In re Neagle: Politics, Silver and Pistol Play in Early California

NEWS HEADLINES:

CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE CALIFORNIA SUPREME COURT TRIES TO KILL POLICE OFFICER!

CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE CALIFORNIA SUPREME COURT MURDERS UNITED STATES SENATOR!

CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE CALIFORNIA SUPREME COURT TRIES TO KILL JUSTICE OF THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT!

MARSHALL OF TOMBSTONE ARIZONA KILLS CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE CALIFORNIA SUPREME COURT


Can these be true? Preposterous! You say. What drivel! Bad, bad jokes. Sorry. Wrong. They are all literally true. Early California was a wild and woolly place. Men carried guns and used them to settle disputes as quickly as people sue today. But there is a lot of interesting history behind these headlines. Let’s explore it.



Central to the narrative is David Terry, a large, strong, short tempered Irishman. Born in the midwest he came to California in the Gold Rush, like so many others, intent on making his fortune. He was a trained lawyer and rather than head for the Mother Lode in the Sierra Nevada, he settled in San Francisco and began to practice law and do business. He was very active in a political group that favored bringing California in to the United States as a slave state—one with legalized slavery. There was a great need for simple labor, a whole state to be built and vast agricultural areas to be farmed. It seemed so natural. But there was even greater sentiment against the idea of slavery. The gold-rushers tended to be an independent and diverse group to whom the idea probably seemed foreign, and the civil law of California was rooted in Mexican civil law, under which slavery was illegal.

Terry had campaigned for and managed to get himself elected Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court. It was a very part time job and left him plenty of time to advance his political agenda and get into mischief. Advancing his political agenda and his natural penchant for argument led to many public disputes and confrontations.

Lawlessness was a serious problem in early San Francisco. There was a small police force at the disposal of the sheriff, but when things appeared to be getting out of control, ordinary citizens organized a Committee of Vigilance. Armed citizens patrolled in groups, enforced order, arrested criminals and turned them over to the sheriff or sometimes just held a trial themselves.

During a public meeting over the slavery issue, the dispute got heated, and violence erupted. The Vigilance Committee tried to keep some degree of order by arresting the worst of the miscreants. A respected committee member, Hopkins, was sent to do the job. In doing so Hopkins was confronted by Terry. An argument broke out, and Terry’s famous temper exploded. He pulled a large Bowie knife from inside his coat and struck Hopkins. The blow was not instantly mortal, but was deeply serious. Hopkins was carried by his deputies to a doctor, and Terry retreated to the safety of the headquarters of the pro-slavery political party. The Vigilance Committee surrounded the building in force, and Terry surrendered.

Terry was held by the Vigilance Committee for several days until it was clear Hopkins would recover and then released Terry. He had dodged the bullet, in large measure because of his political position. There was much talk among Committee members to string him up. But, lucky as he had been, he was not one to leave well enough alone. So………

The free state-slave state debate continued. California elected a very popular politician, David Broderick as one of its first United States Senators. Broderick was a vocal anti-slavery man and made no bones about it. Terry was not nominated by his party as its candidate for Justice of the Supreme Court and so was out of office, but he was not less vocal. He spoke disparagingly in public about Broderick. Many believed that Terry was provoking Broderick, hoping for an insult that would result in a confrontation and perhaps a duel.



Broderick read Terry’s uncomplimentary remarks in the paper over breakfast at his club one morning and commented on Terry’s character out loud. He was overhead by a Terry supporter who reported them to Terry. A few months passed, but after the election Terry deliberately encountered Broderick, creating a situation where Broderick would have to appear weak publically or would be forced to challenge Terry to a duel. Dueling was illegal in California as in most places, but in a place where the population went from a few thousands to hundreds of thousands in just 10 years, law was not quite so important as how a man took care of himself. Broderick simply could not refuse and did not.

