History of Yuba River Valley

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Yuba County History

THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE YUBA RIVER VALLEY

by George Emmanuel Hanson

CHAPTER III

Early Emigrant Trails

Fully a score of years before the hardy trappers pushed through the Great Basin and blazed trails over the forbidding Sierra into the valleys of California, the Spaniards on their expeditions inland, traversed among other regions, the Valley of the Yuba. It may not be strictly irrelevant in this place to follow them on one of their expeditions, the course of which in a general way is known, before giving our attention to routes which are in a truer sense emigrant trails.

The Expedition of Gabriel Moraga - – A party under the leadership of Gabriel Moraga left the Mission San Jose on September 25, 1808, to search the eastern region of the Great Valley for favorable mission sites. Starting east to the valley they crossed the San Joaquin River near Stockton, passed to the Calaveras, a tributary stream, and followed it to its source in the Sierras. Finding no suitable mission site they advanced northward to the Mokelumne River and explored it through all its length. This region like that of the Calaveras offering no fitting location for a mission they moved further north, reaching the Cosumnes River. Unsuccessful in finding what they sought along this stream, they proceeded north once more and struck the American River near Auburn. Pursuing their northward advance they found the Feather River on which they encamped October 9^th.

Their line of march now changed somewhat. Crossing the Feather River at a point below its junction with the Yuba, they went northwest to the Marysville Buttes. Here they turned west continuing their journey in that direction until they reached the Upper Sacramento which they named the “Jesus Maria.” Following the eastern bank of this stream for a distance of ten leagues they probably arrived at what is now Butte City. This was the most northerly point which they attained on the expedition.

The next day, the twelfth of October, they turned east, and on the following day crossed the Feather River near Oroville. From here they started south along the east bank of the Stream passing through Yuba County and arriving once more at the American River.

In their journey down the east bank of the Feather River to the American they inevitably crossed the Yuba, since this stream is a tributary of the Feather which accordingly intercepted their line of march.

Moraga left the American River and for a number of days continued his explorations in the region further south. On October 23 he was back to his starting point, the Mission San Jose, convinced that the region through which he had passed offered no feasible mission sites.

The Coming of the Trappers - - Twenty years after Moraga’s visit to the valley other white men began coming in small bands moving up the rivers of California. These were the indomitable trappers who traversed the country in pursuit of furs. Bent on their object they seem to have hunted not only along the Sacramento and San Joaquin, but all their tributaries.

Of their pathways leading up and down Yuba River Valley we have no definite trace. In fact, it is only from general statements that we infer they penetrated this region. From the force of these enunciations, however, it seems safe to conclude that many a trapper must have followed the Yuba in seeking fur-bearing animals.

The Hudson Bay Trappers made their way into the state from the north at the same time that the Americans invaded California from the South and East. The former did not come in independent groups, but as organized brigades with a definite purpose of finding new trapping grounds. In contrast to the opinion held until recently that few Hudson Bay trappers penetrated California before 1835, one writer tells us they were here before 1828, declaring that the records show hundreds of pages dealing with their wanderings in the state previous to that time. It seems that they must have examined all parts of the Great Valley rather carefully. J. J. Warner mentions several trapping expeditions by Americans “in the waters of the great California valley.” We cannot say, however, whether any of these went so far to the northeast as the Yuba.

Jedediah S. Smith, the first American to make the journey into California by an overland route started from the post of the fur company at Great Salt Lake in August 1826. His object seems not to have been that of gathering furs, but rather that of exploring the far west and investigating the possibilities of fur hunting in that region.

Passing Utah Lake he proceeded in a general southwesterly course, reaching and following the Sevier River, which he called the Ashley. Some mountains lay before him; crossing these in a westward march he pressed on to the Meadow Valley Wash River, following it to the Muddy and advancing along the stream to the Virgin which in turn he descended to the Colorado. Gaining the east bank of the Colorado he traveled down the valley to the Mojave villages. Here he stayed for a period of two weeks, recruiting his men and horses and obtaining some information of the Californias. Recrossing the Colorado at Needles, Smith struck out across the desert to the Spanish settlements, reaching San Gabriel on November 27, 1826.

