Emigrant Road/Big Tree and Carson Valley Turnpike/Alpine Highway

EMIGRANT ROAD/BIG TREE AND CARSON VALLEY TURNPIKE/ALPINE HIGHWAY

The present Highway 4 alignment follows the approximate route of an early emigrant trail over the Sierra Nevada that was improved in 1855-56 and known as the Big Tree Road and in the early 1860s as the Big Tree and Carson Valley Turnpike. Originally a free trail, it became a toll road from 1864 through 1910, and then a free county road in 1911. It was accepted into the state highway system in 1926 and portions were paved in the 1930s. The road was realigned in the mid-1960s when the Bear Valley Ski Resort was opened, making it an all-weather highway. Historic themes within the project area focus on transportation, settlement, and agriculture.

TRANSPORTATION

The Sierra Nevada has been traversed by succeeding waves of humans for more than 12,000 years. Native American trails between watering places and hunting and gathering areas were undoubtedly used by those European and American fur trappers and traders who conducted the first reconnaissances into the Sierran regions. The locations of these earliest routes are almost impossible to find, however, for most of them have been obliterated by historic and recent road construction.

Calaveras and Alpine counties each incorporated some of the higher Sierra Nevada and were explored by scouts looking for a pass into California, or were traversed by some of the early emigrant parties. Jedediah Story Smith appears to have been the first Euro-American to enter the region. From his camp on the lower Stanislaus River, Smith and two companions traveled eastward, upstream, and crossed the Sierra Nevada in eight days during May of 1827. It is thought that the path traveled by Smith and his fellow trappers may have paralleled the present California Highway 4. The Bidwell-Bartleson party, touted as the “First Immigrant Train to California,” although leaving their wagons behind on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada, entered California somewhere near present Lake Alpine and traveled down the Stanislaus River drainage in 1841 (Davis-King et al. 1992:4.3)

The Sierra Nevada trails became popular after the discovery of gold at Coloma in 1848, precipitating a worldwide rush of peoples to the Sierra Nevada foothills. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the Mexican War in 1848, brought the American southwest into the Union at almost the same time that gold was found at Sutter’s Mill on the American River in California. These two events, the annexation of the southwest and the discovery of gold, provided the impetus for numerous forays into, and trips through California, as miners and settlers searched for the quickest routes to the gold fields.

Prospectors and emigrant parties quickly began using the route from Genoa, Nevada, to Murphys and the surrounding gold fields. Although the name of the first traveler over this route is unknown, by 1849 it was in use by several parties, many of whom gave descriptions of the Big Tree Grove in their diaries (Frances Bishop, personal papers).

In 1850, attempting to establish a trans-Sierran route in the central portion of the Sierra Nevada, Major John Ebbetts, the man for whom the Highway 4 pass is named, crossed over Border Ruffian Pass in April with a large group of prospectors. The name was not bestowed upon the pass until after the summer of 1853, however, when Ebbetts, then in the employ of the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad Company, surveyed the route for a proposed trans-Sierra railroad. The pass was formally named in 1854 by George H. Goddard, a close friend and member of the 1853 exploration party, after Ebbetts’s death in a steamer explosion near San Francisco (Wood and Bishop 1968:33). It was not until 1893, however, that the U.S. Geological Survey team, in drafting the Markleeville Quadrangle, officially named the location for Ebbetts (Las Calaveras 1988:14).

The general route of present Highway 4 was certainly used by Leonard Withington Noyes, who, prospecting on the way, investigated the Calaveras Big Tree and traveled as far as Bear Valley by 1853. As part of the Murphys Expedition which traveled east over the crest and down into the Carson Valley in 1855-56, Noyes was investigating the route of a future wagon road. The contract for the Big Tree Road was awarded to Noyes and Dr. N. C. Congdon of Murphys in 1856. According to Noyes, who left behind a journal written about the building of the Big Tree Road, work began in July and by September he was escorting emigrants across the trail, which required the construction of eight bridges. Noyes and his party also gave names to the major valleys, lakes, and geographical features along the route (i.e. Silver, Indian, Faith, Hope, and Charity valleys and others).