He agreed to meet Terry and duel with pistols. On the early morning of September 13, 1859, Terry and Broderick meet in a clearing near Lake Merced. The spot is marked today by two pillars showing when each man stood at the fateful moment. Broderick never had a chance. He was obviously frightened. Terry was an experienced brawler and very familiar with fire arms. At the signal Broderick raised his arm, but inadvertently discharged his weapon before raising it far enough to point at Terry. The ball entered the ground only half way to where Terry stood. Rather than act like a gentleman and also fire his pistol in the ground or the air or deliberately miss Broderick with his shot, Terry, gloating, raised his pistol slowly, took careful aim and shot Broderick, who bravely stood his ground, in the upper left chest. Broderick lingered a few hours and then died. California had lost an effective and beloved Senator. Inexplicably, Terry was not prosecuted although there was much call for a murder trial.

Enter now another important character, Stephen Field. Field was the antithesis of Terry. Intellectual, spare, scrupulous in his decisions and hard as the New England nails his family home was put together with. Field was also a justice on the California Supreme Court and enjoyed an excellent reputation. As one of the many things he did to ensure that California remained part of the Union during the Civil Wa,r President Lincoln appointed Field to the United States Supreme Court. Not to jump ahead too far, but Field had a very long, very productive and highly respected tenure on that bench. Terry complained bitterly that he had deserved the spot and was passed over unfairly. Apparently he even tried to inveigle Field into an insult hurling contest and a possible duel, but the wily Field would have none of it. Terry lowered his profile and went into private law practice in San Francisco. And according to some he accepted some very unsavory cases.

Now it is time for yet another character, our first woman, named Sarah Althea Hill, then later Sarah Althea Hill Sharon, and then later still Sarah Althea Hill Sharon Terry. (Yes, that’s right, Terry finally marries, and it was to Sarah Althea Hill Sharon. But that happens later in our narrative.) I’ll call her Sarah, although a more descriptive term would be the Temptress. Sarah’s antecedents are not well documented. She “worked” in San Francisco and was very popular with the smart set. Her first marriage to a Mister Hill lasted only a short while, and she retained her good looks and sex appeal. She set her target next on William Sharon, U.S. Senator from Nevada, who was a multi-millionaire, grown enormously wealthy from the Virginia City, Nevada silver mines he owned.

What Sarah wanted, she usually got, and despite being plenty old enough to be her father, Sharon married her on. Not too long afterward Sharon died. His death was a bit unexpected, but he was not a young man and had spent his early years in the harsh conditions of the mining camps. Sharon’s prior marriage had produced off spring, and they were no dummies, but no one was able to find any substantive evidence of foul play in Sharon’s death.

On the other hand, Sharon’s “final will,” supposed made not long before his death, was highly suspect. Hand written, and short, and discovered by Sarah in a desk in their house after Sharon died, the will represented a dramatic shift from his prior plans for estate dispositions. Those who saw it were dubious about whether it really was in Sharon’s hand writing. Given its appearance, the bequests it made, and the circumstances of its discovery, no one was particularly surprised to hear that, under this will, Sharon’s off spring by his prior marriage got nothing, and Sarah got the whole bundle.

As could be expected, law suits galore followed, and so re-enters David Terry, who now represents Sarah in her lawsuit against the Sharon children by his prior marriage.

The principal case ended up in federal court (California residents v. Nevada residents) and was soon to be tried. Sorry—now a brief jurisprudential interlude, but it is very important to our narrative. Federal trial courts are divided into Districts (hence Federal District Courts). Every state has at least one District, and may have more than one. It depends on big they are geographically and in population. Appeals from the District Courts went to the Circuit Courts of Appeal and from there to the Supreme Court. Because the country’s population was much smaller then than now (and the Union was even smaller during the Civil War) the Supreme Court Justices were sometimes not all that busy. When a District Court got too busy to handle its case load, it could ask that a federal judge from the Circuit Courts or even the Supreme Court, who had some time, come to the over busy District and hear trials. This was called “riding circuit” since these judges often held court in more remote venues.

Ah, now you can guess what was about to happen; can’t you? The California District got very busy and asked for a circuit riding judge. Field was available. Field came to his home state to hear cases. What could be more natural? And by sheer chance he was assigned the Sarah Althea Hill Sharon case! Terry complained, but Field overruled him. The case was tried without a jury, it being an “equity matter,” and the implausible will was declared a forgery by Field.