After a more or less troublesome sojourn in Southern California he left the San Bernardino Valley by the Cajon Pass as if complying with Escheandia’s instructions to leave the country. However, Smith had no intention of quitting California as yet. Turning north therefore he crossed the Mojave Desert and entered the San Joaquin Valley by either the Tejon Pass or the Tehachapi.

His journey northward took him into the Great Valley which everywhere was inhabited by friendly Indians. On one of the rivers lived a tribe called Wimulche. Smith encamped for a time on this river and named it after the Indian tribe. It is impossible to determine with accuracy what stream this was. If the opinions of several historians on this matter were accepted as equally authoritative, it might be any river from the Kings to the American.

There would be a certain element of satisfaction in giving to the Yuba the distinction of being this particular stream. In this contention we might derive some shadowy support from the fact that Mt. Joseph at which place Smith crossed the Sierras, according to certain maps, was located far north of the Stanislaus or ever the American. It was the name given to what is now Mr. Lassen. But this would take Smith far beyond the three hundred miles designated as the distance from San Gabriel to the river of the Wimmulche. Harrison C. Dale, who is the best authority on Smith’s expedition identifies Mt. Joseph with Mt. Stanislaus and the River Wimmulche with the River Stanislaus. In support of his conclusion Dale submits very convincing arguments.

It is more likely that Smith saw the Yuba the following year while spending the winter and early spring in the neighborhood of the American River. In his pursuit of furs, and in his attempt to cross the Sierras, he may have traversed Yuba Valley. We know that by April 1828 he had made several futile attempts to find in the mountains east of the Sacramento Valley a practicable pass, before leaving the head of that valley for the coast and making for the Columbia.

The Southern Trails - - Smith having opened the way, other American trappers sought the valleys of California. In the period from 1828 to 1832 there were at least five trails besides the one taken by Smith over which they made their way into Southern California. The Pattie trail, the Jackson trail, the Young trail, the Armijo trail, and the Wolfskill trail marked quite distinct routes. Entering by these trails some of the early trappers and traders passed up through the San Joaquin and Sacramento Valleys and even beyond.

The trails became in the course of time well known roads. They became the highways of trade between the posts of New Mexico and the settlements of California. In the days of ’49 emigrants from the southern states crowded over them as they pressed on to the gold region. It may be said, however, that most of the gold seekers who came by these routes stopped at the southern mines instead of advancing onward to the diggings along the Yuba.

The Northern Trails - - While trappers were opening trails into Southern California, other fur-hunters were penetrating the interior of the state from northern routes.

The first of these trails opened by Peter Skene Ogden in 1826-1827 led along the eastern side of the Cascades from the Des Chutes River to the Pitt. Later emigrants seem to have made little use of this road; only that part of it along the Pitt which afterwards was known as the Lassen Road was used to any extent by the “Gold Hunters.”

The second trail, traveled by Alexander McLeod in 1828, extended from the Klamath, Lake County, across the Siskiyous. A route known as the Applegate Cut-off, which was much used by emigrants bound for northern California and Oregon, followed the course of this trail over the mountains.

The trail of La Framboise, the third route of the Hudson Bay Trappers was opened in 1832 and led from the Rogue River into the Sacramento Valley. In later years it was the most traveled way into California, and was known as the Oregon Road.

The Central Trails And The Emigrants - - Following the trappers, men with different motives and aspirations sought the valleys beyond the Sierras. They came fired by the accounts of fur traders and merchants who in their enthusiasm for California portrayed in glowing terms the charms and advantages of that region. In their books, articles and letters they told of the warm climate, the fertile soil and the land free of cost. All this created a desire among the ever restless rovers to emigrate to the far west.

