Shands was a settlement in Nevada County in the U.S. state of California, located on the San Juan Ridge, about 21⁄2 miles west of Graniteville, and just northeast of the intersection of the present-day North Bloomfield – Graniteville Road and Spanish Mine Road, near Cherry Hill.

In the spring of 1853, Richard left home to go to Marysville for provisions and is believed to have died while trying to cross the swollen Yuba River.

Sometime prior to 1859, John and Ann acquired a new home in the area where the Eureka Lake and Water Company was preparing to construct a new flume, and opened a boarding house.

It had a dining room that could serve 30 people at a setting and an upstairs bedroom with 24 straw beds on each side.

It had its own vegetable garden and fruit trees, with a sophisticated watering system fed by a large tank built on the side of the hill.

[9] Shands was located on one of the gold-bearing gravel channels that ran down the San Juan Ridge.

Lindgren reports small areas of gravel at Shands “100 feet thick, composed of well-washed pebbles and covered by subangular gravel.”[10] Shands was also connected to the worlds first long-distance telephone line which connected all the mining towns on the ridge.

She stated that the Magenta House still stood but others lived there and the flume had been replaced by a water pipe line.