Alpine County CA Archives History - Books .....Alpine County 1891
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Book Title: Memorial And Biographical History Of Northern California

ALPINE COUNTY.

  The name of this county denotes its origin, the topography and scenery of the
region it covers being of the most pronounced Alpine type. The word literally is
derived from Alps, and this again from the Celtic root alb, signifying white,
referring to the snowy summits.

  For boundaries this county has the State of Nevada on north and east, Mono
County on the east, Mono and Tuolumne counties on the south, and Calaveras,
Amador, and El Dorado on the west. The county was organized by act of the
Legislature March 16, 1864.

  Alpine is a mass of mountains, cleft by a few deep valleys, its altitude
ranging from four thousand five hundred to eleven thousand feet above the level
of the sea. Half the county lies along the easterly slope of the Sierra Nevadas,
its westerly boundary being the crest of these mountains. Standing to the east
is the lofty outlying peak known as Silver Mountain, connected with the main
Sierra by a notched and jagged cross chain, which, seen from the north, presents
a contour diversified along its whole extent by precipitous cliffs, turreted
rocks, and far upshooting spires, resembling at some points a vast cathedral,
and at others a castellated ruin. There is not in the State a more picturesque,
wild, and broken district than this.

  Few counties in California are better watered and timbered than Alpine. The
two main forks of the Carson River, having many confluents, some of them large
streams, traverse the county centrally from, north to south. These streams serve
the double purpose of furnishing conduits for floating down timber and fuel to
the country below, and an immense water power, which can be made easily
available for the propulsion of machinery. Although most of the timber in the
valley and along the foothills has been cut away, the Comstock mines having
obtained much of their timber and fuel here, the mountains further back are
still covered with heavy forests, the inroads made upon them by the woodman
being inconsiderable.

  Alpine County was represented in the Legislature of 1885 by R. J. Van
Voorhies; in 1887 by A. J. Gould; and for the other years see under head of
Amador and other adjoining counties.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from

Memorial and Biographical History of Northern California.

Illustrated, Containing a History of this Important Section of the Pacific Coast
from the Earliest Period of its Occupancy to the Present Time, together with
Glimpses of its Prospective Future; Full-Page Steel Portraits of its most
Eminent Men, and Biographical Mention of many of its Pioneers and also of
Prominent Citizens of To-day.

"A people that takes no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will
never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote
descendents." – Macauley.

CHICAGO
THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
1891.

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ca/alpine/history/1891/memorial/alpineco61gms.txt

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