MOUNT SHASTA.“ ... its summit glistening with snow and visible at a distance of 140 miles down the valley.”
MOUNT SHASTA.
“ ... its summit glistening with snow and visible at a distance of 140 miles down the valley.”
Bancroft, in hisNative Races, says, “Shasta was apparently the name of a tribe living about 1840 near Yreka, a tribe made up of several groups. They were a sedentary people, living in small houses, similar to those in use by the Indians on the coast immediately to the west. Their food was made up of acorns, seeds, roots, and fish, particularly salmon. The salmon was caught by net, weir, trap, and spear. Their arts were few. They had dug-out canoes of a rather broad, clumsy type. The bow was their chief weapon, and their carving was limited to rude spoons of wood and bone. Painting was little used, and basketry was limited to basket caps for the women, and small food baskets of simple form. The tribe soon succumbed to the unfavorable environment of the mining camp, and is nowalmost extinct.... The Shasta Indians were known in their own language asWeohow, a word meaning ‘stone house,’ from the large cave in their country.”
“Shas-ti-kawas probably the tribal name of the Shasta Indians.Wai-re-ka(mountain) was their name for Mt. Shasta.”—(Powers’Tribes of California.)
Another theory advanced is that Shasta is a corruption of the Russian wordtchastal, (white, or pure mountain), and still another that it comes from the Frenchchaste, (pure), but it is likely that its resemblance to these words is purely accidental, and that its origin is Indian.
Whatever may be the derivation of its name, there is no question that Mount Shasta, with its snow-capped summit, has but few rivals for scenic beauty among its mountain sisterhood. It is an extinct volcano, with a double peak, and rises to a height of 14380 feet. There are minor glaciers on the northern slope. Fremont says of it: “The Shastl peak stands at the head of the lower valley, rising from a base of about one thousand feet, out of a forest of heavy timber. It ascends like an immense column upwards of14000 feet (nearly the height of Mont Blanc), the summit glistening with snow, and visible, from favorable points of view, at a distance of 140 miles down the valley.”
On a United States map of date of 1848, drawn by Charles Preuss from surveys made by Fremont and other persons, the name appears spelled asTshastl.
Mount Shasta is in Siskiyou County, and is the most conspicuous natural feature in that part of the state.
Except that it is of Indian origin, nothing authentic has been obtained concerningSiskiyou, the name of the county in the extreme north of the state. Several popular theories have been advanced, one to the effect that Siskiyou means “lame horse.” If that be true the word must have been introduced into the Indian language after the coming of the Spaniards, since horses were unknown to the Indians before that period. Another story, perhaps more pleasing than true,runs as follows: “On the summit of a mountain in Oregon, just over the divide, there is a beautiful, level spot, watered by cool springs, which overlooks the country for miles around. Here the powerful Shasta, Rogue River, and Klamath tribes used to meet to smoke and indulge in dancing and games. They called the placeSis-ki-you, the ‘council ground’.”
Siskiyou County is notable for its mountain scenery, and includes within its borders the famous Mount Shasta.
Trinity Countyreceived its name from Trinidad Bay, which was discovered and named by Captain Bruno Ezeta, on Trinity Sunday, in the year 1775. Trinidad is the Spanish word meaning Trinity.
Trinity River was so-named through the mistaken belief that it emptied into Trinidad Bay.
Trinidad is also the name of a village in Humboldt County, on the ocean shore, twenty miles north of Eureka.
Yreka, the name of the county-seat of Siskiyou County, is an Indian word, of which the spelling has probably been corrupted, perhaps in a spirit of facetiousness, from the originalWai-ri-kato its present eccentric form. Various theories have been offered in explanation of the word, but the only one apparently based on scientific data seems to be that it means “north place.” One writer advances the whimsical explanation that the word was formed by the transposition of the letters in “bakery,” but fails to explain what becomes of the letter “b.” This is, of course, but an idle invention.
Yrekais said by Powers, in hisTribes of California, to be the Indian word for “mountain,” especially applied to Mt. Shasta. Its former spelling wasWai-ri-ka. Here is a contradiction between scientists.
Agua Caliente(hot water, hot springs), a village in Sonoma County, forty-five miles north of San Francisco.