The emigrants did not always follow the routes of the trappers. They often pushed out over unknown wilds to the Sierras, crossing the lofty crest of this range where white men never before traveled. Once in California they settled in different localities. A number of them made their homes along the Yuba in the vicinity of Marysville.

THE YUBA RIVER VALLEY TRAILS

Three emigrant roads over the Sierra leading to Sacramento penetrated Yuba Valley while a fourth turned in the neighborhood to reach Sutter’s Fort by a more southerly course.

The first of these led through Donner Pass the most famous of all openings across the Sierra. By this route hundreds of emigrants made their slow and difficult way to the new land breaking the trail for the forty-niners who followed by thousands to their El Dorado. This route, notorious as well as famous was the scene of many dreadful experiences. It was here that some of the greatest tragedies in the annals of western emigration took place.

The Stephens-Murphy Company - - Probably the first company to cross the Sierras by this route was the Stephens-Murphy party which was organized in the spring of 1844. Leaving Council Bluffs in May of that year the company numbering more than fifty men besides women and children led by Elisha Stevens, started westward. The route which it followed touched at Laramie and Fort Bridger passing through the Bear River country to Fort Hall. About half of the party went to Oregon from here, while the remainder consisting of some forty men, women and children made their way southward to Great Salt Lake and the Humboldt River. Following the Humboldt to its Sink they arrived at the latter place late in October or early in November.

They halted at the Sink – but only for a short time. An early snowstorm reminded them that the Sierras might soon be impassible and warned them to be under way.

From the Sink of the Humboldt they traveled directly west to Steamboat Springs. Here they turned north through the Truckee Meadows to the Truckee River which stream they followed crossing it finally at its north fork. From here the party pressed on to a lake which two years later witnessed the tragedy of the Donner Party and became known as Donner Lake. Just beyond it, is the Donner Pass.

It was already late in the season and snow lay at the higher altitudes of the Sierras. Undecided as to which course to pursue the company broke up. The main party crossed to the headwaters of the American River and followed it down to the Sacramento Valley without disaster though with great toil. The remainder of the party pressed on with their wagons to the headwaters of the Yuba River. Here they came to a stand and prepared to spend the winter. Three of the party, Foster, Montgomery and Schallenberger returned to Donner Lake where they stored their supplies and expected to be able to live by hunting. But the snow became so deep as to make successful hunting impossible, and early in December to escape starvation, two of them started across the mountains on improvised snowshoes. Schallenberger who was in no condition to make the trip, remained at the cabin. His salvation was the finding of some steel traps left by Captain Stevens. With these he caught coyote and foxes upon which he subsisted. In the spring, consequently, a rescue party found him alive. The cabin which was his home during the winter afforded shelter to some members of the Donner Party two years later.

The party stationed on the Yuba was next divided. Leaving their friends in the shelter of the wagons with a few oxen for food, eight men started for Sutter’s Fort. The way was unknown to them, but they struggled blindly onward. Snow covered the ridges and it was with great difficulty that they labored over what seemed an interminable succession of hills and canons. In the course of their wandering they found by good fortune Johnson’s Ranch on Bear River. Here they rested for a while before crossing to the American River which they followed to Sutter’s Fort.

It was nearly a month before they could get a rescue party under way to the Yuba. Sutter, who was occupied with other pressing matters was unable to give them immediate assistance. The delay, however, occasioned no disaster. By March all were taken to the Valley.

The route followed by this party was the most central of the emigrant roads. In the days of forty-nine it became known as the “California Trail.”

Fremont’s Second California Expedition - - A second trail crossed the Sierras by way of Donner Pass. This was the route taken by Fremont in his second California expedition. It did not extend from the pass westward to Yuba River, but turned south and descended to the Sacramento Valley along the American River.

Immediately after completing his report on the expedition of 1844 Fremont hastened to St. Louis and organized a company for a third trip. The expedition professed to be strictly of scientific character and to have for its main object the discovery and exploration of a new and shorter route from the Mississippi to the Pacific.

