Читать книгу Lost Worlds of 1863. Relocation and Removal of American Indians in the Central Rockies and the Greater Southwest онлайн

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During the second season of gold mining, the summer of 1849, prospectors started spreading throughout the Sierra Nevada Range. Those that went south from the Sacramento and American Rivers usually stopped off at Stockton for supplies and equipment. Before long Stockton had become an important trading center. Argonauts from Stockton might travel 110 miles to the diggings on the Stanislaus River, or travel another 50 miles to the Merced River. Another 20 miles would take them to the Mariposa stream. If the adventurer went up the Merced he could look for gold in Yosemite. After all, no less a person than John C. Fremont had found gold at his Mariposa ranch, and if placer mining could be successful at Mariposa, the “mother vein” might be in the mountains of Yosemite.

The more daring of souls could hike 366 miles all the way up the San Joaquin River to what is known today as the John Meir Wilderness Area south of Yosemite. In one year, 1849, the San Joaquin Valley increased by more than 80,000 individuals. The old 1820 El Camino Viejo road, that connected the Los Angeles Basin with San Francisco along the west side of the San Joaquin Valley, would be used by prospectors, merchants, and settlers alike. All of this was not good news for the indigenous population.