Noyes described the work:

During the winter of 1855-56 a subscription was raised of $4000 for which I agreed to open a Wageon Road to Carson Valley sufficient for Emigrants to pass over in 60 days, in the spring as soon as fesable I started out with an Ox Team loaded with my Tools, Provisions and some 10 men. there was but little work excepting to turn over a stone and role it down hill out a fallen tree out of the road little or no grading and a fiew log bridges to build, at Bear Valley there being a most beautifull spring of cold water by it, we had considerable work on Carson Cannon where there was already a road. I never spent a pleasenter summer the Montain Air agreeing with me so well we all enjoyed it very much, but we rushed it through so that in 40 days there was an emigrant train passed over the Road….[Noyes n.d.:92].

The whole rout was plotted as if it had been surveyed by myself giving the names of the Valleys, locating grass and water, giving course & Altitudes, as best could be done considering we had no way of masuring distances, and but a very small pocket compass to get the courses from….[Noyes n.d.:90]..

In 1856 this route became known as the Big Tree and Carson Valley Road, a simple clearing and straightening of the 1849 Emigrant Road. Near present Lake Alpine, this route passed by Dennis/Osborn’s Hotel and through the “Picken’s Bill Williamson’s Race Course,” both of which were later inundated by Lake Alpine when the Utica Mining Company constructed the dam in the late 1880s. This original branch of the road went north over Border Ruffian Pass and through Faith, Hope, and Charity valleys towards Carson Pass and ended at Genoa, leaving the main trail in Hermit Valley near the site of Holden’s Station. Much of the emigrant travel to California over the ensuing two years came over this road, but by the late 1850s, it was being used infrequently and became almost impassable (Wood and Bishop 1968:36, 48).

A branch of the road departed the old Big Tree Road at the “Forks of the Road” near Big Meadow and coursed westward to West Point along the ridge between the Middle and North Forks of the Mokelumne River. In 1857 an improved road was laid out along the route of the trail via the McNair Ranch, above Sheep Ranch, running to the Big Trees past San Antonio Falls and Sleeper’s Lumber Mill (Wood and Bishop 1968:36, 42). Also known as the “Big Tree Road,” this route followed approximately the present route of Armstrong Road and Summit Level Road to Manuel Mill and White Pines.

On April 15, 1857, the Calaveras County Board of Supervisors established “a road from Murphys to Big Trees according to maps and survey now in possessior of James Sperry at Murphys” (Roads According to Township Boundaries, 1850-1880:341). Sperry was then owner of both the Murphys Hotel and the Mammoth Tree Hotel at Big Trees.

One of the more interesting chapters in the history of the route involves the exploits of John A. “Snow-Shoe” Thompson, who lived in Diamond Valley (near Woodfords) and delivered mail from 1856 to 1876 along two routes. One of the routes was from Woodfords to Placerville, and a second from Woodfords to Murphys by way of Indian Valley. Johnson was famous for having made skis, like those from his native Norway, which he wore when delivering mail across 90 miles of snow-covered trails and passes.

It was the discovery of silver on Nevada’s Comstock Lode, however, that was to provide the impetus for the construction of a major road over Ebbetts Pass; the first to traverse the steep route into the rough country of the East Fork of the Carson River. Nearer by, rich strikes on Silver Mountain in the early 1860s created a need for a more direct route to supply the burgeoning mining camp with equipment, supplies, and foodstuffs from the Pacific slope.

During the winter of 1861-62, a group of Murphys men organized the Big Tree and Carson Valley Turnpike Company and raised $4,000 to build a road from the Big Tree to the Silver Mountain and Monitor areas. The company incorporated in 1862 for the purpose of constructing a toll road to the silver mines, with an eye to reaping the profits from the teamsters transporting supplies to the booming mining camps. Construction began in June of 1862, between Black Springs and Carson Valley. Oxen were first used, but were soon replaced by horses. Starting in the vicinity of the present Calaveras Big Trees State Park, the road followed the route of the earlier Emigrant Road to Hermit Valley, at which point it veered east to near Highland Lakes, then over the summit to Silver Creek. The route crossed the summit a bit east of the old Ebbetts Pass trail, at a slightly lower elevation. From Silver Mountain City to Markleeville, the road was maintained by the newly formed Alpine County. This route was another improvement on two earlier roads to the Carson Valley and reflected the importance of the silver discoveries in Alpine County and Nevada to trans-Sierra travel.