Leaving Bent’s Fort on the Arkansas River on August 16, 1845 with a company of sixty men, he ascended the river to its source. From here they explored the country in a northwesterly course to Utah Lake and spent two weeks at the end of October in topographic work about Great Salt Lake. Striking out across the unknown part of the Great Basin, they were guided for some distance by a mountain peak to which Fremont gave the name Pilot Peak. Here they found grass and fresh water and therefore rested a day to recruit their animals after the strain of the desert. On the following day, November 1, they took up their march once more winding their way westward reaching at night a spring near the headwaters of the Humboldt River.

“The winter was now approaching,” Fremont says, “and I had good reason to know that the snow would be in the Great Sierra. It was imprudent to linger long in the examination of the Great Basin.” To gain time and information he decided to divide his party. Fremont himself with ten others took a southwestern route through an unexplored region, reaching Walker’s Lake, November 24, 1845. The main party under Talbot followed and surveyed the Humboldt to its sink and thence turned southward to Walker Lake, where they rejoined Fremont on the twenty-seventh.

Not wishing to risk his whole slow moving party in an attempt to cross the Sierras which might soon be snow covered, Fremont once more divided his company. The main division under the command of Talbot, guided by Walker, was ordered to pass southward along the eastern foot of the Sierras, and to enter the San Joaquin by a southern entrance - - Walker’s Pass.

Meanwhile Fremont with a select party of fifteen men proceeded north along the east side of Walker’s Lake to the Walker River, following that stream to its northernmost bend. He was now near his trail of last year and soon came to the stream which he had previously named Salmon Trout River, now the Truckee. Following the stream upward he was on the path of the Stephen-Murphy party, the California Trail.

On the morning of December 2, they climbed “the ridge which faces the eastern side, and at sunrise were at the crest of the divide, 7200 feet above the sea (Donner Pass is 7056)…. The emigrant road now passes here, following down a fork of Bear River. Instead of passing onward to the Yuba thence across to the Bear, Fremont turned south to a fork of the American River. Advancing to the main stream he pressed on to Sutter’s Fort arriving there on December 9.

After diverse experiences with the Californians, Fremont left Sutter’s Fort on April 24, traveling slowly northward. A journey of two days brought his party to the mouth of the Yuba at which place was a large village of Indians, after whom, Fremont says, the river was named. The Indians helped them across with canoes and small raft and they continued to the fine cattle ranch of Theodore Cordua not far up the Yuba. On Butte Creek the blacksmith Neal, who had remained behind at Sutter’s Fort from the other Fremont expedition, was encountered occupying a good ranch with plenty of stock. Moving northward they halted at Lassen’s Ranch on Deer Creek, and after a leisurely advance reached the Klamath Lake region about the middle of May. Here they were overtaken by Neal the former blacksmith and a companion also known to Fremont. They were messengers from a limited States officer, Lieutenant Gillespie, who was following with dispatches from the Government. The information brought by Gillespie caused a radical change in Fremont’s plans. He did not continue his route to Oregon, but immediately retraced his steps to the Sacramento.

Popularity Of The Humboldt And Truckee Road - - The route of the Humboldt and Truckee which at the western summit of the Sierra forked into the Yuba-Bear, Bear-American, and American trails to Sacramento was the principal highway of overland migration. In subsequent years the parties who took this route, and arrived at Sacramento by one or the other of the aforenamed trails, were so numerous, that a great number of pages would be necessary to afford the space for a mere list of them.

In the early spring of 1846 no less than two thousand emigrants with about five hundred teams of oxen, mules, and horses plodded their way over the plains west of Independence headed for their goal, the Pacific Coast. Although most of these travelers made their way to Oregon, hundreds turned southward and entered California by the Humboldt and Truckee route. Of the latter, a number followed the Yuba-Bear trail to Sutter’s Fort.