Supremely confident of his legal skills, Terry was appalled by the judgment and by Field’s various rulings during trial. In one characteristic outburst in reaction to a ruling with which he disagreed, he drew his well known Bowie knife from inside his coat and had to be restrained by the bailiffs. Field declined Terry’s sub rosa invitation to a mistrial and drove the case to the well supported judgment. Field went back to Washington and Terry went to the Court of Appeals. Terry also made it publically well understood that if he meet Field in the flesh again, he would strike the cur down without a qualm.

Enters now our last major player: William Neagle (sometimes spelled Nagle). Neagle had a long law enforcement career. He served as the Marshall of Tombstone, Arizona, as lawless a place as existed on the frontier. He was a private guard and a deputy sheriff. Finally, he was employed by the United States Marshals Service. The exact powers and mission of this organization was, at that time, a bit unclear. They provided security for the court system, handled prisoners during their trials and guarded the courts. They also served process on behalf of the federal courts and provided informal guard duty for federal officials, including judges.

Field was slated to return to California to ride circuit the following year. Friends and colleagues tried to talk him out of going as Terry’s threats were well known, but no one was going to persuade hard as nails Stephen Field that he should not return to his home state to dispense justice. So the chief U.S. Marshall instructed Neagle to guard Field during his riding of the California Circuit.

Field heard cases in Los Angeles and began to travel to San Francisco. His travels took him by train to Stockton, California, a city in San Joaquin County in California’s great central valley. Field and Neagle disembarked along with the other passengers for a quick lunch in Stockton (Dining cars had not yet been invented.) Terry and Sarah, now Mrs. Terry (Yes, David Terry married her, perhaps it was part of his fee arrangements.) were also on the train and had disembarked for lunch.

Someone made Terry and Sarah aware that Field was in the dining room. Sarah returned to the train to get her revolver. But it did not take Terry long to find Field. Terry slapped Field, perhaps hoping for another duel. Neagle told Terry he was a police officer and to leave off. Terry was too excited to be put off even by a U.S. Marshal and when Neagle rose to confront Terry, according to Neagle and Field, Terry reached inside his coat on the side where he was known to habitually keep his Bowie knife. Neagle knew that because he was one of the bailiffs who subdued Terry during the Sharon trial. Neagle told him to stop. When Terry ignored him and continued to reach into his coat, Neagle drew his revolver and shot Terry twice at very close range. Terry fell to the floor, mortally wounded.

In a moment, Sarah appeared, threw herself on Terry’s body and wailed loud laments and curses. It took bystanders several minutes to drag her away. When Terry’s body was examined, no Bowie knife was found. The crowd, which was sympathetic to Terry and was urged on by Sarah, declared the event a murder by Neagle. The San Joaquin County Sheriff was summoned. He arrested both Neagle and Field on suspicion of murder. After a few hours he had the good sense to let Field go, but detained Neagle. An angry crowd called for Neagle’s hanging, and Field, clever lawyer that he was, realized he needed more fire-power than he could muster by himself. He hastened by train to San Francisco, located a Federal District Judge and persuaded that judge to issue an immediate writ of habeas corpus (bring to me—the judge—the person or body of someone detained by a government official). The writ ordered the Sheriff of San Joaquin County to come to the Federal Court in San Francisco and bring the person of William Neagle.

Federal Marshals hastened to Stockton and served the Sheriff. He appeared the next morning, but without Neagle. He was told by the Federal District Judge that he would be a guest in the local federal jail until Neagle was produced. The Sheriff telegraphed Stockton, and Neagle was quickly produced. And just as promptly released. Field returned to Washington.

The Sheriff of San Joaquin County appealed the writ and in due course the case found its way to the United States Supreme Court. The issue was not whether Neagle had killed Terry. He proudly admitted it. The issue was: did the federal government, as opposed to state governments alone , have the authority to empower police officers to keep the peace? Could such federal officers use deadly force when necessary? It was well establish that state police officers had that power; hence Marshall Matt Dillon gunning down the bad guys in Dodge City, but where in the Constitution does it say that the federal government has similar powers?


