History of Tahoe National Forest: 1840-1940 A Cultural Resources Overview History

Purpose of the Historical Overview

This historical study is one component of a general cultural resources overview being prepared by the Tahoe National Forest as part of its forest land management plan. The purposes of the overview are threefold. Our primary objective is to provide U. S. Forest Service personnel with an analytical and narrative historical overview to aid in identifying and measuring the potential significance of historic buildings, sites or objects located on forest lands that are representative of major themes, eras, activities or cultural processes in the area. Second, we hope to raise new research questions for future study and interpretation and to develop some research hypotheses to be tested by future work. Third, we will suggest management recommendations for enhancing identification and evaluation of historic site types and material remains likely to be discovered on Tahoe National Forest lands.

Cultural resources management is a relatively new and vital field that has developed largely in the last fifteen years as a result of intensified federal efforts to identify, evaluate and manage cultural resources as an element of the environment. Federal policies are based upon and implemented by a series of laws, regulations and presidential directives dating from the Antiquities Act of 1906 (16 USC 431). A positive national policy for the preservation of the cultural environment was provided in the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 (16 USC 470). The act mandated protection of properties on or eligible for the National Register of Historic Places and established processes designed to ensure that avoidance or mitigation of damage to such properties be considered in the planning process of Federal agencies. The National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 USC 4321) further declared it the policy of the federal government to preserve important historic, cultural, and natural aspects of our national heritage. Compliance with NEPA requires consideration of adverse impacts on cultural resources during project planning and execution. Executive Order 11593 (1971) went further than either of these acts by requiring federal agencies to assume a leadership role "in preserving, restoring and maintaining the historic and cultural environment of the nation." The Order charged agencies with the task of locating, inventorying and nominating to the Secretary of the Interior all historic properties under their jurisdiction that appear to qualify for listing on the National Register. Until such inventories are completed, the presidential order directs agencies to "execute caution" to ensure that such resources are not transferred, sold, demolished or substantially altered.

Traditionally the term "cultural resources" has been used rather narrowly to refer to archeological remains and to historical structures. Archeologists, anthropologists, historians, architects, sociologists, folklorists, geographers, planners, and others have in recent years increasingly pooled their resources and talents to respond to the new federal requirements for protection and enhancement of our cultural environment. Archeologists led the way for other disciplines in bringing about public awareness of the irreplaceable and non-renewable quality of our national heritage. They were largely responsible for forcing passage of the current legislation requiring an assessment of resources to be impacted by federal projects. The preservation of significant historical properties has long been a concern of historians and historical architects as evidenced by passage of the Historic Sites Act of 1935 which authorized establishment of the National Landmarks Program. Recently historians have followed archeologists in taking a more activist role in inventorying historic resources and in working with private and public agencies to preserve structures and sites of local and regional historical significance. Landscape architects have exhibited a keen interest in utilizing their expertise in land use planning to conserve historical and cultural rural landscapes (Zube 1977). Sociologists and folklorists have also demonstrated a concern for the impact of programs on all forms of traditional cultural expression (verbal, artifactual and behavioral) among all social classes (Bartis 1979). Each of these disciplines has its separate spheres of interest and methodological approaches. We also share many concerns and goals.

Historical resources management, as a profession and a movement, has broadened its interests considerably in recent years. The American historic preservation movement has strong roots in the eastern states; its philosophy and approach has traditionally been molded by an urban, elitists bias demonstrated by its orientation toward prestigious architectural monuments and grand homes. The National Register of Historic Places, the official list of the nation's cultural resources worthy of preservation, reflects this orientation. Critics of its policies have pointed out that rural America and a distinct anti-urban tradition have also played an important role in forming our national values. In dealing with the cultural resources of remote, mountainous settlements significant historical remains can be expected of a type significantly different than those in urban areas. Any meaningful program of rural or mountain community preservation would require placing great importance on preserving the best remaining examples of vernacular architecture. It would help preserve the diversity of our cultural heritage and mitigate against the loss of characteristic regional identities that remain where isolation and tradition have tempered the forces of change.