Altúras(heights), the county-seat of Modoc County, 110 miles north of Reno.
Point Arena(sandy point), is the name of the cape on the Mendocino coast, and of the village in that county, 110 miles northwest of San Francisco.
Bodega(a surname), that of its discoverer, Don Juan de la Bodega y Quadra, Captain of the schooner Sonora, who sailed into Bodega Bay October 3, 1775. This bay, and the town of Bodega Roads are in Sonoma County, about sixty-four miles northwest of San Francisco.
Point Cabrillo(a surname), that of the celebrated Spanish explorer, Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo.
Calistoga, one of those hybrid words of which California has too many. This word was the invention of Samuel Brannan, an early settler, and is compounded of the first syllable of California and the last of Saratoga. It is given here lest it be mistaken for Indian or Spanish.
Cazadero(hunting-place).
Chileno(Chilean, native of Chile).
Punta Delgada(thin or narrow point). SeePunta Gorda.
Cape Fortunas(cape fortunes). Fortuna is a village in Humboldt County, twelve miles south of Eureka.
Del Norte(of the north), is the name of the county in the extreme northwestern corner of the state.
García(a surname), the name of a creek in Mendocino County.
Punta Gorda(thick or broad point). Punta Gorda and Punta Delgada are adjacent points on the northern coast whose contrast in shape is indicated by their names. SeePunta Delgada.
Gualala, a village in Mendocino County, forty miles west of Cloverdale. This is an Indian word, “probably fromwalali, a generic term of the Pomo language, signifying the meeting-place of the waters of any in-flowing stream with those of the stream into which it flows, or with the ocean. The present spelling is probably influenced by the Spanish.”—(S. A. Barrett, in California Publications of Archaeology and Ethnology.)
Hoopa, a village in Humboldt County, on the Trinity River, was named for the Hupa Indians, a tribe on the lower Trinity River. Hoopa Mountain was named in the same way.
Point Laguna(lagoon point).
Oro Fino(fine gold), is the name of a village in Siskiyou County, twenty-five miles southwest of Yreka. This name is in contrast to the place calledOro Grande(coarse gold), in the southern part of the state.
Petaluma, the name of a town in Sonoma County, forty-two miles northwest of San Francisco. Petaluma was the name of an Indian village situated near the site of the present town on a low hill, and according to S. A. Barrett the word is compounded ofpeta(flat), andluma(back), makingPetaluma(flat back), but Dr. Vallejo has another explanation of its meaning. He holds that the suffixmameans “valley” or “land,” and that Petaluma is a combination of three Suysun words,Pe-talu-ma, signifying “Oh! fair valley,” or “Oh! fair land.”—(Memoirs of the Vallejos, edited by James H. Wilkins, San Francisco Bulletin, January, 1914.)
Pomois northeast of Ukiah. “Pomo was anIndian village on the east bank of the Russian River, in the southern end of Potter Valley, a short distance south of the post-office at Pomo. The word is an ending, meaning ‘people of, village of’.”—(S. A. Barrett.)
Tomales Bayis just north of Drake’s Bay, in Marin County. The word is a Spanish corruption of the Indiantamal(bay).
Ukiahis the county-seat of Mendocino County, and is on the Russian River, 110 miles northwest of San Francisco. “The word is said to be derived from the Indianyokaia,yo(south), andka-ia(valley), the name of a village about six miles southeast of the present town of Ukiah.”
THE CENTRAL VALLEY
Tehama Countylies at the extreme northern end of the great Central Valley of the state. There is a village of the same name in the county, on the Sacramento River, twelve miles southeast of Red Bluff.
The nameTehamawas derived from an Indian tribe, but the meaning of it has not been ascertained. Two definitions have been offered,—“high water,” in reference to the overflowing of the Sacramento River, and “low land,” but these may be among those attempts to account for our names by making the name fit the circumstances, a method which has resulted in many errors. All that can be positively stated is that the word is of Indian origin.
Colusais a county in the northern part of the Central Valley, and has a county-seat of the samename, situated on the west bank of the Sacramento River, sixty-five miles northwest of Sacramento.
