Chapter Three:
Exploration and Exploitation (1850-1885) (continued)
Caucasian Settlers Come to the Southern Sierra
|
At the end of the Mexican War, all of California
officially became a part of the United States. Almost simultaneously,
the discovery of gold in the central Sierra foothills east of Sutter's
Fort began a new chapter in the history of California. During 1849 and
1850 several hundred thousand argonauts descended upon California from
all over the world. Initially, the gold seekers focused upon the areas
where gold had initially been discovered, well to the north of the
future area of Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks. But the arrival
of so large a group inevitably came to affect the remainder of the
California landscape.
On the scene in the Tulare Lake basin at the moment
of transition was Lieutenant George H. Derby, another representative of
the U. S. Army's Topographical Engineers. During 1850 Derby, assigned to
search for the best location for a military post to control the Indians
of the basin, visited not only Tulare Lake but also the lowland deltas
of the Kings and Kaweah rivers. He noted the now well-known topography
of the valley region as well as the great changes ongoing in the Indian
world. [6] Even as Lieutenant Derby made his
reconnaissance of the Tulare Basin, Caucasian settlement was beginning
in the oak forests of the nearby Kaweah River delta. The Indians, long
embittered by their experiences with Spaniards, Mexicans, and Americans
alike, killed those first settlers, but a few months later another
settlement, called Visalia, popped up nearby. Within two years Visalia
was a county seat, and with emigrants spilling out of the northern gold
country looking for settlement and business opportunities, life would
never be the same again for the Native Americans of the Tulare Lake
basin and its tributary mountain rivers. From Visalia, the first
permanent European settlement in the San Joaquin Valley, settlers began
to disperse in search of the best land opportunities. Before the decade
ended, they had invaded the mountain canyons to the east.
The story of Hale Tharp, the first Caucasian to
settle in the Kaweah River canyons, reflects a typical experience of
those who came to California in the early 1850s in search of fortune.
Born in Michigan, Tharp was twenty-three in 1851 when he was hired by an
Illinois widow with four young sons to take her family to California.
Driving a prairie schooner with two teams of oxen, Tharp succeeded in
delivering the Swanson family to Placerville. There, having noted that
good women were in short supply, he made Mrs. Swanson henceforth Mrs.
Tharp. He worked in the mines for several years, with fair success, but
the work did not agree with him. Thus, like many another disenchanted
miner, Tharp sought another way to make a living.
The rapid growth of the mining and trading cities of
the gold region had created a substantial demand for foodstuffs, and
good opportunities existed for an ambitious young man. Tharp settled
upon cattle raising as a likely prospect. He wandered south, away from
the heavily populated region, in search of open land that would support
cattle. Sometime during 1856, Tharp followed the Kaweah River into the
foothills east of Visalia. In the broad, open canyon where the Kaweah
leaves the Sierra, Tharp found what he was seeking. Open grassland
covered the hills and surrounding highlands while the Kaweah River
provided a reliable and ample water supply. Years later, Tharp recounted
his positive impressions of the new land:
There was abundance of game and other animals in this
country when I first came here. Deer were practically everywhere, with
lots of bear along the rivers; occasionally a grizzly bear, too. Lions,
wolves and foxes were very plentiful. There were a great many ground
squirrels, cottontail and jackrabbits; quail were seen in coveys of
thousands. I never saw elk or antelope in the Three Rivers country.
There were plenty of fish in the rivers below the rapids, lake trout and
suckers; once in a while a speckled trout could be caught. [7]
Tharp also noted the substantial Native American
population, which to its later dismay, welcomed him graciously:
I first located my ranch where I now live in the
summer of 1856. There were about 2,000 Indians then living along the
Kaweah Rivers above where Lemon Cove now stands. Their camps extended up
along the rivers on the South Fork to the Cahoon Ranch, the North Fork
to Kaweah, the East Fork to Kane's Flat, and the Middle Fork to Hospital
Rock in Sequoia National Park. The Indian chief was named "Chappo" and
he was a fine man. The Indians told me that I was the first white man
that had ever come to their country. But few of them had ever seen a
white man prior to my arrival. The Indians all liked me because I was
good to them. I shot many deer for them to eat as they had no firearms
and knew nothing about firearms. I liked the Indians, too, for they were
honest and kind to each other. I never knew of a theft or murder amongst
them. [8]
It is possible that Tharp was not actually the first
Caucasian to enter the Kaweah Canyons. Nearly thirty years had passed
since fur trappers first entered the region, and the lower canyons of
the Kaweah must have been penetrated by someone during those curious
times. However, no recorded attempt had been made to penetrate the
higher mountains. Because there were no beaver above the low foothills,
all the early entries into the high country were attempts to cross the
Sierra, and nowhere else in the southern Sierra did the mountains appear
more formidable than at the head-waters of the Kaweah drainage. From
clearings in the oak forest of the Kaweah delta, peaks as high as 13,000
feet were clearly visible. In comparison, from the floor of the San
Joaquin, even the Kings River country, which concealed one of the
deepest canyons on the continent, looked more feasible as a possible
trans-Sierra route.
