of men and women who lived through it. Its history lives on with "Secession Day", marked by a hysterical, historical reenactment play every year on the first Sunday in June, that remembers its secession from the union in 1850.
 
Rough & Ready continues to carry on that fierce, sovereign and independent spirit, now with a burgeoning effort to reconcile with its less-than-colorful past. From an Indigenous homeland, to camp community, to its present day iteration, Rough & Ready history is kept alive and well, with the Rough and Ready Grange continuing to serve as a foundation for the community.
Nisenan Territory map
The Grange in 1948
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