This name appears asColuson the land grant located at that place, and is said by Powers, in hisTribes of California, to be a corruption ofKo-ru-si, a tribal name, a more reasonable explanation than any other that has been offered. General Will Green, said to have known the tribe well, was of the opinion that Colusa meant “the scratchers,” in allusion to a strange custom among these people of scratching one another’s faces. While it is true that the prevalence of this custom is mentioned by the Spaniards, Captain Fages referring to it in terms of great distaste, there is no scientific corroboration of that definition for the wordColusa.
Yubais the name of a county in the Central Valley, of Yuba City, the county-seat of Sutter County, and of the Yuba River, which is formed by the union of three branches rising in the Sierra Nevada.
The nameYubawas first applied to the river, the chief tributary of the Feather. The theory has been advanced that it received the name ofUba, orUva, the Spanish word for grapes, from an exploring party in 1824, in reference to the immense quantities of vines loaded with wild grapes growing along its banks,Uba, becoming corrupted intoYuba, but Powers, in hisTribes of California, says Yuba is derived from a tribe of Maidu Indians namedYu-ba, who lived on the Feather River. This is probably the true explanation of the name. It is to be noted that Fremont, in hisMemoirs, speaks of it as Indian: “We traveled across the valley plain, and in about sixteen miles reached Feather River, at twenty miles from its junction with the Sacramento, near the mouth of the Yuba, so-called from a village of Indians who live on it. The Indians aided us across the river with canoes and small rafts. Extending along the bank in front of the village was a range of wicker cribs, about twelve feet high, partly filled with what is there the Indians’ staff of life, acorns. A collection of huts, shaped like bee-hives, with naked Indians sunning themselves on the tops, and these acorncribs, are the prominent objects in an Indian village.”
Yolois the name of a county in the northern part of the Central Valley, and of a village near Woodland.
Yolo, orYoloy, was the name of a Patwin tribe, and the word is said by the Bureau of Ethnology to mean “a place abounding with rushes.”
In 1884 there were still forty-five of the tribe living in Yolo County.
This county, situated in the Central Valley, immediately northeast of San Francisco, was named, at the request of General Mariano Vallejo, in honor of an Indian chief of the Suisunes who had aided him in war against the other natives. The name of this chief in his own tongue is said to have beenSem Yeto, “the Fierce one of the Brave Hand,” orSum-yet-ho, “the Mighty Arm,” and, judging by the description given of him byDr. Vallejo, he must have been a living refutation of the common belief that the California Indians were invariably squat and ill-formed, for he was a splendid figure of a man, six feet, seven inches in height and large in proportion. He was converted to Christianity and received the name of the celebrated missionary, Francisco Solano, as well as a grant of land containing 17752 acres, known as the Suisún Grant.
Suisún Bayis a body of navigable water connected with San Pablo Bay by the Carquínez Strait, and is the outlet of the San Joaquín and Sacramento Rivers. Suisún City is in Solano County, on a slough, about fifty miles northeast of San Francisco. Suisún was the name of an Indian village on that bay, and the word is said by some persons to mean a “big expanse.” The name was probably first given to the land grant.
This region was the home of an important tribe of Indians who had an interesting and tragic history. Their religious capital, if such it could be called, was at Napa, near which place there wasa certain stone from which they believed one of their gods had ascended into upper air, leaving the impress of his foot upon the stone. General Vallejo says that in 1817 a military expedition under command of Lieutenant José Sánchez crossed the straits of Carquínez on rafts, for the double purpose of exploring the country and reducing it to Christianity. “On crossing the river they were attacked by the Suisún tribe, headed by their chief Malaca, and the Spaniards suffered considerable loss; the Indians fought bravely, but were forced to retire to theirranchería, where, being hotly pursued, and believing their fate sealed, these unfortunate people, incited by their chief, set fire to their own rush-built huts, and perished in the flames with their families. The soldiers endeavored to stay their desperate resolution, in order to save the women and children, but they preferred this doom to that which they believed to await them at the hands of their enemies.” The Suisún tribe is now entirely extinct, a large number having been carried off by a frightful epidemic of smallpox. Dr. Vallejo states that this tribe, a people described by him as possessing many attractive qualities, was estimatedby his father to number at least 40,000 persons in 1835. After the great epidemic, which was brought down by the Russians from the north, and which lasted during the three consecutive years of 1837-38-39, there were barely two hundred left. Thus the disappearance of the California Indians was occasioned, not by the white man’s bullets or fire-water, nor even by the deteriorating influence of a changed mode of living, nor by the loss of native sturdiness through an acquired dependence upon the church, but suddenly and fearfully by the introduction of the hideous diseases of civilization.