Edwin Bryant And The Yuba-Bear Trail 1846 - - It was on the 5^th of May 1846, that Edwin Bryant in company with Mr. Jacob, and Mr. Ewing with a few others left Independence, Missouri on their journey to California. As they advanced they were joined from time to time by different small parties each under the guidance of its own captain. Successively they met with companies under the leadership of Russel, West, Newton, Gordon, Grayson, Harlan, Dunleavy, Boggs, Reed and Donner.

A considerable number of adventurous Americans had crossed the plains in previous years; notwithstanding, there was no road between the Missouri and Pacific which deserved any other appellation than “trail”.

Following the trail along the Plate and the Sweetwater, the Bryant party crossed the mountains at South Pass and reached after some difficulty Salt Lake Valley. Pressing on to the Humboldt, they followed it to the Sink, whence they journeyed across the desert to the Truckee. It was then the 25 of August. At Donner Lake they found the log-house in which Schallenberger had spent the winter two years before, and in which certain members of the Donner Party now far behind in the journey would pass the horrible days of the coming season.

Crossing the divide at Donner Pass and, “descending the rocky ravine a few miles, we emerged from it and entered a beautiful level valley, some four or five miles in length from east to west, and about two miles in breadth. A narrow sluggish stream runs through this valley, the waters of which are of considerable depth and the banks, steep and miry. A luxuriant growth of grasses, of an excellent quality, covered the entire valley with the richest verdure. Flowers were in bloom; and although late in August, the vegetation presented all the tenderness and freshness of May. This valley has been named by the emigrants “Uber Valley;” and the stream which runs through it, and is a tributary of the Rio de las Plumas, or Feather River, has the same name. It is sometimes pronounced Juba; but I think Uber is the correct etymology. How the name was derived, I never could learn.”

Passing in a southwest course from the Yuba, they crossed Bear Valley and struck Johnson’s Rancho on the Bear River. Two days later they proceeded down the river to the residence of John Sinclair from which place they started in the last lap of their long journey. They company arrived at Sutter’s Fort on the first of September, and were welcomed with friendly cordiality by Captain Sutter.

Other Immigrant Bands Of 1846 - - The Bryant Party was accompanied in the last stage of the journey by a number of the aforenamed companies; others followed closely behind. The advance company of those emigrants who took the new route from Fort Bridger via the south end of Great Salt Lake was the Harlan Band. These pioneers and those following in their trail reached the Sierras in good season, and like the Bryant party took the Yuba-Bear trail, the path of the Stephens-Murphy company, to Sutter’s Fort. But the Donner Party in taking a different route were much delayed. They did not reach the Pass of the Sierra Nevada until the thirty-first of October, when they should have been there by the first of that month.

The Henness Pass - - At the headwaters of the most northwesterly branches of the Truckee is another defile through which miners gained entrance to the gold region. This is known as the Henness Pass.

It is difficult to determine when this passage was first used. Previous to the gold rush, however, emigrants probably made little or no use of it. They were headed for Sutter’s Fort and consequently took the more direct route following in the footsteps of the Stephen-Murphy party. It is unlikely, furthermore, that forty miners crossed over the Henness Pass, since they, too, had Sacramento as their goal. In later years many gold seekers were induced as they drew near to California to take more direct routes or “cut offs” to the mines and to end their journey at certain other towns claiming size and importance. The road from the California Trail across the Henness Pass was certainly the most direct of all routes to the Yuba. It is possible then that persons working in the interest of Nevada City and Marysville induced a number of people to follow this cut off, and to make those cities their starting point for the diggings. At best, however, it was a rough trail and passable only with pack trains.

In the early fifties people of these mountain towns began holding meetings to consider the question of constructing wagon roads over the Sierras. The practicability of the Henness Pass route was considered in 1855, and the road was carefully surveyed.