A few years later the United States Supreme Court issued its opinion on the matter in In re Neagle, 135 U.S. 1 (1890), holding that the power to keep order is an implied power of the federal government, so Neagle was perfectly within his authority when he killed Terry under circumstances that indicated that Terry was about to do Field great bodily injury, Bowie knife or no Bowie knife. The wily Field recused himself from participating in the decision. Publicly, that is. In this as in so many things, California served as a catalyst for sea changes in American life.

Terry is buried in Stockton, his grave largely forgotten. Field continues to be the subject of laudatory biographies as one of the longest serving and most influential justices of the Supreme Court. Sarah died in an insane asylum. Neagle lived quietly ever after. Much of the story is in the U.S. Supreme Court opinion.

Yours truly first heard this story from a wonderful professor in a political science class called “The American Constitutional Experiment” at UC Berkeley in the '60s. Thank you, Prof. Charles Aiken, wherever you are. You truly did inspire and motivate.

Deep Time & James Hutton--The Genius No One Ever Heard Of

Despite the Age of Enlightenment really having taken hold of Western Civilization by the end of the 18th century, most western scholars still believed that the Earth was about 6,000 years old, having been created on the evening immediately before October 23, 4004 BC. That was the date pronounced by Archbishop James Ussher in his tome, “Annalium Pars Postierior,” published in 1654. He studied the Old Testament with great care and developed a chronology “proving” that was the great day.

Except for those who take the Christian Bible as literal history, the idea that the Earth was created on a certain date in recent, measurable history seems quaint to us today. Even 6 year olds know that dinosaurs lived millions of years ago, that it took more millions of years for all those fern forests to turn into oil and gas, and that man’s evolutionary ancestors walked the Earth 100s of thousands of years ago. But when did western thinking first begin to understand that the Earth was far, far older than 6,000 years, AND who was responsible for the change? (Islamic super-scholar, Avicenna, and Chinese naturalist, Shen Kuo, both postulated the antiquity of the Earth around 1,000 AD, but their ideas were pretty much unknown in the West until the 19th century.)

We owe our enlightenment on the true age of the Earth and, as significantly, how the Earth changed over those eons, to an unassuming Scotch son of an Edinburgh merchant named James Hutton. “James Who?” you say. And rightly so because few of us have even heard of him, much less understood the profound effect he had on our understanding of the natural world. Make a mental note for later that Hutton’s work was indispensable for Charles Darwin, for the father of modern geology, Charles Lyell, and for more geologists, astrophysicists and astronomers than you can count with a calculator, as we will see.


James Hutton

So who is James Hutton? Hutton was obviously very smart. He studied law for a while, then medicine and earned a medical degree from the University of Leyden. But he was restless. He took over two family farms and studied meteorology and geology to practice scientific farming. Over time he met and befriended the Scottish intelligencia of the second half of the 18th century-Adam Smith, David Hume, Joseph Black and, most importantly, mathematician James Playfair, who became a very close friend and his eventual biographer.

Hutton’s interest in geology grew in the 1760s. He toured northern Scotland studying and cataloging rock formations. In 1767 he became deeply involved in the building of the Forth and Clyde Canal, and studied the rock formations exposed by the construction. Gradually, he began to formulate his ideas why the rocks were they way they were. It took him 20 years to become convinced he knew what actually happened. His greatest breakthrough came when he formulated the concept of "uniformitarianism." He saw that the processes of geology, volcanism, erosion, sedimentation, distortion and uplifting as a recurring, ongoing system, recycling the material of the Earth again and again. In his words, “We find no vestige of a beginning, no prospect of an end.” Now that we understand the Earth far, far better because of Hutton, we know there was a beginning and there will be an end, but the time involved so dwarfs a 6,000 year timeline that Hutton’s statement is correct as a practical matter.