Sacramento Countyand the city of the same name, the state capital, situated near the center of the Great Valley, received their names from the river, which, following the usual custom of the Spaniards, was christened first, being named in honor of the Holy Sacrament.
Captain Moraga first gave the name ofJesús Maríato the main river, calling the branchSacramento, but later the main stream became known asSacramento, and the branch asEl Río de las Plumas(the river of the feathers).
Cosumneis the name of a village in Sacramento County, about twenty-two miles southeast of Sacramento. The Cosumne river rises in El Dorado County, near the Sierra Nevada, and enters the Mokelumne about twenty-five miles south of the city of Sacramento.
Cosumneis an Indian word, said to mean “salmon,” and was taken from the tribe who lived upon the river. The frequent occurrence of the endingamni, orumne, in the names of rivers in the Sierras has led to the mistaken conclusion that the suffix actually means “river,” but we have the statement of A. L. Kroeber, Professor of Anthropology in the University of California, that, “The supposition may be hazarded that the endingamni, orumne, is originally a Miwok ending, with the meaning ‘people of’.” Thus the meaning of Cosumne may be “people of thevillage of Coso,” and of Mokelumne, “people of the village of Mukkel,” and so on through all the names having this ending.
Powers, in hisTribes of California, saysKos-sum-miwas the Indian word for “salmon,” and that this is the probable origin of the name Cosumne.
The Bureau of Ethnology has an interesting paragraph on the manners and customs of these Indians: “They went almost naked; their houses were of bark, sometimes thatched with grass, and covered with earth; the bark was loosened from the trees by repeated blows with stone hatchets, the latter having the head fastened to the handle with deer sinews. Their ordinary weapons were bows and stone-tipped arrows. The women made finely-woven conical baskets of grass, the smaller ones of which held water. Their amusements were chiefly dancing and foot-ball; the dances, however, were in some degree ceremonial. Their principal deity was the sun, and the women had a ceremony which resembled the ‘sun dance’ of the tribes of the upper Missouri. Their dead were buried in graves in the earth. The tribe is now practically extinct.”—(quoted from Rice, inAmerican Anthropology, III, 259, 1890.)
San Joaquín County, famous for its vast fields of wheat, is a part of the great Central Valley, and the river of the same name rises in the Sierras, flows north-northwest through the valley and unites with the Sacramento River near its mouth.
The river was named in honor of St. Joachim, the father of the Virgin. Lieutenant Moraga first gave the name to a rivulet which springs from the Sierra Nevada, and empties into Lake Buena Vista. The river derived its name from this rivulet.
The rich valley of the San Joaquín, two hundred miles long and thirty miles wide, with its wide, treeless expanses where the wild grasses grew rankly, was once a paradise for game. Fremont says: “Descending the valley we traveled among multitudinous herds of elk, antelope, and wild horses. Several of the latter which we killed for food were found to be very fat.” Herds of wild horses still range in California and Nevada, and are sometimes captured for sale, fine specimens bringing high prices.
Stanislausis the name of the county just south of San Joaquín, and of one of the tributaries of the San Joaquín River.
The wordStanislausis said to be derived from an Indian chief of that region, who became Christianized and was baptized under the Spanish name ofEstanislao. He was educated at Mission San José, but became a renegade, and incited his tribe against the Spaniards. In 1826 he was defeated in a fierce battle on the banks of the river now bearing his name.
Fremont thus describes the scenery along the Stanislaus: “Issuing from the woods, we rode about sixteen miles over open prairie partly covered with bunch grass, the timber re-appearing on the rolling hills of the River Stanislaus, in the usual belt of evergreen oaks. The level valley was about forty feet below the upland, and the stream seventy yards broad, with the usual fertile bottom land which was covered with green grass among large oaks. We encamped in one of these bottoms,in a grove of the large white oaks previously mentioned.”
