Plumas County CA Archives History - Books .....General Description 1882
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Book Title: Illustrated History Of Plumas, Lassen & Sierra Counties

HISTORY OF PLUMAS COUNTY.

   IN preparing the history of Plumas County, the writer has, in a great
measure, relied upon information and data furnished by Mr. Fenton B. Whiting,
now and for years past the popular clerk of Plumas county. Imbued with a strong
desire to preserve for posterity the annals of the county which has been his
home for thirty years, and where the most stirring scenes of his life have been
enacted, Mr. Whiting has for a number of years been engaged upon the work of
collecting the data which he has so kindly placed, together with his
enthusiastic assistance, at our disposal. This has been combined with
information obtained from many and varied sources, making a history both
complete and accurate. In this way Mr. Whiting's identity has been to a large
degree lost, but here and there his friends will readily recognize his
handiwork. Our thanks are also due to the gentlemen who have contributed from
their own experiences to aid Mr. Whiting in his labors, as well as to those who
have made their contributions to us direct. They will all feel a proprietary
interest in the following pages.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION.

   Plumas is a county of mountains, whose lofty chains hold in their firm
embrace many green and fertile valleys, as lovely as any that fall beneath the
eye of Apollo in his daily round. Lofty peaks and sloping hills, rich with their
robes of green, greet the eye; while winding through and around them are
hundreds of clear mountain brooks, singing and babbling in their joy, as they
hasten onward to unite their waters with the great streams that carry them
onward to the valley, and thence to the bosom of the mighty ocean. Three great
divisions of the Feather river- the middle fork, the north and east branches of
the north fork—have their sources in the county, and from their multitude of
tributaries receive the water that falls as rain or snow on the lofty hills or
imprisoned valleys, having their ramifications in every nook and corner of the
vast expanse of mountains. High up among the peaks are lakes of clear, pellucid
water, lovely mountain tarns, sweetly reposing in their secure abode far above
the busy scenes of life below. Children of the glaciers, they carry the thoughts
back to those distant ages when those immense fields of ice ground and furrowed
their way over the mighty hills, plowing in their onward march the deep canons
and ravines that form-our water-courses, filling the valleys with that alluvial
deposit which now yields such rich rewards to the labor of the husbandman,
uncovering those vast storehouses of gold that have replenished the world's
wealth for a third of a century; and finally, as they disappeared, leaving these
little lakes in their rocky prison, fashioned by their icy hands, far up among
the loftiest peaks of the Sierra.

   Plumas county lies wholly on the western slope of the mountains. The summit
that divides the waters that find their way into the Sacramento valley from
those that flow into the great Nevada basin forms its eastern boundary Kne. It
lies between Shasta and Lassen counties on the north, Lassen on the east, Sierra
and Tuba on the south, and Butte and Tehama on the west; and its different
sections are intimately connected with each of them, save Tehama and Shasta. Its
greatest length is from the north-west to the south-east, or, more definitely
speaking, from Lassen peak to Beckwourth pass, a distance of eighty-five miles;
transversely, from south-west to northeast, it is but forty-five miles. The
whole embraces an area of over two thousand square miles, or twelve hundred and
eighty thousand acres. Of this, some two hundred thousand acres are agricultural
land, distributed among a number of valleys, large and small, the chief ones
being American, Indian, Big Meadows, Buck's, Meadow, Mohawk, Genesee, Sierra,
Beckwourth, Long/Red Clover, Round, Last Chance, and Onion. The major portion,
however, is composed of mountains covered with a noble growth of coniferous
trees, such as sugar pine, yellow pine, spruce, balsam fir, and cedar; while
mountain oak, manzanita, laurel, buckeye, alder, and chaparral grow in great
profusion. These forests have supplied timber for flumes, mines, and
improvements since the first white man penetrated into this region, and
thousands of feet of lumber are still cut annually, though the forests seem as
dense as ever, save here and there where the saws have been most busily at work.