As a leader of the Whitney Geological Expedition of 1860-64, William H. Brewer visited the Silver Mountain region in July and August of 1863 and described the road thusly:

Recent reputed discoveries of silver ore at Silver Mountain, just east of the crest, on the headwaters of the Carson River, near Ebbetts Pass on your maps, has caused much excitement. An old emigrant road over the mountains, via the Big Trees, runs within ten or twelve miles of it, and now, suddenly, travel is pouring over this route. A stage runs part of the way, until the road becomes very rough; then a “saddle train,’” with a few pack animals, takes the passengers and their luggage to the promised land. So horses in these mountain valleys all at once become important, and at Silver Valley the stages stop and saddle trains start [Farquhar 1930:431].

Short on funds with which to complete the road, the Big Tree and Carson Valley Turnpike Company in 1864 entered into an agreement with early settlers Harvey S. Blood and Jonathan Curtis of Bear Valley to pay back taxes and complete unfinished portions. Blood and Curtis were to pay taxes due and repay the turnpike company with interest on the amount already expended on the road. The road was to be kept in repair and tolls collected at Bear Valley for five years. Soon thereafter, Blood and Curtis began completion of the road and began construction of a residence and barn at the toll gate in Bear Valley (Las Calaveras 1988:17). A map of the Silver Mountain Mining District, completed in 1864, depicted the Big Tree Road as continuing through Silver Mountain City to Markleeville, so they must have completed the road in record time (Reed 1864).

Unfortunately, the anticipated profits never materialized; bogged down in debts, the company was deeded to Blood and Curtis in 1868. Their first construction project was to complete the new road between Bear Valley and Silver Valley. In 1861 T. J. Matteson of Murphys began the first mail delivery between Murphys and Genoa in the Carson Valley. The contract was for twice-weekly delivery, via the Big Trees Road (Las Calaveras 1988:15-16). The road proved immensely popular and by 1869 stages were departing Murphys daily on Matteson and Garland’s stage line for Big Trees, Bear Valley, Hermit Valley, and Silver Mountain, with a return trip daily (Maule 1938:42).

Blood’s toll station in Grizzly Bear Valley included a station house, barns, corrals, and a tollgate. Tollgates were also established at Cottage Springs, Hermit Valley, the Summit of Ebbetts Pass, and at Silver Mountain City (Wood and Bishop 1968:45). In April of 1887 the Calaveras County Board of Supervisors granted Blood a franchise to collect tolls on the road through Calaveras County for the next ten years. Over the ensuing two decades, however, Blood had to fight several legal contests over his right to collect tolls, resulting in his right to operate the road until 1910 (Board of Supervisors Minute Book H:113, 140, 153, 251; Wood and Bishop 1968:44, 56-58).

In May of 1891, when Blood’s petition to operate the toll road for one year was granted, the tolls were set as follows:

Horse and vehicle 40 cents
Two horses and vehicle 50 cents
Each additional animal 25 cents
Loose horses and cattle 08 cents
Goats, sheep, and swing 01 cents
Horsemen 25 cents
Pack animals 25 cents

In response to the petition of George A. Wood, George Avery, and others, provision was made for those traveling 10 miles or less on the road at a considerably reduced rate (Board of Supervisors Minute Book H:251).

In 1911, the year after the death of Harvey Blood, the road was accepted into the State Highway system and called the “Alpine Highway.” The state took over the road only as far as the Big Trees, however, with Calaveras County maintaining the remainder of the route. In 1919 the Board of Supervisors applied to the federal government for funds to grade the road from Murphys to the Big Trees. In June of 1923 Calaveras County entered into an agreement with the Secretary of Agriculture to construct the road, at a total cost of $212,000. Grading was completed in 1926, with all work done by mules and scrapers.

In December of 1926 the Big Tree(s) Road became a part of the state system. It was surfaced to the Big Trees in the early 1930s, with the road over the summit oiled gradually over a period of several years. The development of the Bear Valley Ski Area provided the impetus for the realignment and regrading of the road in the 1960s. Realignments were constructed between Camp Connell and Bear Valley, and segments of the old route abandoned. Maintenance stations were built at Camp Connell and Cabbage Patch, Highway 4 was brought up to the required standards for winter maintenance, and snow removal equipment was made available; all at a total cost of about ten million dollars. The ski resort opened in the fall of 1967, with the new Highway 4 route completed that year (Wood and Bishop 1968:60-62).