Merced(mercy), is the name of the county south of Stanislaus, of its own principal stream, and of its county-seat. The river was named by the Spaniards, in honor of the Virgin,El Río de Nuestra Señora de la Merced(the river of our Lady of Mercy). This name was given to the stream by the Moraga party as an expression of their joy and gratitude at the sight of its sparkling waters, after an exhausting journey of forty miles through a water-less country.
According to Fremont, this stream was calledAuxumneby the Indians: “In about seventeen miles we reached the Auxumne River, called by the MexicansMerced.... We encamped on the southern side of the river, where broken hills made a steep bluff, with a narrow bottom. On the northern side was a low undulating wood and prairie land, over which a band of about three hundred elk was slowly coming to water, feeding as they approached.”
The Merced River is notable in that it flows along the floor of the Yosemite Valley. Like all the other streams that have their rise in the Sierras, its character in its upper and lower reaches is vastly dissimilar. In the days of its turbulent youth it is a wild and boisterous stream, and in the voice of its hissing, roaring waters the wayfarer hears no sound of “mercy,” but after it makes its tremendous plunge down the western slope of the Sierras, and debouches upon the floor of the valley, it takes on a serene air of maturity, and widens into a placid river, its current flowing sluggishly between low, level banks.
Madera(wood, timber), is the name of the county to the southwest of Stanislaus. It occupies a stretch of fertile land, and was calledMaderaby the Spaniards on account of its heavy growth of timber.
Fresno(ash-tree), so-called in reference to the abundance of those trees in that region, is thename of a county in the San Joaquín Valley, in the heart of the grain and fruit country. Raisins and wine are its especial products. Its capital city and principal stream also bear the name of Fresno.
This county, now appearing under its English form, originally received its name from the river, which was discovered by a Spanish exploring party in 1805, and called by themEl Río de los Santos Reyes(the river of the Holy Kings), in honor of the “three wise men.”
A considerable part of the area of this county was at one time covered by Tulare Lake, but the shrinkage of that body of water through the withdrawal of its sources of supply have added nearly the whole of the territory occupied by its waters to the arable land of the county. This subject is further discussed under the head of Tulare.
EL RÍO DE LOS SANTOS REYES (THE RIVER OF THE HOLY KINGS).“ ... named in honor of the three wise men.”
EL RÍO DE LOS SANTOS REYES (THE RIVER OF THE HOLY KINGS).
“ ... named in honor of the three wise men.”
The river seems to have been known at one time as theLake Fork, by which name Fremont mentions it in the following paragraph: “We crossed an open plain still in a southeasterly direction,reaching in about twenty miles the Tulare Lake river. This is the Lake Fork, one of the largest and handsomest streams in the valley, being about one hundred yards broad, and having perhaps a larger body of fertile lands than any of the others. It is called by the MexicansEl Río de los Reyes. The broad alluvial bottoms were well wooded with several species of oaks. This is the principal affluent of the Tulare Lake, a strip of water which receives all the rivers in the upper or southern end of the valley.”
Tulare(place of tules, or rushes), is the name of a county in the south-central part of the state, of Tulare Lake in Kings County, and of a town in the San Joaquín Valley. The county is remarkable for the high mountain peaks of the Sierra Nevada, on its northeast border. Among these is Mount Whitney, about 14500 feet in height.
Tulare Lake, in Kings County, at one time filled a shallow depression about thirty miles in length, and received through a number of small streamsthe drainage from the southern part of the Sierra Nevada, soon losing the greater part of this water by evaporation. It is now practically dry, as a result of the withdrawal for irrigation purposes of Kings and Kern Rivers, and the territory formerly covered by it has been to a great extent placed under cultivation. The lake was discovered in 1773 by Commandant Fages, while hunting for deserters from the presidio at Monterey, and called by himLos Tules(the rushes), from the great number of those plants with which it was filled. In 1813 Captain Moraga passed through the valley of this lake, and named itValle de los Tules(valley of the rushes).
Acampo(common pasture), is the name of a village in San Joaquín County. See Final Index.
Arroyo Buenos Aires(creek of the good airs), is in San Joaquín County.
Caliente(hot), is the name of a town in Kern County.
Chico(little), is the name of a town in ButteCounty, ninety-six miles north of Sacramento. This place derives its name from the Rancho Chico (the little ranch), of which General John Bidwell was the original grantee. The Arroyo Chico and the town both took their names from the ranch.—(Mr. Charles B. Turrill.)
