Once a logging headquarters and the center of an area of small farms. A prospectors’ camp in 1889, it was named by an enthusiast who found traces of wealth on a river bar. After Gold Bar became a construction camp for the Great Northern, anti-Chinese sentiment was inflamed by a shooting fray started by disreputable camp followers. To save the lives of the threatened Chinese, Edward Bauer, a construction engineer, shipped them out of camp in rude, hastily contrived coffins. Gold Bar is now a modern, primarily residential community.