Local neighborhood buildings are increasingly being recognized as historic resources. The corner "mom 'n pop" grocery store, workers' housing abandoned industrial sites, old metal gas stations have much historical value to local neighborhoods. More than building types and styles must be recognized as evaluation criteria. A major problem in protecting resources in an area like the Tahoe National Forest is determining what kind of significant properties exist on lands under the forests' jurisdiction. Fire, flood and severe weather conditions have claimed many important sites in the forest. Nevertheless, an extremely wide range of historic resources reflective of regional history themes could qualify as significant sites, among them would be mineral exploration or development, logging technologies, history of the conservation movement, transportation networks, immigrant routes, engineering structures, pioneering and early settlement, water delivery systems and dams, Civilian Conservation Corps Camps and improvements, and development of resorts and recreational potential.

The data base for this study consisted of the published and unpublished literature on the general history of the Sierra Nevada mountains, as well as information related directly to the Tahoe National Forest and Sierra, Nevada, and Placer counties. Books, pamphlets, periodicals, manuscripts, and newspapers published within the general study area pertaining to local history were viewed. Similar materials held by research libraries in the San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento were researched. Literature published by professional historians and doctoral dissertations and master's theses from Northern California universities on general subjects relevant to the study area and some that specifically treated aspects of the forest's history were especially helpful. Materials of this type on gold rush history, logging, and transportation development are abundant. Government reports by mining engineers, surveyors, geologists, minerologists, and forest officials provided a wealth of descriptive and statistical information. Historical files of the Tahoe National Forest contained useful information for the period after 1905 on forest settlements, implementation of conservation policies, timber sales, mining claims, range use, and recreational uses. Diaries and memoirs from each of the Forest Supervisors to 1940 are available in transcript. Historical photographs held at the forest headquarters are also extremely useful in documenting logging techniques, administrative site development, and CCC activities on the forest. Interviews with ex-Forest Service personnel helped provide additional insight into activities on the forest during the twenties and thirties.

Most of the materials used to compile data for this project were located at the county historical societies, the Tahoe National Forest headquarters in Nevada City, the California State Library, the Bancroft Library and the Forestry Library at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Peter J. Shields and Physical Sciences libraries at the University of California, Davis. A fuller description of the contents of these collections and other relevant depositories can be found in Chapter IX.

Historical Perspectives on the Development of the Tahoe National Forest Region

The westward-moving hordes of humanity caught up in the California gold rush, historian Dale Morgan once asserted, "altered the course of history in so many ways that scholars will never trace them all" (Morgan 1959:i). The 49ers influenced national and world population movements, economies, finance, politics, transportation and settlement patterns (Roske 1963: 183-212). On the local and regional level, their impact was similarly felt. In a short span of years the native population was decimated, roads penetrated the wilderness, and mining towns dotted a landscape uninhabited by Euro-Americans just a year or two before. The gold rush to California heralded the opening of the mining era in the American West. By the 1860s prospectors had spread mining, based on their California experience, throughout the mountain west and north into British Columbia. Wherever the miners pursued gold, "they came and went in a continuous stream of humanity that left scattered towns and cities throughout the West" (Paul 1963: 37-55).

Unlike pioneer settlement of much of the United States, the mining frontier had the characteristics of an urban frontier. The mining camp, the germ of many present day communities in the Tahoe National Forest, appeared almost simultaneously with the opening of the region. Individual prospectors conducted initial exploration, and if successful, others quickly followed, forming the basis of the nascent community. Camps were frequently isolated, not so much by distance, but by broken, mountainous terrain and poor transportation facilities. Isolation, however, did not bring the self-sufficiency which was often characteristic of life on the farming frontier. Mining was back-breaking labor, and miners spent all their time prospecting or developing their claims. They could not raise sufficient foodstuffs or manufacture needed equipment. With gold dust plentiful, someone else could be paid to do these tasks. As a result mining camps became attractive markets.