Hutton did not attach a name to the lengthy chronology of geological history. He saw it in many ways as a repetitive cycle rather than a long, long story with parts that repeat often. Playfair once called it “the abyss of time,” but the idea was probably best described when John McPhee called it “Deep Time” in his book about the geology of Nevada and Utah, “Basin and Range.” So Deep Time it is.

In 1785 Hutton and Joseph Black read Hutton’s paper, “Theory of the Earth; or an Investigation of the Laws observable in the Composition, Dissolution, and Restoration of Land upon the Globe” to the Royal Society of Edinburgh. In 1794 and 1795 his 2,100 page, 3 volume dissertation was published and, despite being a bit turgid, seems to have overwhelmed the contrary views. The principal opposing view was that all of the things one could see in rock formations were created in a great world wide flood. Hutton had it bang on, though, explaining sedimentation, metamorphism, molten rock intrusion, volcanoes, distortion of sedimentary layers and rise and fall of mountains. The absolutely necessary corollary to all of this geology was that the Earth was vastly older than then thought. All that erosion, layering, compression, heating, tilting, re-eroding, etc. took a long, long time. We could see how long it took with our own eyes and that implied millions and millions of years. Billions it turned out.

Hutton’s ideas were the basis for the detailed geology studies and highly influential work of Charles Lyell, often regarded as the father of geology. Darwin took Hutton’s book with him for study on the voyage of the Beagle. As Darwin formulated his theory of evolution, he realized that Hutton had shown that evolution had ample time to work its magic, that not just one or two hundred generations of plants and animals had taken place in Earth’s history, but millions, which give tiny genetic changes in each generation time to accumulate and mold major changes in plants and animals. Eventually astronomers and astrophysicists would see the age of the Earth as a marker in the age of the Universe—more billions of years—until today, when we understand that the Universe is about 14 billion years old and that the Solar System, Sun, Earth and all the planets (non-planets like poor Pluto, too) formed about 4.2 billion years ago.

What did Hutton see that convinced him Ussher was wrong?

At river edges exposed in Glen Tilt in northern Scotland Hutton saw sedimentary rocks, metamorphic schists, that had been penetrated by granite. There was no open space in the sedimentary rock that would have allowed the granite to precipitate from water, as was thought until then, so the granite must have forced its way into the existing sedimentary layers as flowing molten rock, and then solidified. For that to have worked, the sedimentary rock must have been deposited in layers over a long period of time and hardened (metamorphosed) from pressure and heat created by masses of overlying rock. Only later could the granite come along and invade the formation. Later he saw the same in rock formations around Edinburgh and in Southwest Scotland.


Granite Intrusion Into Sedimentary Rock

In many places, perhaps first at the Isle of Arran in SW Scotland, he saw what came to be known as Hutton’s Unconformity. He observed layers of sedimentary rock, tilted almost vertically and lying over the TOP of them multiple horizontal sedimentary rock layers. Because the two rocks were of different types, the eroded materials from which they accumulated must have come from different places at different times. The lower layers formed, were heated and compressed over millions of years until they were solid rock. They then were tilted by earth movements until they were mostly vertical, but they were still deep under water. Over time, further sedimentary rock formed in the same way—erosion, deposition in layers, pressure, heating and then rock. After that the whole formation was raised by earth movement to above the surface of the waters and then the edges eroded away so that the whole formation was visible in cross-section. Again, an ages long process, implying multiple cycles of rock building over very long periods of time. Over Deep Time.





















Siccar Point, Scotland, Observed by Hutton. Photos by Dave Souza on Wikipedia

Today we know that all of these ideas are true, and they neatly explain the geology of the world we live in. We owe it largely to the genius of a modest Scottish scientist, James Hutton. If you are ever in Edinburgh, visit his grave at Greyfriars Kirkyard. He showed us the past (and the future) the Earth really has.

Eats, Shoots & Leaves OR Eats Shoots & Leaves

While packing books to clear a room for some remodeling, I came across a lovely little book about punctuation. That's right--punctuation. Ho, hum, but please read on. It's titled, predictably enough, "Eats Shoots & Leaves."