   In his "Geological Survey of California," Vol. I., Professor J. D. Whitney,
state geologist, thus describes Plumas county and its main topographical and
geological features:

   "Pilot Peak, which is near the southern line of the county, is an isolated,
volcanic knob of hard, ash-gray, crystalline, basaltic rock, which is most
beautifully columnar on its northern slope. The view from the summit is
peculiarly fine, Lassen's Peak being visible in the north-west, and the Coast
Ranges in the south-west. Fifteen or twenty miles to the north-west, mountains
are seen which are of about the same hight as Pilot Peak, and very deeply wooded
on all sides; indeed, the whole region to the east and north-east is furrowed by
tremendous canons, many of them being over two thousand feet deep. In the
south-east the Downieville buttes were seen, with a very rugged outline. The
most elevated points in the range lie east of the line connecting Pilot Peak and
the Downieville buttes; the highest of these is perhaps five hundred feet higher
than Pilot Peak itself;: Table Mountain lies to the west, and is nearly as high.
The whole region to the south of the summit is very rough, and its sky outline
very serrated. On the peak the magnetic needle is very irregular, and was
observed to be directed towards nearly every point within the space of a few
square rods. The elevation of Pilot Peak above the sea is 7,605 feet, and of
this the upper portion is exclusively volcanic; the lava forming a mass about
650 feet thick, as estimated from observations taken at Onion valley, 1,216 feet
below the summit of the peak.

   "The auriferous slates are very finely exposed on the north side of the
mountain, having a north and south strike, and a dip to the east of about eighty
degrees; they are cut squarely off at the top, and covered with lava. The strike
of the slates, however, is not uniform in this region. One mile north-east of
Onion valley large masses were observed with a trend of N. 35 degrees W., and a
south-westerly dip; and again, upon descending into the canon of the Middle Yuba
(Feather?), they were seen running N. 15 degrees W., and from that to N. 35
degrees W., and standing nearly vertical. Great masses of serpentine occur along
the trail between Pilot Peak and Onion valley; and between this and Nelson's
Point a variety of magnesian rocks were noticed.

   "The canon of the Middle Yuba (Feather?) is exceedingly deep, the difference
of level between the river at Nelson's Point and the summit of Pilot Peak being
fully 3,650 feet. From the bottom of the canon to the top of the slates the
vertical hight is not less than 3,000 feet, all of which has been removed by the
agency of water since the time of the eruption of the overlying volcanic
materials. Nowhere in the Sierra do we find more stupendous examples of
denudation than occur in the region north and north-east of Pilot Peak, in the
canons of Middle Yuba (Feather?) and its branches. At Nelson's Point the slates
stand nearly vertical, and crop out in grand masses along the sides of the
canon. But on the steep slopes on both sides the surface strata often curve, as
if bent by sliding down the hill, so as to give the impression of a dip to the
east, when in fact they stand perfectly vertical below. The elevation of
Nelson's Point above the sea is 3,858 feet.

   "The basin called the American valley, in which the town of Quincy is
situated, is about eleven miles long, and from two to three wide; it has an
elevation of 3,500 feet above the sea. In the range of mountains which was
crossed in going from Quincy to Elizabethtown, and which is about eight miles
wide, slates and sandstones were observed, sometimes but little metamorphosed.
They had the usual north-west strike, but dipped towards the south-west. These
slates are capped at the summit of the range by hard lava, which occupies only a
narrow belt, the flanks of the mountain on the north side being of metamorphic
rocks, similar to those seen on the south. Some granitic masses occur in this
region. A bold and elevated ridge of this rock was seen a few miles west of
Quincy, and again about two miles before reaching Elizabethtown, where it
occupies a belt about a mile in width. The slates, however, are the
predominating formation. This part of the county is principally occupied by the
metamorphic rocks, over an area of about thirty miles in diameter; but this is
almost entirely surrounded by volcanic materials, the great lava streams which
have come down from Lassen's Peak on the north, and Pilot Peak on the south,
uniting with the volcanic crest of the Sierra, so as to cover the slates around
three-quarters of the circumference of the circle.