Three historical road segments are located within the project area: a segment of the Big Tree Road, the junction with the West Point Road, and the 1891 junction between the Big Tree Road and the Big Tree and Carson Valley Turnpike. The 1856-1863 Big Tree Road coursed northeasterly from the present Highway 4 at Black Springs (NE ¼ of Section 15, T6N, R16E), passed through the Guishetti Dairy Ranch (NW ¼ of Section 32, T6N. R16E, near Cabbage Patch), and rejoined the Big Tree and Carson Valley Turnpike southwest of Blood’s Meadow (SW ¼ of Section 13, T7N, R17E) (Ryan n.d.).

The West Point Road branched northwesterly from the old Big Tree Road (SW ¼ of Section 36, T7N, R16E) in the 1850s. When the new Big Tree and Carson Valley Turnpike was constructed in the early 1860s, a connecting link was made to that route (NW ¼ of Section 11, T6N, R16E) (Ryan n.d.; Wheeler 1877).

In 1891 two connecting roads were made from the old Big Tree Road and West Point roads to the Big Tree and Carson Valley Turnpike, both located northwest of Big Meadow (Section 32, T6N, R16E), from the Guishetti Ranch to Cabbage Patch (Ryan n.d., USGS 1901). As the Big Tree and Carson Valley Turnpike was a private road, the only public records involve Harvey Blood’s petitions to the Calaveras County Board of Supervisors to collect tolls and to establish toll rates. In 1891 he was granted a franchise to collect tolls for another year, so evidently felt that construction to improve the connecting links between the two roads was warranted.

SETTLEMENT AND AGRICULTURE

Although mining provided the impetus for settlement on both sides of the Ebbetts Pass route, no major mining regions were located within the project area. With gold mining in Calaveras County and silver mining in Alpine County and the Nevada Comstock booming in the 1850s and 1860s, however, small agricultural settlements were established along the route of the Big Tree(s) Road. Second to mining in importance in the gold country, agriculture was always critical as a supporting service. With animals providing much of the labor, massive production of hay and grasses was necessary to feed the cattle, oxen, and horses for mining, agriculture, and transportation. Additionally, fruits and vegetables produced in the foothills were transported across the pass to the mines on the eastern slope.

As there was no method for obtaining legal title to agricultural or residential parcels in the earliest years of the Gold Rush, many settlers simply filed claims under the mining claim laws, stating that they were using their lands for agricultural purposes. When a local government was established, however, claimants were able to obtain title to their land under the Public Land Act of April 24, 1820, and most did so. The Homestead Act of 1862 also allowed settlers title to their lands, although both laws required specific periods of residence and the making of improvements of a specified value prior to the issuance of a patent.

Upland grazing of cattle, sheep, and goats was an important historic land use in the Sierra Nevada. As early as 1850 there were accounts of stock grazing in the high country. A newspaper account in September of that year mentioned that a man (unnamed) was herding cattle in the Silver Lake Valley area (present Lake Alpine) (San Andreas Independent, September 17, 1850). William Dennis, owner of the Willow Creek Sawmill near San Andreas and a ranch near Jenny Lind, was the first to claim land I the Silver Lake Valley area. According to the San Andreas Independent (July 2, 1859), Dennis claimed the valley and commenced fencing in the summer of 1859 on 160 acres of land in Silver Valley, “near the Union Water Co.’s Reservoir.” Dennis brought 300 head of half-breed and American cattle to his range that summer. By 1860 he had also obtained title to a ranch in Grizzly Bear Valley (present Bear Valley), selling to Harvey Blood in the spring of 1864 and moving to the booming mining community of Silver City where he erected a steam sawmill (Stockton Independent, March 29, 1864).

When the Murphys Exploring Party of 1855 visited Big Meadows they stopped at what was probably the oldest cabin built along the route between Dorrington and Bloods. There they found “the meadow taken up and claimed by Smith and four others, who are cutting grass and hauling hay to the sawmill (Union Water Company’s steam sawmill on Mill Creek, two miles above present Dorrington) and the Big Tree, hunting, etc.” They also found a good wagon road up to this point. Known as Big Meadows Ranch in the 1870s, the site became a dairy ranch and known as Guishetti’s in the 1890s and early 1900s (Wood and Bishop 1968:42).

