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

DEL NORTE COUNTY.

  This is a small section in the extreme northwestern corner of the State, which
was set off from Klamath County (now extinct) March 2, 1858. The name literally
signifies "to the north." Efforts were made in the Legislature to give it the
names of Buchanan, Alta, Altissima and Rincon. James Buchanan was then President
of the United States, but it was claimed that the plan was to give all the
counties names of local significance. "Alta" means upper, and "altissima"
uppermost.

  The first settlement in this county was made in 1851, when a party of
prospectors, consisting of Captain S. R. Tompkins, Robert S. Williams, Captain
McDermott, Charles Moore, Thomas J. Roach, Charles Wilson, Charles Southard, two
brothers named Swain, Mr. Taggart, George Wood, W. T. Stevens, B. Ray, William
Rumley, W. A. J. Moore, Jerry Lane, John Cox, J. W. Burke, James Buck and a Mr.
Penny, and several others, located in this part of the State. The Indians
treacherously undertook to persuade them to move further up the river than where
they first located. Three of the young men went up, and two of them were
murdered outright and one mortally wounded. The rest of the party then went up
the river, found the village of the Indians and put a majority of them to death.
Two or three weeks after this the pioneers moved from Wingate's Bar to a camp
higher up the stream, to which place they gave the name of Happy Camp.

  The next settlements were made at Trinidad and at the mouth of the Klamath,
and the town of Crescent City on the south side of Point St. George was located.
The year 1852 was the date of the earliest permanent settlement, although
several vessels, including the Paragon, Cameo, and  the Laura Virginia had
anchored in the roadstead in 1850.

  Crescent City had a peculiar and romantic origin. An old story had been set
afloat in 1849-'50 that a solitary prospector crossed the Coast Range and
"struck it rich;" that he accumulated a fabulous sum, hid it, and that the
Indians assaulted him and left him for dead; that he recovered his
consciousness, but not his reason, and he wandered out of the forest into the
confines of civilization, and finally found his friends in the East. This story
of course excited the cupidity of some miners, who in the spring of 1851, under
Captain McDermott, began a search and first found a magnificent harbor. Another
party then started in search of that harbor and they found and named Paragon
Bay. They dispatched a messenger to San Francisco, who organized another
expedition to this bay, with the schooner Pomona, some time in the fall of 1852.
The next spring the town site was selected. During the winter of 1852-'53 A. M.
Rosborough purchased a land warrant in J. F. Wendell's name for 320 acres, on
which Crescent City now stands. The place was so named on account of the
crescent shape of the roadstead. Smith's River Valley, the only other settlement
of importance in that district, was settled in 1853.

  In 1858-'59 there was a war with the Mintoon Indians on the Upper Mad River,
resulting in a surrender of the savages, under General Kibbe. In February, 1860,
there occurred a great massacre of the redskins on Indian Island.

  The Assemblymen from Del Norte County have been: R. H. Campbell, 1887; L. F.
Cooper, 1880; W. B. Hamilton, 1883; R. P. Hirst, 1858, 1863-'64; W. B. Mason,
1881; James E. Murphy, 1869-'70, 1873-'78, and others from adjoining counties,
which see.


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.

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