Taking advantage of this situation, farmers and ranchers moved into regions which previously were uninhabited forests or foothills. Cheaper and more efficient means of transportation appeared. Behind the hopeful miners came merchants, gamblers, freighters, and others. Commercial centers and even embryonic industrial development in the form of blacksmith shops and sawmills appeared to serve the local mining camps. Logging and agriculture were key developments in the economic structure built by the miners and they have endured through time. Civic improvements such as a school, church, courthouse, or jail were seen as indications of permanence and stability. Certain architechtural features were symbols of the prosperous mining districts; a large and varied centralized business district, a multi-story elegant hotel and saloon, a steepled wood-frame church, and stone or brick construction throughout the community. Even with these trappings of civilization, the future of a mining town was not secure. Prosperity hinged on future extraction of a non-renewable mineral resource, hence instability was endemic to the economic foundations of the mining district. Even for the most prosperous communities, the future was never bright. Some towns overcame the inevitable decline in mineral production by developing other industries to balance their economic livelihood. Others became a transportation hub or a center of government. Those that could not adjust retained only a shadow of their former size and significance.

A heterogenous population composed of people from every corner of the world crowded into the Sierra mining districts. The migration to California had many unique characteristics in the tremendous distances traveled by immigrants, in their sheer numbers and ethnic variation and in their desire to strike it rich and return to their homeland or the eastern states. The vast majority of those arriving were men. In other immigrations to the United States the percentage of men averaged 60 to 65 percent. In the early gold rush the percent exceeded 90. The migrants were also unusually young (Roske 1963; 183-185).

Hawaiians were the first foreigners to receive news of the gold strike from schooners sailing from San Francisco in 1848. Hawaiians of every occupation and social class crowded California-bound ships. Ships brought news to the Pacific Northwest and half of the white population in the Oregon Territory was soon on the road to the diggings. In Australia shipmasters eager to cash in on gold fever spread wild rumors to encourage would-be miners to book passage on their San Francisco-bound ships. Foreign traders carried the news to China and after 1850 a significant number of lower class peasants, uprooted by economic dislocations in the Chinese agricultural districts, departed for California's gold fields (IBID: 189-195).

Mexicans were among the first foreigners in the California gold fields. Mexican historians estimate that 4,000 to 5,000 people departed from Sonora between October 1848 and March 1849. Initially welcomed because of their knowledge of mining techniques, by 1854, racial discrimination had slowed their movement northward to a trickle. Other Latin American countries were also affected by the California gold rush.

In Europe, as well as in the Americas and Asia, the gold discovery stimulated increasing numbers to migrate to California. The 1850 census showed 3,050 Englishmen, 883 Scotsmen, and 182 Welshmen in California. Irish immigrants were also well-represented and their numbers increased to 33,147 by 1860, nearly one-quarter of the foreign-born element in California at that time (US Census, Population 1850, 1860). The English tended to congregate in the quartz mining districts, but a number of them also opened merchantile establishments (Roske 1963: 215).

The French population of California rose from less than 100 in 1849 to several thousand in the early 1850s. Most of those migrating did not belong to the lower classes or the peasantry, but were younger sons of nobility, civil servants, doctors, lawyers, bankers, skilled workmen, former army officers, scholars, and political refugees. They came to California to speculate in real estate, agriculture, and commerce as well as to mine. Their social background, manners, and language barriers caused them to be victims of violence and discrimination as American miners regarded them as "haughty foreigners" (Masatir 1934: 10-11). Most of the French miners ended up in the southern mining districts with the Italians and Latin Americans (Roske 1963: 226).