By the mid-1860s, virtually every lake, meadow, and open area had been appropriated by stockmen. Pasturing stock on their foothill ranches during the winter and spring months, they made the annual trek to the high country every June or July so that the animals could partake of the verdant mountain pastures. This cycle was extremely important since the green grass of the lower elevations would have been eaten and the stock ponds would be dry by mid-summer. Worry about water and food for the animals was not a concern in the high country. This pattern of high country stock grazing has continued to the present, although the Stanislaus National Forest now issues only six leases in the Calaveras District, compared to more than 600 issued in the early 1900s when the Forest Preserve was established and stockmen were first obliged to obtain leases.

Virtually all of the original stopping places along the Big Tree(s) route were established as ranching and grazing operations and provided sustenance to travelers and stockmen during the summer months. These included: Stickles Half-Way House/Avery, Flanders, Morans, Fourteen Mile House, Cold Spring Ranch/Gardner’s Station/Dorrington, Hinkleman Meadow, Mill Creek Station, Cottage Springs, Mud Springs, Black Springs, Big Springs, Ganns, Cabbage Patch, Big Meadows/Register Flat, Onion Valley/ Tamarack, Grizzly Bear Valley/Blood’s Station, Stanislaus Meadow, Pacific Valley, Holden’s Station/Hermit Valley, and undoubtedly others lost to history (Bishop Notes, n.d., various). These were rude establishments at best; travelers were often forced to bed down on dirt or wood floors or on rough cots, usually sharing a room with a dozen or more folk. The names of these stopping places, however, have remained on the land as geographical locations on historic and current maps.

The exception to this settlement pattern was at the Big Tree Grove/Calaveras Big Trees, ostensibly discovered by Augustus T. Dowd, an employee of the Union Water Company of Murphys, who came upon the grove while on a hunting expedition in 1852. Other Americans who had claimed discovery earlier included John T. Bidwell, who asserted that he traveled through the grove in 1841 on his way over the Sierra Nevada. Several emigrants, including the William B. Prince party, the Flanders party, and a Missouri doctor, recorded their impressions of the North Grove as they traveled westward in 1849 (Bishop, personal papers, no date).

The discovery created tremendous excitement throughout California and many rushed to the area to view the mighty giants for themselves. A rough log cabin was built in the grove in 1852, followed by the Mammoth Tree Hotel in 1853, and the Mammoth Grove Hotel in 1861. That hotel, which could accommodate 60 lodgers, burned to the ground in 1943. The Big Tree Grove is now a unit of the California Department of Parks and Recreation (Costello et al. 1988:7-14),

Public lands that were not immediately suitable for agriculture and had no obvious mineral reserves were ignored for the first three decades after the gold discovery. On June 3, 1878, however, Congress passed the Timber and Stone Act. This law allowed the individual acquisition of 160-acre parcels of timbered land for $2.50 per acre. Individuals with an eye to the future began to file claims to timber land. The procedure was easy and many patents were issued without the claimant ever setting foot upon the parcel involved. Frequently, claims were transferred to other people as soon as the filing was recorded, or upon issuance of the patent. Speculators regularly made agreements with potential patentees and, under such arrangements, substantial adjacent blocks of prime, virgin groves of timber could be assembled and made available to sawmill interests.

In the higher elevations, vast tracts of land were acquired in this way, allowing the growth of a new industry in a region once dependent upon mining. Beginning in the 1890s and continuing through the 1940s, logging became a significant local industry with sawmills in many mid-elevation areas. Company towns such as Wilseyville and White Pines were established, while West Point, Railroad Flat, and Avery expanded with the increased population and prosperity. Logging continues in the forests today, but as no sawmills remain in Calaveras County, the timber is trucked to Tuolumne County or more distant locations for milling.

PROJECT AREA, DORRINGTON TO GANNS MEADOW

The small community of Dorrington is located about two miles southwest of the project area, but will be included herein as it is the nearest settlement to the western end of the project, whose eastern terminous is at Ganns. Although Gardner’s and Black Springs were the only locations deemed important enough to be depicted on a mid-1870s map of the project area (Wheeler 1877), and only Sewell’s house and an “old log cabin” were depicted on another of the same period (General Land Office 1876), several other ranches and stopping places had been taken up on the route by the early 1860s. Of those noted below, only Gardner’s, Hinkleman’s, Wood’s, and two other sites were occupied by structures in 1890-91, although Cottage Springs and Black Springs were still depicted as geographic locations (USGS 1901). The histories of the following locations are described from west to east, along present Highway 4.