Chowchilla, a large ranch in the San Joaquín Valley, takes its name from the Chowchilla Indians, a branch of the Moquelumnan family. Fremont refers to this name under a somewhat different spelling: “The springs and streams hereabout were waters of theChauchilesandMariposasRivers, and the Indians of this village belonged to theChauchilestribe.”
Dos Palos(two sticks, or trees), is in Merced County, twenty miles southwest of Merced.
Esparto(feather-grass), is a town in Yolo County.
Esperanza(hope), is in Kings County, west of Lake Tulare.
Hornitos(little ovens), is in Mariposa County, sixteen miles northwest of Mariposa. An attempt has been made to account for this name as a reference to the intense heat sometimes prevalent in that region, but the probable origin of thename is that given by Mr. J. P. Gagliardo, a resident of the place, who says it was derived “from a number ofhornitosbuilt here by the first settlers, who located here about the early fifties.”Hornos(ovens), of brick and adobe, built out-of-doors, and used to bake the bread for several families, were in very common use among the first Spanish settlers of California. Ovens were also used by the Indians, for, instead of eating their food raw or imperfectly cooked, they used quite elaborate methods in its preparation. Their ovens are thus described in theHandbook of American Indians, by Dr. Pliny E. Goddard, of the American Museum of Natural History: “The pit oven, consisting of a hole excavated in the ground, heated with fire, and then filled with food, which was covered over and allowed to cook, was general in America, though as a rule it was employed only occasionally, and principally for cooking vegetal substances. This method of cooking was found necessary to render acrid or poisonous foods harmless, and starchyfoods saccharine, and as a preliminary in drying and preserving food for winter use. Most of the acorn-consuming Indians of California cooked acorn mush in small sand-pits. The soap-root was made palatable by cooking it in an earth-covered heap. The Hupa cook the same plant for about two days in a large pit lined with stones, in which a hot fire is maintained until the stones and surrounding earth are well heated; the fire is then drawn, the pit lined with leaves of wild grape and wood sorrel to improve the flavor of the bulbs, and a quantity of the bulbs thrown in; leaves are then placed on top, the whole is covered with earth, and a big fire built on top.” Mr. Charles B. Turrill states that “the meal of the ground acorns was placed in shallow hollows in the sand and water poured on it, by which means the bitter principle was leached out. Then the meal was placed in baskets and cooked by putting hot stones therein. The cooking was done in the basket, not in the sand.” Other Indians used pit ovens for baking clams, and the Panamints of California roasted cactus joints and mescal in pits. The Pueblo Indians used dome-shaped ovens of stone plastered with clay, a form that may have been imitated by the Spaniards, since their ovens were of that character.
IN THE SIERRA NEVADAS.“East Vidette, the Alps of the King-Kern divide.”
IN THE SIERRA NEVADAS.
“East Vidette, the Alps of the King-Kern divide.”
Modesto(modest), is the county-seat of Stanislaus County, and is thirty miles south of Stockton. According to residents of this town, “The place was first named Ralston in the year 1870, in honor of Mr. Ralston, who was then a very prominent resident of San Francisco, and president of the Bank of California. He was so modest that he preferred that some other name be adopted, so the name was changed toModesto.” If this be the true story, it was surely a unique reason for the naming of a town.
Oroville(gold-town), is a hybrid word made up of the Spanishoro(gold), and the Frenchville(town). Oroville is the county-seat of Butte County, and is on the Feather River, in the heart of a mining and fruit region.
Río Vista(river view), is in Solano County, on the Sacramento River. Modern. Incorrect construction. It should beVista del Río.
Tehachapi, an Indian word of which the meaning has not been ascertained, is the name of the mountain pass in Kern County across the Sierra Nevada, of which it approximately marks the southern limit, and of a town in the same county, thirty-five miles southeast of Bakersfield.
“In the famous Tahichapah Pass was a tribe called by themselvesTa-hi-cha-pa-han-na, and by the Kern IndiansTa-hich. This tribe is now extinct.”—(Powers’Tribes of California.)