At the point where the Truckee makes a large bend to the south the Henness Pass road left the river in a direct westerly course, while the Donner Pass trail followed the stream south and west to the summit near Donner Lake. Crossing in its westerly way an intervening divide the Henness Pass road entered Dog Valley. From here it passed in a southwest direction to the North Fork of the Truckee from which place it extended nearly due west to the summit above Webber Lake. The road lead around the northern side of the lake and crossed over the Henness Pass. From the summit it descended to a point on the middle Yuba, crossed that stream and followed a course midway between the North and South Forks of the Yuba to Comptonville [sic].

When the silver deposits on the Comstock were discovered in 1859 the road which had been surveyed four years previously, it seems, was still unbuilt. In November 1859, a company in the interest of Marysville was organized to construct a road through Henness Pass connecting with the Marysville road at North San Juan. The road was constructed, and thousands passed over it in a wild rush to the land of silver.

Beckwourth’s Pass - - The fourth and most northerly of the Yuba Valley emigrant roads singularly does not approach the valley from the east. Passing roughly in a semicircular course from the California trail northwesterly around the Yuba region, it follows a canon of the Feather River to the main stream, and leads southward to Marysville. Beckwourth’s Pass over which it crosses the Sierras is situated near the eastern border of Plumas County and is one of the lowest passes in the range.

James Beckwourth, the discoverer of the pass was a trapper and hunter who had lived a wild and varied life on the frontier. He first came to California in 1844 by way of New Mexico. When the war broke out with Mexico two years afterwards, he stole a large band of horses and started with the “utmost speed” eastward. In the gold rush of 1849 he returned to engaged in mining and prospecting. It was while he was on a prospecting expedition to the Pitt River that he first got sight of the pass which later received his name.

From some of the elevations over which he with one companion passed, upon proceeding northward from the American Valley, Beckwourth saw far to the south a place lower than any other. He did not mention the discovery to his associate, but resolved at some future time to examine it more closely. They continued on to Shasta and after a fruitless journey of eighteen days returned to the American Valley.

A short time afterwards Beckwourth accompanied a party of twelve on a second prospecting trip. They traveled in an easterly direction, but advanced slowly, for as they journeyed they looked for the precious metal. Beckwourth’s errand, however, was of a different character; his mission was to discover what he suspected to be a pass.

It was at the end of April that the company entered the Sierra Valley where already everything revealed the presence of spring; trees and flowers were in bloom, meadows displayed their freshest verdure, birds sang. But nowhere was there any visible trace of white man’s existence. The party struck across the floor of the valley to the headwaters of the Yuba, thence proceeded across the summit to the source of the Truckee.

Having observed the region carefully Beckwourth was now convinced that a most successful wagon road could be constructed to the American Valley through the pass he had previously discovered. Upon returning from the trip, therefore, he unveiled his discovery to Mr. Turner, proprietor of the American Ranch. The latter zealously indorsed his plan and drew up a subscription list, which he head with two hundred dollars. Beckwourth then hastened to Bidwell’s Bar where his new road project was likewise greeted with enthusiasm as well as active support.

At Marysville he explained how the emigrant road running from near Reno into Sierra Valley via Beckwourth’s Pass and following the central fork of the Feather River to Bidwell’s Bar, thence to Marysville, could be made practicable and how the latter place would derive peculiar advantages from the project. The people of the town heartily encouraged it. The mayor satisfied with the prospect of its worth to Marysville guaranteed to insure the expense of the undertaking and invited Beckwourth to proceed with his plans.

The eager pathfinder immediately set men to work upon the road, while he himself went to Truckee to turn emigration into his newly discovered route. Shortly afterwards he lead the first party, a train of seventeen wagons through Beckwourth’s Pass. Arriving safely at Marysville, these emigrants expressed their complete satisfaction with the road.

The practicability of the new route had been established and there was quite a public rejoicing at Marysville. But on the very night of the arrival of the emigrants a greater part of the town was laid in ashes. In consequence of this disaster the major was unable to give Beckwourth the monetary reward which he had anticipated. A public subscription, however, contributed somewhat to his compensation.

Emigrants subsequently made much use of this road. It became in time the route of the Western Pacific Railroad.

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