Dorrington, a historic stopping place on the Big Tree-Carson Valley Road, was originally known as Cold Spring Ranch (NW ¼ of Section 12, T5N, R15E). The first recorded mention of the ranch was in November of 1853, when Clark and Benjamin Stockwell sold 160 acres to G. H. Woodruff. The property then passed through several hands until sold to John Gardner and William A. Gibson in January 1868. Gardner built a hotel, across the highway from the present hotel, and when it was destroyed by a fire, built the present hotel in the early 1880s. Stock corrals were erected, a general store opened, a school built, and the stopping place became a toll station on the Big Trees-Carson Valley Turnpike from the 1890s until 1910. Known as Gardner’s Station when a post office was established in 1902, the Post Office Department objected to the name because there were so many others of the same, so the maiden name of John Gardner’s widow, Rebekah Dorrington Gardner, was chosen instead (Wood and Bishop 1968:40-41).

Camp Connell was established in 1928 by Jack and Noreen Connell (SW ¼ of Section 1, T6N, R15E), who had purchased the Dorrington Hotel property in the mid-1920s. With auto traffic increasing and the old hotel in need of repair, the couple decided to build the Camp Connell Store, complete with gasoline station, general merchandise store, and a campground. Camp Connell quickly became a stopping place for travelers along the Ebbetts Pass Highway, as well as a gathering place for local residents and cattlemen. The post office was moved there from Dorrington in 1934 and remained until 1978, when it was returned to Dorrington. The stopping place was sold to the Anderson family in 1947, who subdivided lots in Dorrington and built the A-frame units across Highway 4 from the old hotel (Las Calaveras 1996:35-37).

Hinkleman Meadow, located east of Dorrington and west of the project area (NW 1.4 of Section 6, T5N. R16E), was once the site of a small store, hotel, and stock corrals. The upland cattle ranch was occupied by Bill Hinkleman from the turn of the century until shortly after World War I. It is now the location of the Dorrington Forest Service Station (Johnson 1999:13, Las Calaveras 1988:21-22). The meadow was encircled by another road in the 1870s, identified as an “old road,” which coursed northeasterly from Gardner’s (southeast of the present road) and connected with the Big Tree and Carson Valley Turnpike just east of Hinkleman’s (Wheeler 1877).

The Mohawk Sawmill of the Union Water Company was located on Mill Creek, where it crossed the Big Tree Road (SW ¼ of Section 32, T6N, R16E). Constructed in 1855, the steam sawmill provided lumber for the flumes of the company which brought water for mining purposes to Murphys and Angels Camp. The mill was noted as “a fine one, capable of producing 1000 feet of lumber per hour” (State Surveyor General Annual Report, 1855).

Mill Creek Station, a 320-acre ranch, was located on Mill Creek near the former Mohawk Sawmill. During the 1860s it was owned by A. J. Pool and W. W. England. One-quarter of a mile above A. J. Pool & Co.’s ranch, Theodore Trimmer operated a 160-acre ranch (Calaveras County Assessment Rolls, 1861-1867).

The Pool and England ranch was apparently later sold to A. J. Sewell, who in 1873 was assessed for a 160-acre ranch on both sides of the Big Tree and Carson Valley Road (SW ¼ of Section 32, T6N, R16E), with a house located west of Mill Creek (Calaveras County Assessment Rolls 1873, General Land Office 1876). East of Sewell’s ranch was the ranch of George A. Wood, patented in 1892, and located on the north side of the road (Calaveras County Patent Maps, USGS 1901).

Cottage Springs (NE ¼ of Section 28, T6N, R16E, and southwest of the present community of Cottage Springs) was owned by A. Henry Stevens/Stephens as early as 1865 (Calaveras County Assessment Rolls 1865). The ranch was conveyed by Sheriff Ben Thorn to John Gardner in 1870 when Stevens failed to pay back taxes (Calaveras County Deed Book S:224). It was patented by his wife Rebekah Gardner in 1888 (Calaveras County Patent Book V:445).