Vacavilleis situated in a beautiful and fertile valley in Solano County. It received its name from a family namedVaca, who were at one time prominent in that region. Manuel Vaca, the founder of the family, was a native of New Mexico, and came to California in 1841. “He was a hospitable man of good repute.”
IN THE SIERRAS
The Sierra Nevada Mountains, California’s wonder-land, derive their name fromsierra(saw), andnevada(snowy),—descriptive of the saw-toothed outlines of the summits of the range, and the mantle of perpetual snow that covers the highest tops.
The termSierra Madre, absurdly translated by some persons as “Mother of Christ,” means, of course, “Mother Sierra,” that is, the largest mountain range personified as the mother of the smaller ranges.
“The Sierra Nevada is generally considered to extend from Tehachapi Pass in the south to Lassen Peak in the north, and constitutes the dividing ridge between the great basin on the east, to which it falls abruptly, and the San Joaquín and Sacramento Valleys on the west. It is characterized by deep and narrow valleys,with almost vertical walls of rock thousands of feet in height, and its scenery is of surpassing grandeur, much more imposing than that of the Rockies. Many of its higher summits are covered with perpetual snow.”—(Lippincott’sGazetteer.)
Among the many tributary streams that carry the waters of the Sierra Nevada down the western slope into the Sacramento, thePit, often incorrectly spelledPitt, is one of the most important, and, although not properly belonging in these pages, is included for the sake of the information to be gained concerning Indian customs.
IN THE HIGH SIERRAS.“Above the snow line, south from Mount Brewer.”
IN THE HIGH SIERRAS.
“Above the snow line, south from Mount Brewer.”
The natives along this river were in the habit of digging pits near the banks to catch bear and deer, and, on occasion, even their human enemies. The pits were dug in the regular trails of animals, twelve to fourteen feet deep, conical in shape, with a small opening at the top, covered with brush and earth. Signs, such as broken twigs, were placed as a warning to their own people, and sharp stakes were placed in the bottom toimpale any creature that might fall in. Another account of this custom is given in Miller’sLife Among the Modocs: “Pits from ten to fifteen feet deep were dug, in which natives caught man and beast. These man-traps, for such was their primary use, were small at the mouth, widening toward the bottom, so that exit was impossible, even were the victim to escape impalement upon sharpened elk and deer horns, which were favorably placed for his reception. The opening was craftily concealed by means of light sticks, over which earth was scattered, and the better to deceive the unwary, travelers’ footprints were frequently stamped with a moccasin in the loose soil.” It was from these Indian pits that the river received its name.
Plumas(feathers), is the name of a county in the northeastern part of the state. It is drained by the Feather River, which flows through one of the deepest and most picturesque canyons in California. The county is characterized by itswild and rugged scenery, its deep canyons and extensive forests of evergreen trees. In the northwest corner Lassen Peak, now an active volcano, rises to a height of 10437 feet.
The county derives its name from its principal stream, which now appears under its English form ofThe Feather, but which was originally namedEl Río de las Plumas(the river of the feathers), by Captain Luís A. Argüello, who led an exploring party up the valley in 1820, and whose attention was attracted by the great number of feathers of wild fowl floating on the surface of the river. Even to this day the valley of the Feather has remained a favorite haunt of the wild ducks and geese, as will be attested by the many hunters who seek sport there during the season. By an inconsistency, the county has retained the original Spanish name,Plumas, while that of the river has been Americanized. An erroneous and extremely far-fetched explanation of the name has often appeared in print to the effect that it was derived from a fancied resemblance between the spray of the river and a feather.
TheAmerican River, another of the names which have been translated from the original Spanish, is formed by three forks rising in the Sierra Nevada, and empties into the Sacramento at the site of the city of that name. The three branches forming it run in deep canyons, sometimes two thousand feet in depth, and the scenery along its course is of a rugged and striking character.
The river was originally calledEl Río de los Americanos(the river of the Americans), probably from the presence on its banks of a company of western trappers, who lived there from 1822 to 1830, andnot“because it was the usual route of travel by which Americans entered the state,” as is stated by Bancroft and others.
In Fremont’s time it was still known by its Spanish name, by which he refers to it in the following paragraph: “Just then a well-dressed Indian came up, and made his salutations in very well-spoken Spanish. In answer to our inquiries he informed us that we were upon theRío de losAmericanos, and that it joined the Sacramento River about ten miles below. Never did a name sound more sweetly! We felt ourselves among our countrymen, for the name of American, in these distant parts, is applied to the citizens of the United States.”
