It’s a little outside the Auburn area but well worth the jaunt up the hill when a full-size replica of a historic Civil War submarine visits Nevada City next month.

The 40-foot-long replica of the rebel sub H.L. Hunley will be part of the city’s Constitution Day celebration Sept. 12 to 16.

If the Hunley name sounds familiar, it’s probably from the time it made news when it was located and then raised from the depths of South Carolina’s Charleston Harbor. Or the subsequent National Geographic TV specials on the Hunley. Since the underwater time capsule has surfaced, the Hunley and her crew have been the object of keen scientific and public interest.

The boat was the first sub in the world to sink a ship. The historic date was Feb. 17, 1864 and its victim was the Housatonic. The Hunley used a spar torpedo, which imbedded itself in the Housatonic when it rammed the ship. The Hunley then backed off and when it reached the end of a detached rope, the bomb aboard the other boat exploded. The Housatonic, which was being used as a blockade vessel sank but most sailors escaped. The Hunley disappeared after the attack and was located 136 years later in South Carolina’s Charleston harbor.

The Hunley exhibit will be located at the basketball courts adjacent to the upper Little League field at Nevada City’s Pioneer Park. It will be open to the public from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sept. 12 and 13. It will be on view again from 9 a.m. to noon on Sept. 14.

It will then be featured in the 42nd annual Nevada City Constitution Day Parade, which moves down Broad Street starting at 2 p.m. Sept. 14.

The mobile exhibit is visiting Nevada City as part of its current California tour. Its appearance was arranged by the American Civil War Association and underwritten in part by a $1,000 grant from the Nevada City Lions Club.

The sub exhibit will have plenty of interpretive information and members of the “Hunley Team” involved in studying the sub will be standing by to bring to life one of the major moments in military and U.S. history.