Two years later in 1858, with his brother-in-law,
John Swanson, Tharp returned to the Kaweah and began actual development
of his ranch. That first year he built a log cabin and a barn. He also
explored the mountain country to the east:
I made my first trip to the Hospital Rock camp during
the summer of 1858. Chief Chappo and I had become the very best of
friends and he asked me to come up and stay with him overnight. He sent
down two young Indian men to pilot me in, as there were no trails in the
country, just Indian footpaths. I went on horseback and it took me about
8 hours to work my way in, the distance being about 18 miles from my
Three Rivers ranch. When I arrived at the Camp, Chappo and his men
extended me a cordial welcome and gave me the best his camp afforded. He
called out every individual in the camp and with much dignity and long
ceremony introduced me to all. There were over 600 Indians then living
at the camp. My arrival excited the curiosity of most of the Indians, as
I was the first white person that had ever visited their camp, and only
a few of their leaders had ever seen a white person before. As for
myself, I did not attract half so much attention as did my horse and
saddle, my weapons, and the clothing that I wore. These were all new to
most of the Indians.... [9]
Having caught a glimpse of the high country, Tharp's
curiosity increased, and he made arrangements to explore further to the
east:
Accompanied by two Indians, I made my first trip into
the Giant Forest during the summer of 1858. We went in by the way of the
Middle Fork and Moro Rock and camped for a few days at Log Meadow, after
which we came out by the same route that we went in. 1 do not remember
the dates that we were there, but I carved with my knife on the big
hollow redwood log my name and the date on the same day that we got
there. [10]
Tharp was now convinced that the Kaweah country
offered what he was seeking, and he moved quickly to strengthen his
situation. He moved his wife and children from Placerville to
Farmersville, near Visalia, explored the mountains as far north as Kings
Canyon and as far south as Mineral King, and in 1861 began grazing his
horses at Log Meadow during the summer months. [11] All this was necessary because,
increasingly, Tharp had company. In 1859 Hopkins and Martha Work became
Tharp's first white neighbors, and during the next few years William
Swanson, Joseph Palmer, and Alfred Everton began a parade of settlers
that in some ways has yet to end. And the Kaweah region was not unique
in the attention it was receiving. As early as 1858, a party led by J.
H. Johnson of Tulare County succeeded in crossing the Sierra via what is
now known as Kearsarge Pass, a route that must have taken them through
Kings Canyon. [12] Thus Caucasian settlement
in the Kings River foothills began as early as that along the lower
Kaweah.
The immediate human losers in this influx of white
men were the Native Americans. Nearly half a century later, Tharp
recalled their fate:
By the spring of 1862 quite a number of whites had
settled in the Three Rivers section, and the Indians were gradually
forced out. Then, too, the Indians had contracted contagious diseases
from the whites, such as measles, scarlet fever and smallpox and they
died off by the hundreds. I helped to bury 27 in one day up on the Sam
Kelly place. About this time Chief Chappo and some of his men came to
see me, and asked me to try and stop the whites from coming into their
country. When I said that was impossible, they all sat down and cried.
They told me that their people loved this country, did not want to leave
it, and knew not where to go. A few days later Chappo came to me with
tears in his eyes he'd told me that they had decided not to fight the
whites, but would leave the country. From that time on, they moved out
little by little and from time to time until all were gone. I think by
the summer of 1865 the Indians had left the district. Their Hospital
Rock camp was the last vacated.... [13]
|