Black Springs (NW ¼ of Section 15, T6N, R16E) was noted in Taylor’s Guide Hotel Directory in 1857 as being located nine miles from the Big Tree Grove and 90 miles from Stockton (San Andreas Independent, October 1857). The ranch was patented in 1862 by William Carmichael and Jacob Pettit, and encompassed 160 acres on the “Big Tree Road leading to Carson Valley” (Calaveras County Land Claim Book C:590). In 1865 J. H. Lowman was assessed for the ranch, the record noting that he had “household furniture, one wagon, one American cow, one Spanish horse, and two mules” on the property (Calaveras County Assessment Rolls 1865).

An “old log house” was depicted on an early map of the area (SW ¼ of SW ¼ of Section 11, T6N, R16E) located about one-quarter mile east of Black Springs (General Land Office 1876). The land was not patented until 1907, so the builder of the log home is unknown.

At Mud Springs (NW ¼ of Section 14, T6N. R16E) was the ranch of Josiah McClelland, located “on both sides of the road leading from Murphys to Carson Valley in the Utah Territory known as the Big Tree Road” (Calaveras County Land Claim Book C:306). Interestingly, McClelland and his partner Stevens noted the travel on the road from the 15th of August to the 16th of September in 1862: 134 horse teams, 70 ox teams, and 650 pack animals (Stockton Independent, September 24, 1862).

Big Springs, located at the junction of the Mokelumne Hill and Big Tree Road, was also an early stopping place on the Big Tree Road (NW ¼ of Section 11, T6N, R16E). It was noted as being on the Big Tree Road, three miles from Black Springs and 93 miles from Stockton (San Andreas Independent, October 1857).

Poison Springs (NW ¼ of NW ¼ of Section 11, T6N, R16E), and also known as Williams’ Springs for the road house operated by a man named Williams, served the freight traffic and stages traveling to and from Silver Mountain City (Las Calaveras 1988:20).

Gann’s (S ½ of NE ¼ and N ½ of SE ¼ of Section 1, T6N, R16E) was established in the 1870s by George, Jackson, and William Gann, who arrived in California from Missouri in 1853. First engaged in the cattle business in San Joaquin County, they eventually acquired a ranch in Calaveras County north of Salt Spring Valley on the old road to Spring Valley (near present Valley Springs). Their summer cow camp was located on the Big Tree and Carson Valley Road, which soon became known as Gann’s Station. The 160 acre ranch was homestead by Charles A. Gann in 1902 and patented in 1910 (Calaveras County Patent Maps; Las Calaveras 1988:13). A modern residence and restaurant was built there in the late 1960s to cater to travelers to the Bear Valley Ski Area.

REFERENCES CITED OR CONSULTED

Alpine County
1921 Official Map of Alpine County

Anonymous
n.d. Map of Area from Board’s Crossing to Lake Alpine. Manuscript Map. On file, Foothill Resources, Ltd., Murphys.

Bishop, Frances
n.d. Frances Bishop notes. On file, Calaveras County Archives, San Andreas, and Foothill Resources, Ltd., Murphys. .

Calaveras, County of
var. Assessment Rolls
var. Deed Books
var. Land Claim Books
var. Patent Books
var. Board of Supervisors Minute Books
1850-1886 Roads According to Township Boundaries Book
var. Land Patent Maps. On file, Calaveras County Surveyor, San Andreas.

Centennial Book Committee
1964 Alpine Heritage; One Hundred Years of History * Recreation * Lore in Alpine County, California. Centennial Book Committee, Markleeville.

Costello, Julia G., Editor, Frances Bishop and Judith Cunningham (Marvin), Betty Jean Ciccio, Star Hempstead, and Wayne Harrison.
1988 Historical and Archaeological Research at the Calaveras Big Tree Cottage Area. Foothill Resources, Ltd., for the Calaveras Big Trees Association and the California Department of Parks and Recreation, Sacramento.

Davis-King, Shelly, and Judith Marvin, Dorothea J. Theodoratus, Terry L. Brejla, and Duncan E. Hay.
1990 Waterscapes in the Sierra: Cultural Resources Investigations for the Angels (FERC 2699) Project, Volume I, Calaveras County, California. Infotec Research, Inc., Sonora, for submittal to Pacific Gas & Electric Company, San Francisco.

