Sierra County CA Archives History - Books .....Description Of Sierra County 1882 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ca/cafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@gmail.com January 18, 2006, 9:32 pm Book Title: Illustrated History Of Plumas, Lassen & Sierra Counties SIERRA COUNTY lies in the north-eastern part of the state of California, its entire area being included within the great range of the Sierra Nevadas. From its almost universal mountainous nature it has been appropriately termed Sierra, the lowest point within its confines being two thousand feet above the level of the sea. It is bounded on the north by Plumas and Lassen counties, on the east by the state of Nevada, on the south by Nevada county, and on the west by Yuba and Plumas counties. The topography of the county, with the exception of Sierra valley, presents a continuous succession of lofty hills and deep canons, many of the former rising to dizzy heights, and hundreds of the latter sinking into bewildering depths, with precipitous walls of rock and earth. Most of the hills are covered with magnificent coniferous forests of red spruce, balsam fir, cedar, sugar and yellow pine; while the valleys or canons furnish a rich growth of oak and all the varieties of trees found in the foot-hills of California. It is not uncommon to find vast pines towering up to a height of two hundred feet or more, situated at the base of hills, with soaring tops that seem ambitious to reach the highest altitudes surrounding them. Most of the mining towns in Sierra county are situated far above the snow-line, at elevations ranging from three to six thousand feet. Every part of the county enjoys a climate unrivaled for healthfulness and pleasure. Malarial disorders and fevers, so universal in other sections of the state, are totally unknown here. A physician moving here is obliged to reconstruct his system of practice on another basis entirely from that which obtains elsewhere. The water obtained from the numerous mountain streams is of the purest possible quality, being fed by the vast masses of snow melting from the summits. The crystal torrents on every side, dashing and foaming over the rocks, pursuing their serpentine ways through the wild yet always beautiful canons of the Sierras, rushing with mighty swiftness along their narrow channels, and singing the ever-sweet song of rushing waters, are laden with countless numbers of beautiful mountain trout, choice prizes for the eager angler: all of which attractions during the summer months draw many seekers for health and pleasure to these banquet-halls of nature. The county is traversed by the Middle Yuba river on the south, the North Yuba in the center, Slate creek and Canon creek on the north, together with numerous affluents pertaining to them all. Oregon creek, Kanaka creek, and Wolf creek flow from the north into the Middle Yuba; the North Yuba forks at Downieville, causing the south fork of the North Yuba, and the middle and north forks of the North Yuba. In addition to these streams are many small and lovely lakes scattered through the center and eastern parts of the county. Webber lake, in the south-eastern part of the county (spoken of elsewhere in this volume), is a beautiful sheet of water, remarkable for its many echoes. Gold lake, with its many lesser companions, occupies a place in the north, being reservoirs for myriads of the famous mountain trout. The isolated peaks of Sierra county are Table Rock, Saddle Back, Mount Fillmore, Fir Cap, Mount Lola, and the Sierra Buttes. Fir Cap attains an altitude of 6,500 feet, Sierra Buttes 8,950 feet, and Mount Lola, the highest point in the county, about 9,200 feet. The Sierra Buttes mountain is one of the landmarks of the state, visible from a large area of the valley of the Sacramento, and rendered prominently conspicuous by the sharply-defined, cone-shaped, serrated, basaltic lava in its formation. The snows in these high altitudes fall to a great depth, obstructing the roads over the ridges for weeks at times, the only means of communication being by travel on snow-shoes. Snow is frequently found on the ridges twenty feet in depth. Sierra county extends east and west in nearly the shape of a parallelogram. Its greatest length is sixty miles, and the greatest breadth thirty miles, embracing an area of eight hundred and thirty square miles. The primal cause of the settlement of Sierra county was the desire for gold, almost fabulous amounts of which have been found in many parts. The proportion of agricultural to mineral land is exceedingly small, not one acre in fifty being suitable for the plow. Mining has from the first been the principal occupation, and will continue to be so for hundreds of years, as the deposits of auriferous gravel and quartz seem to be inexhaustible. Nearly every hill and mountain is a vast treasure vault of nature, needing only the brain and the hand of man to unlock the carefully hidden combination. It was not always thus. The overflowing chests of nature dropped here and there with lavish waste enough of wealth to indicate the incomparable richness of that they kept from human gaze. Perhaps the millions dug from ancient river channel or picked from some chance crevice are but the chippings or the shavings from the rest. Following is a list of altitudes of the various points of interest in Sierra county, obtained by Mr. E. K. Downer, junior editor of the Mountain Messenger^ who used one of Muller's most accurate aneroids. The figures given are approximately correct. Feet. Downieville 3,000 Sheehan's Ranch 4,600 Eureka 5,150 McMahon's 5,000 Mt. Pleasant Ranch 4,750 Port Wine 5,100 Summit of ridge between Eureka and McMahon's 5,600 Scales' 4,400 Slate Creek bridge 4,350 Gibsonville 5,600 Newark 5,850 Slate Creek bridge No. 2 5,650 Highest point on road to Howland Flat 6,050 First ridge above Howland Flat 5,800 Sears' Union Ditch Crossing 5,925 Summit of second ridge 6,000 Potosi 5,800 Howland Flat (Becker's) 5,800 McFarland's 5,750 Sears' U. W. Co.'s office (Pine Grove) 5,600 Table Rock 7,050 St. Louis (Schwartz's hotel) 5,200 Morristown bridge crossing 4,250 Morristown 5,150 Craig's Flat 5,100 Canon Creek bridge 4,325 John Tore's bridge 2,900 Goodyear's Bar 2,750 Watering trough 4,125 Mountain House 4,700 Forest City 4,600 Pliocene shaft 5,575 Barnhardt's 3,125 Mccarty's 3,250 Shady flat 3,225 Shoo Fly 3,325 Whitney's lower saw-mill 3,375 Adam Weitzell's 3,500 Frank Beaver's 3,575 A. Kaiser's. 3,950 J. Hutchinson's 4,200 Sierra City (Scott's) 4,250 Sierra Buttes office 5,375 Summit Sierra Buttes 8,950 J. H. Bassett's 5,400 Slap Jack ranch 6,200 County Cabin 6,600 Main Summit 6,800 Yellow Jacket point 6,050 Fowle's ranch 5,350 H. K. Turners 4,975 Ridge between Turner's and Toomy's 5,050 Toomy's 5,000 Boyle's 5,000 Chapman's 5,075 James Miller's 4,980 Sierraville 5,000 Loyalton 5,000 Randolph 5,020 Campbell's Sulphur Springs 5,050 Webber Lake 6,800 Haskell's Peak 8,126 Additional Comments: Extracted from: Illustrated History of Plumas, Lassen & Sierra Counties San Francisco: Fariss & Smith (1882) File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ca/sierra/history/1882/illustra/descript282ms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/cafiles/ File size: 9.7 Kb