   "From Indian valley the route followed led up to Genesee valley, following
Genesee creek, a branch of Spanish creek. This stream runs nearly west, through
a canon which a few miles higher up opens out into a valley about four miles
long and three-fourths of a mile broad; the upper part of this is occupied by
granitic rocks, the lower by slates. In the canon, about a mile and a half from
its mouth, Messrs. Brewer and King discovered a locality of fossils, where a
considerable number of specimens of various genera and species were obtained.
They were found principally on the spurs of rock coming down from the north, and
in the canons between them. The rock is a metamorphic sandstone, rather
fine-grained, and portions of it are of a deep red color, resembling in
appearance much of the Old Red or Devonian sandstone in England or on the
continent. In places it is so much changed that the fossils have become nearly
or even quite obliterated; but a number of species were obtained in a
sufficiently good state of preservation to be determined. The specimens obtained
here were referred to Mr. Meek for examination, and were considered by him to be
almost certainly of Jurassic age. The strata in which the fossils were found
vary from east and west to north-east and south-west, and they dip to the south
at all angles between thirty degrees and eighty degrees. This locality is about
four miles below Giflord's ranch. and near a small grassy flat into which the
canon opens, and is called Mormon Station.

   "Above this the valley contracts again into a narrow canon; but two miles
farther up it opens into another and larger basin, called Genesee valley. Along
the ravine the rocks are highly metamorphosed, and their stratification is much
disturbed. It is in this valley that Gifford's ranch is situated, and near it is
the junction of the granitic and metamorphic rocks. Near the line of contact of
the two formations is a belt of limestone which is highly crystalline, but
contains a few obscure fossils, apparently the fragments of stems of crinoids,
and which are probably of Carboniferous age, although this question could not be
definitely settled.

   "At one locality, between the main belt of limestone and the granite, where
there is a curve in the strata, there is a limited patch of calcareous slate
containing quite a number of fossils, some of them.in very good preservation.
These fossils belong to the Triassic series, and prove clearly the existence at
this point of the same formation which is so well developed in the Humboldt
mining region in Nevada, and also at Washoe, and which, as we have abundant
evidence to prove, extends over a vast area on the Pacific coast.

   "We have strong reasons to believe that a large portion of the auriferous
slates belong to the same formation with those of Genesee valley, which are
themselves worked for gold, there being placers all along the range on the south
side of the creek quite up to the locality in question.

   "From Genesee valley our party returned to Indian valley, and thence made
their way in a westerly direction to Big Meadows, in order to explore the
vicinity of Lassen's Peak and seek out a route to its summit. Indian valley is
from ten to twelve miles long, and is a fertile and pleasant spot, although its
elevation is considerable. It is quite surrounded by high mountains, those on
the east having an elevation of about 6,000 feet. In passing down the valley the
slates which are seen on the east side were observed to contain more jaspar than
is usual in the Sierra.

   "Between Indian valley and the Big Meadows, the edge of the great volcanic
region is struck; from here the mass of lava extends almost uninterruptedly to
the Oregon line, and far beyond. The Big Meadows are on the north fork of the
Feather river, and form a delightful valley of about fifteen miles long and from
two to three wide; it is quite surrounded by volcanic tables and ridges, those
on the east side having an elevation of about five hundred feet above the
valley, which is itself 4,564 feet above the sea. This elevation was taken at
the lower end of the valley, near Bidwell's store, where the Chico road crosses.

   "All the pebbles seen about here were of volcanic rock; but the metamorphic
slates are reported to occur at Mountain Meadows, which is a basin similar to
the Big Meadows, and about fifteen miles farther to the north-east. The soil of
this valley is rather sandy, especially towards its upper end, and the elevation
is too great for any other agricultural occupation than that of pasturing
cattle. The views of Lassen's Peak, rising above the upper end of the Big
Meadows, are particularly grand. The mountain does not show a distinct conical
shape when seen from this direction, as it does from others, but its slopes are
very steep, especially the eastern one."

   A description of Lassen's Peak will be found in the first part of the Lassen
county history, as will also an account of the exploration of Noble's pass by
Lieutenant E. G. Beck with.



Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

Illustrated History of Plumas, Lassen & Sierra Counties

San Francisco: Fariss & Smith
(1882)

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