Farquhar, Francis P., Editor
1930 Up and Down California in 1860-1864. The Journal of William H. Brewer. Yale University Press, New Haven.

General Land Office
1871 Township 5 North, Range 15 East, MDBM, Plat Map.

1876 Township 5 North, Range 16 East, MDBM, Plat Map.

1876 Township 6 North, Range 16 East, MDBM, Plat Map.

Howard, Thomas Frederick
1998 Sierra Crossing, First Roads to California. University of California Press, Berkeley.

Jackson, W. Turrentine
1964 Report on the History of the Grover Hot Springs State Park Area and Surrounding Regions of Alpine County. Division of Beaches and Parks, Department of Parks and Recreation, State of California. Reprinted by the Alpine County Museum, Markleeville.

Johnson, Lynn
1999 An Archaeological Survey Report for Proposed AC Overlay and Shoulder Backing of State Route 4, Calaveras County, California. 10-CAL-4 (KP 79.8/93.3 [PM 49.6/58.01]). EA 10-1A5000, Contract No. 06A0182, Task Order No. 5. Archaeological Research Center, Institute of Archaeology and Cultural Studies, Department of Anthropology, California State University, Sacramento. Prepared for Dale Jones, Central Sierra Chief, Environmental Management, California Department of Transportation, District 10, Stockton, California.

Las Calaveras
1988 People and Places in the High Country. Las Calaveras, Volume XXXVI, Number 2. Calaveras County Historical Society, San Andreas.

1996 Camp Connell, Gateway to Ebbetts Pass. Las Calaveras, Volume XLIV, Number 3. Calaveras County Historical Society, San Andreas.

Marvin, Judith, and John Holson
1993 Recordation and Eligibility Assessment of the Meiss Meadow Historic Cabin and Barn Complex. BioSystems Analysis, Inc., Tiburon, California. Prepared for Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit, Eldorado National Forest, South Lake Tahoe, California.

Maule, William M.
1938 A Contribution to the Geographic and Economic History of the Carson, Walker, and Mono Basins in California and Nevada . California Region, Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, San Francisco, California.

Metzger
1939 Map of Alpine County.

Noyes, Leonard Withington
n.d. Journal and Letters, 1850-1858. Unpublished manuscript, on file Essex Institute, Salem, Massachusetts. Typewritten copy, on file Foothill Resources, Ltd., Murphys.

Owens, Kenneth N.
1992 Historical Trails and Roads in California, A Cultural Resources Planning Study. Prepared for the California Department of Transportation, Sacramento.

Reed, Theron
1864 A Map of the Silver Mountain Mining Districts. H.H. Bancroft & Co., San Francisco.

Ryan, John P.
n.d. Map of the Big Meadows Area Showing Locations of the Old Big Trees Road, the New Big Trees Road, and their Relation to the Road Leading from West Point. On file, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, and Foothill Resources, Ltd., Murphys.

San Andreas Independent
Various Issues. On file, Calaveras County Archives, San Andreas.

State Surveyor General
1855 Annual Report, 1855. Report of O.B. Powers, November 25, 1855.

Stockton Independent
Various Issues. On file, Cesar Chavez Library, Stockton.

United States Department of Agriculture
1946 Stanislaus National Forest, California. Mount Diablo Meridian. Surveyed 1939. USDA, Forest Service, Washington, D.C.

United States Geological Survey
1901 Big Trees Quadrangle. Surveyed 1890-91.

1956 Big Meadows Quadrangle. 15 minute series.

1979 Boards Crossing Quadrangle. 7.5 minute series.

1979 Calaveras Dome Quadrangle. 7.5 minute series.

1979 Dorrington Quadrangle. 7.5 minute series.

1979 Tamarack Quadrangle. 7.5 minute series.

Wheeler, Lt. George M.
1877 Map of the Expeditions of 1876 & 1877 Under the Command of 1st. Lieut. George M. Wheeler. Corps of Engineers, U.S. Army, Washington. Scale, 1 inch to 4 miles, or 1:253,440.

Wood, R. Coke, with Frances E. Bishop
1968 Big Tree-Carson Valley Turnpike, Ebbetts Pass and Highway Four. Old timers Museum, Murphys, California.