As the author points out sometimes punctuation is a matter of life and death. Suppose this: Panda bear enters cafe, orders a sandwich, eats it, pulls out revolver and fires shots in the air. Confused waiter asks why. As Panda walks out of cafe, it hands him a badly punctuated wildlife manual. Waiter looks up "Panda." The entry reads: "Panda. Large black and white bear-like animal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

Similarly, "A woman, without her man, is nothing." or "A woman, without her, man is nothing."

Lots of fun and a gentle reminder of the need for careful punctuation. "Eats Shoots & Leaves" by Lynne Truss, Gotham Books, 2003.

California Food Festivals--Eat Until You Drop

California is the nation's leading agriculture producer, rolling out more agricultural products than most of the world’s countries. We’ve even made our deserts productive so that what would otherwise be out of season can be obtained almost year round. The state's growers produce over 350 different food commodities and they are shipped to the whole world.

Think about it. Nothing is tastier than a plate of California's own baby lettuces, lightly dressed, or a fresh steamed artichoke served with garlic butter, or steamed asparagus served cold with lemon and capers.

One of the best ways to sample some of that fresh produce, at the source, is by spending a day at one of California's many food festivals. Combine it with a little vacation and enjoy the bounty we are so lucky to have.

There's garlic in Gilroy, of course, asparagus in Stockton, and even a carrot festival. Whatever your pleasure — fruit or vegetable — if it's grown in California, there's sure to be a festival that's too tasty to miss.

Here's a sampling of the festivals set for dates in the year after the date of this blog post. If you miss one and want to catch the next one, check the web site of the festival shown below for the next event.

· Almonds — September 11, 12 & 13, 2009
Oakley Almond Festival
Meet "Ben Toasted," Oakley's Almond Festival mascot.
For more: www.oakleychamber.com/almondfestival.html

· Apples — August 15 & 16, 2009
Gravenstein Apple Fair
Sponsored by Sonoma County Farm Trails, whose members promote local agriculture, and allow visitors to buy direct from the growers and producers.
For more: www.farmtrails.org/gravensteinapplefair/default.html

· Apples — October 197& 18, 2009
Springfield Apple Festival
And what apple festival isn't complete without baking and pie eating contests!
For more: www.springville.ca.us/applefest/index.html

· Apricots — May 29, 30 & 31, 2009
Patterson Apricot Festival
For more: www.patterson-ca.com/fiesta/fiesta1.htm

· Asparagus — April 24, 25 & 26, 2009
Stockton Asparagus Festival
"Catch the spear-it!!"
For more: www.asparagusfest.com

· Artichokes — May 16 & 17, 2009
The Castroville Artichoke Festival
"California's oldest agricultural and food festival"
For more: www.artichoke-festival.org

· Avocados — April 19, 2009
The Avocado Festival in Fallbrook
"Everything you ever wanted to know about the amazing avocado will be revealed. Taste world-class guacamole . . . ."
For more: www.fallbrookca.org/ChamberWebsite/AvoFestPageTemplate.htm

· Avocados — October 2, 3 & 4, 2009
The Avocado Festival in Carpenteria
Santa Barbara County is the third largest avocado producer in North America.This site has several years of its winning guacamole recipes: www.avofest.com/calavo'08-famous.html.
For more: www.avofest.com

· Carrots — Usually in February of each year , but 2010 dates not yet announced.
The Holtville (Imperial County) Carrot Festival
Holtville may well be the carrot capital of the world and celebrates as well as anyone.
For more: www.holtvillechamber.com/carrotfestival.htm

· Dates — February 14–20, 2010
Riverside County Fair & National Date Festival in Indio
Includes the "Blessing of the Dates" ceremony.
For more: www.datefest.org

· Dry Beans —Usually first week in September, but 2009 dates not yet announced.
California Dry Bean Festival in Tracy
Recipes over the years: garbanzos basque, Portuguese bean soup, baby lima con chilies con queso, bean ice cream, bean candies and bean fudge!
For more: www.tracybeanfestival.com/