Most of the Germans who came to California during the gold rush were from Southern Germany, a region of small agricultural holdings. Unlike most other groups, they came with the idea of taking up permanent residence and never intended to mine, but desired to engage in business and agriculture. The Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Belgian and Austrian immigration was negligable during the gold rush period (Wright 1941: 69-70). By 1852 young Italian-Swiss peasants caught gold fever and began arriving in groups, especially from Canton Ticino, an area devastated economically by political problems with Austria. Most of the Italian-Swiss immigrants remained in California and eventually found their way into farming (Raup 1951: 306-307).

All of these groups and nationalities blended and mixed with Americans (sometimes with considerable associated violence), producing a society which had all the characteristics of all their backgrounds. Not only did they start from nothing to build communities, but these diverse pioneers had to reconstruct from their previous experiences a method to govern society and provide law and order. Out of their experience grew the mining codes, local government institutions, a rudimentary court system which became the foundation of much of the future growth of California and western mining (Shinn 1885).

One of the first lessons learned by the argonaut in '49 was that the auriferous gravels could be more profitably worked by associated labor and adoption of simple devices to increase the amount of gravels that could be washed in a day. Soon men began to form cooperative associations to dam and divert rivers, or to construct ditches to dry diggings. Ventures into the field of lode mining required considerable technical skill and financial resources. The "Bonanza Kings," San Francisco capitalists and foreign investors, dominated the middle period between the self-sufficient, independent, itinerant prospector and the large multidivisional corporations of the twentieth century. The early capitalists were hampered by limited financial resources, the need for technological training and expertise, difficulties in the acquisition of properties, and the pressures favoring corporate consolidation. Industrializing the mines revolutionalized the organization of the work force, drastically altered the methods of financing mining operations, imposed absentee ownership, and tied Western mining to the national and world economy.

Mining was the magnet that attracted people to the northern Sierra Nevada region. Many migrants had no intention of working the mines, but, as noted, the burgeoning population needed shops and services, food and clothing, transportation and building materials. Economic rationality in these areas tended to lead to economic concentration, and in the cases of logging and agricultural developments to a waste of resources and environmental degredation.

Railroads were the key to economic development in California, for they linked the different sections of the state and provided Californians with access to markets in the East and the Midwest. Pine lumbering operations emerged as a major enterprise for the first time in the Sierra Nevada. Lumbermen got their start cutting pine to meet the needs of the miners for timber and flumes and the needs of the railroad for ties and cordwood. When mining declined, its loss was offset by the demands of fruit growers for lumber used in making boxes and by the needs of builders in the state's expanding cities.

Wider markets, better transportation, larger corporations, more sophisticated financing, advanced technologies, and scientific knowledge brought varying degrees of material prosperity, but they also brought severe costs to the natural environment. In the Tahoe National Forest, eroded hillsides, hydraulic pits and silted rivers, toxic tailings, depleted vegetation on overgrazed range lands, and denuded timberlands were the principal environmental costs. Similar exploitation on a national level gave rise to the idea that natural resources should be conserved and the natural environment protected.

The impetus for the conservation movement came from scientists, usually European trained, who had witnessed or studied European resource exhaustion because of centuries of wasteful management. Joined by naturalists and transcendentalists in the late nineteenth century, this small group came to exert a powerful force in government, especially under Theodore Roosevelt. Critics of his programs directed their hostility against the chief advocate and architect of Roosevelt's conservative policy, Gifford Pinchot. Land speculators, western sectionalists, and large lumber cattle and sheep interests opposed setting aside millions of acres of forest as national reserves and parks. This hostility tended to overshadow some substantial western support of the policy. There were persons who viewed as wise a policy that provided protection of forests and related resources vital to their local economy. Contrary to prevailing western rhetoric, Pinchot was not an impractical theorist, and his interests were not inimical to western development. Roosevelt-Pinchot forest policy aimed at "multiple-use," "scientific management," and above all use of resources in a way beneficial to the whole of society in the long-run. In fact, when it came time to decide how National Forest resources were to be managed, clashes within the conservation movement itself were often as intense as those between it and western opponents of federal forest policies. The ideological split within conservation ranks into "utilitarians" and "preservationists" persists to today.