EL RÍO DE LAS PLUMAS (FEATHER RIVER).“To this day the valley of the Feather is a favorite haunt for wild ducks and geese.”
EL RÍO DE LAS PLUMAS (FEATHER RIVER).
“To this day the valley of the Feather is a favorite haunt for wild ducks and geese.”
El Dorado(the gilded man). Although it is known to most people, in a vague, general way, that the nameEl Doradowas given to this county on account of the discovery of gold there, the romantic tales connected with the name are probably not so well known. The Indians of Peru, Venezuela, and New Granada, perhaps in the hope of inducing their oppressors to move on, were constantly pointing out to the Spaniards, first in one direction, then in another, a land of fabulous riches. This land was said to have a king, who caused his body to be covered every morning with gold dust, by means of an odorous resin. Each evening he washed it off, as it incommoded his sleep, and each morninghad the gilding process repeated. From this fable the white men were led to believe that the country must be rich in gold, and long, costly, and fruitless expeditions were undertaken in pursuit of this phantom ofEl Dorado. In time the phraseEl Doradocame to be applied to regions where gold and other precious metals were thought to be plentiful. According to General Vallejo, one Francisco Orellana, a companion of the adventurer Pizarro, wrote a fictitious account of anEl Doradoin South America, “a region of genial clime and never-fading verdure, abounding in gold and precious stones, where wine gushed forth from never-ceasing springs, wheat fields grew ready-baked loaves of bread, birds already roasted flew among the trees, and nature was filled with harmony and sweetness.” Although old Mother Nature has not yet provided us with “bread ready-baked” or “birds ready-roasted” in California, her gifts to her children have been so bountiful that they may almost be compared to the fabulous tales ofEl Dorado, the gilded man.
Placer, the county in the Sierras famous for its surface gold-mining, has a puzzling name for which no satisfactory explanation has yet been found. Although it has been used in Spanish countries for centuries in the sense of surface mining, dictionaries remain silent upon the subject. The theory often advanced that the word is a contraction ofplaza de oro(place of gold), bears none of the marks of probability, and another that it means “a river where gold is found” is not supported by adequate authority. One old Spanish dictionary gives the meaning ofplaceras “a sea bottom, level and of slight depth, of sand, mud, or stone,” and states also that the word is sometimes used to designate places where pearl diving is carried on. It may be that the word was extended from this usage to include placer mining, since in that case the gold is found in shallow pockets near the surface. This theory is offered here as a mere suggestion.
Placer County has some of the most striking mountain scenery in the state, and has been thetheatre of many remarkable events in its history, particularly those connected with the “days of ’49.” In the town of Placerville, the county-seat of El Dorado County, there is an instance of a change of name from English to Spanish for the better, for this place was originally calledHangtown, in commemoration of the hanging of certain “bad men” on a tree there.
TheTruckee Riverrises on the borders of El Dorado and Placer Counties, and is the outlet of Lake Tahoe, discharging its waters into Pyramid Lake in Nevada. This mountain stream is justly celebrated for the wild charm of its scenery. There is a village bearing the same name, in Nevada County, well-known to travelers through being on the regular route to Tahoe. At this place winter sports, tobogganing, skiing, skating, etc., are provided for San Franciscans, who need to travel but a few hours to exchange their clime of eternal spring for the deep snows of the Sierras.
The explanation generally accepted for thename ofTruckeeis that it was so-called for an Indian, by some accounts described as a Canadian trapper, who guided a party of explorers in 1844 to its lower crossing, where the town of Wadsworth now stands. The party, who were suffering from thirst, felt themselves to be under such obligations to the Indian for having guided them to this lovely mountain stream, with its crystal waters and abundance of fish, that they gave it his name. Of this Indian it is said that “he joined Fremont’s battalion, and was afterwards known as Captain Truckee; he became a great favorite with Fremont, who gave him a Bible. When he died he asked to be buried by white men in their style. The miners dug a grave near Como, in the croppings of the old Goliah ledge. Here he was laid to rest, with the Bible by his side.”—(History of Nevada County.)