Statewide County CA Archives History - Books .....Packing In The Mountains 1891
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Book Title: Memorial And Biographical History Of Northern California

PACKING IN THE MOUNTAINS.

  The following account is the substance of an article written in 1857 upon the
above and collateral topics, and published in Hutchings' California Magazine:

  In some of the more isolated mining localities the arrival of a pack train is
an event of some importance, and men gathered around it with as much apparent
interest as though they had expected to see some dear old friend stowed away
somewhere among the packs. This necessity has created an extensive packing
business with the cities of Stockton, Marysville, Shasta and Crescent City, but
very little with Sacramento at the present time. There are generally forty to
fifty mules in a train, mostly Mexicans each of which will carry from 300 to 500
pounds, and with this they will travel twenty-five to thirty miles a day without
being weary. If there is plenty of grass they seldom get anything else to eat.
When fed on barley—which is generally about three months out of a year,
November, December and January —it is given only once a day, and in the
proportion of seven to eight pounds per mule. They seldom drink more than once a
day, even in the warmest weather.

  The average life of a mule is about sixteen years. The Mexican mules are
tougher and stronger than the American; for while the latter can seldom carry
more than 200 to 250 pounds, the former can carry 300 to 1,000. This superiority
may arise from the fact that the Mexicans are more accustomed to packing and
traveling over a mountainous country, while the American are used only for
draft. The Mexican mule, too, can carry a person forty miles a day for ten or
twelve days, over a mountainous trail; while it is very difficult for an
American mule to accomplish over twenty-five or thirty miles a day. The Mexican
mule can travel farther and endure more without food than any other quadruped,
and with him it makes but little difference apparently whether he is fed
regularly or not. The Mexican mules are also easier under the saddle and are not
so fatiguing to ride.

  The packing trade of Marysville gives employment to about 2,500 mules and
between 300 and 400 men. From the town of Shasta, during the winter of 1854-'55,
1,876 mules were employed, not including the animals used by individual miners.
The Shasta Courier claims there were 2,000. From, the above data it was
estimated the amount of trade at the respective points. The packing trade from
Marysville is most extensive with Downieville, Eureka of the North, Morrison's
Diggings, St. Louis, Pine Grove, Poker Flat, Gibsonville, Nelson's Point,
American Valley, Indian Valley and all the intermediate and surrounding places
in the counties of Sierra and Plumas; and the trade of Shasta is with Weaver
(Weaverville), Yreka and the settlements around them. One is astonished to see
the singular goods that are often packed across the Trinity and Scott mountains
to those places, such as buggies, windows, boxes, barrels, bars of iron, chairs,
tables, plows, etc. In the fall of 1853 an iron safe nearly three feet square,
and weighing 352 pounds, was transported on a very large mule from Shasta to
Weaverville, a distance of twenty-eight miles, over a rough and mountainous
trail, without an accident (!), but after the load was taken off the mule lay
down and died within a few hours. A man in Yreka once sent among other things a
rocking-chair and a looking-glass, "and when I reached there," said he, "I found
that the chair back was broken, the rockers off and one arm in two pieces; and
the looking-glass was as much like a crate of broken crockery as anything I ever
saw."

  A gentleman had also informed us that in the summer of 1855 two sets of
millstones were packed from Shasta to Weaverville, the largest weighing 600
pounds. Being looked upon as an impossibility for one mule to carry, it was
first tried to be "slung" between two mules; but that being impracticable, the
plan was abandoned and the stone packed upon one.

  When the Yreka Herald was about to be published, a press was purchased in San
Francisco, at a cost of about $600, upon which the freight alone amounted to
$900. The bed-piece, weighing 397 pounds, was placed upon one mule, with ropes
and other equipage, so that the whole load was 430 pounds. On descending Scott
mountain this splendid animal slipped a little, when the load careened over and
threw the patient mule down a steep bank and killed him. Many of the older
Californians have breathed their last in a ravine where accident had tossed
them, to become the food of wolves and coyotes. One train was passing the steep
side of a mountain in Trinity County, when a large rock came rolling from above
and struck one of the mules in the side, frightening others off the track and
killing one man and three mules. During the severe winter of 1852-'53, a pack
train was snowed in between Grass Valley and Onion Valley, and out of forty-five
animals only three were taken out alive. The amount of danger and privation to
which men following this business are sometimes exposed, is almost incredible.

  It is truly astonishing to see with what ease and care these useful animals
pack their heavy loads over the deep snow, and to notice how very cautiously
they cross holes where the melting snow reveals some ditch or stream beneath,
and where some less careful animal has "put his foot in it" and sank into "deep
trouble." We have often watched them descending a snow-bank when heavily packed,
and have seen that as they could not step safely they would fix their feet and
brace their limbs and unhesitatingly slide down with perfect security over the
worst places.

  There is something very pleasing and picturesque in the sight of a large pack
train of mules quietly descending a hill, as each one intelligently examines the
trail, and moves carefully step by step on the steep and dangerous declivity as
though he suspected danger to himself or injury to the pack committed to his care.

  In the deep and otherwise unbroken stillness of the dark pine or redwood
forests the loud hippah and mulah of the Mexican muleteers sound strangely to
the ear. During these trips the Mexican sings no song and hums no tune.

  Muleteers were also exposed to highway robbers and Indians. Sometimes they
were plundered of their whole train and cargoes, and they themselves murdered.
The trail from Sacramento to Yreka was so infested that it was entirely
abandoned for two years or more.

  Before attempting to pack a mule, the Mexicans invariably blindfold him; he
then stands quietly until the bandage is removed. A man generally rides in front
of every train, for the purpose of stopping it should anything go wrong, and
acting as guide to the others. In every train there is also a leader called the
bell-mule. Most of these animals prefer a white mule for a leader. They seldom
start before nine o'clock in the morning-after which they travel until sunset
before stopping, un, less something goes wrong.

  When about to camp, the almost invariable custom of packers, after removing
the goods (near which they always sleep in all kinds of weather), is for the
mules to stand side by side in a line or in a hollow square with their heads in
one direction, before taking off the aparajos (a kind of pack-saddle, a leathern
sack stuffed with hair, and generally weighing from twenty-five to forty
pounds), and then in the morning, when the train of loose mules is driven up to
camp to receive their packs, each one walks carefully up to his own aparajo and
blanket, which he evidently knows as well as does the packer. When the toils of
the day are over and the mules are peacefully feeding, begins the time of
relaxation to the men, who, while they are enjoying the aroma of their
fine-flavored cigaritas, spend the evening hours telling tales of some far-off
but fair senorita, or make their beds by the packs, and as soon as they have
finished their supper lie down to sleep.


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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