· Eggplant — October 9, 2009
Loomis Eggplant Festival
For more: www.loomischamber.com/eggplant.asp

· Garlic — July 24, 25 & 26, 2009
The Gilroy Garlic Festival
This si grand-daddy of food festivals. 108,000 attended the Garlic Festival in 2008. No one knows how many garlic bulbs were used, but a conservative estimate would be at least one million. You could smell the festival for miles in all directions. Obviously a good time was had by all.
For more: www.gilroygarlicfestival.com

· Strawberries — May 16 & 17, 2009
The California Strawberry Festival in Oxnard, CA
“A tribute to the tasty fruit that wears its seeds on the outside."
For more: www.strawberry-fest.org/

· Tomatoes — Maybe September, 2009Carmel TomatoFest
The Carmel Tomato Festival was widely regarded as the premier tomato tasting event in the US, but the founder, Gary Ibsen, retired after the 2008 festival, and it is not clear whether there will be another. Keep an eye on the web page, however, in the hope that it will be held again.
For more: www.tomatofest.com/carmel_tomatofest.html

Why Capt. John Sutter Was Not The World's Richest Man In 1849

John Sutter was born in 1803 in what is now Germany very near the Swiss border. After a few odd jobs, a marriage, and four kids he fled his creditors and sailed for America. He made his way to the West Coast in 1838, and, after trips to Hawaii and Alaska, in 1839 he washed up in San Francisco, then called Yerba Buena. Venturing inland, he settled in the Great Central Valley near the confluence of the American and Sacramento Rivers in what is now downtown Sacramento. He started farming and trading, mostly with Native American labor.

Sutter became a naturalized Mexican citizen in 1840 and persuaded Governor Alvarado to grant to him 11 Mexican leagues of land—about 49,000 acres. It was a lot of land, but California was huge, the population was sparse, and the Mexicans, already sensing trouble with the United States, were trying to solidify their hold over fertile and resource rich California.

By 1847 Sutter was well situated, powerful, and wealthy. He had built a secure trading post on his Sacramento land and was the only game in the Northern Central Valley. In late 1847 he made a minor business decision that would rock the world. He hired a transplanted New Yorker, James Marshall, who was a capable carpenter and mechanic, to build a sawmill on the South Fork of the American River, forty miles upstream from Sutter’s principal location in Sacramento. Marshall, in turn, hired four other local American adventurers to work on the mill: Bigler, Johnson, Smith, and Brown. History will remember them as the “Pesky Witnesses.”

Sutter and Marshall sited the mill on a bend in the American River where there would be ample water force for the saw, but where there was also some level ground for the mill building and the expected lumber. The site was also far enough up in the Sierra Nevada foothills that trees were available nearby. Down river the lumber could be floated on a barge to Sacramento and perhaps on to Yerba Buena. It was a well picked location. Sutter was ever the man with an eye toward opportunity.

Construction of the mill progressed rapidly and was essentially complete in late January, 1848. It was then that things seemed to go very wrong, or perhaps they seemed to go very right. Can that be correct? Either very wrong or very right? Sounds impossible. Not so. Right and wrong in some things, like art, can very much be in the eye of the beholder. From Sutter’s perspective things went very wrong. From the perspective of the 200,000 people who rushed to California to find gold and make their fortunes those same events went very right!

Marshall was inspecting progress of the mill’s construction on January 23, 1848 when he decided to walk along the bottom of the dry millrace. Just downstream from the mill itself he noticed a loose granite outcrop in the middle of the millrace. He broke off a few pieces of it with his hand and then sent for a pick. A worker chipped up a few pieces of the rock with the pick. Marshall examined them and became convinced that gold lay within that outcropping, although nothing was found that day. Overnight, water was let through the race, but blocked again the next morning. When Marshall examined the millrace the next day he found flakes of gold near the rock outcropping. Excited, he foolishly told the Pesky Witnesses and the nearby Native Americans that he had found gold in the millrace. The date was January 24, 1848. Keep that date in mind. It will be critical to our narrative. It is also important to remember that on the same date in a place far away from the American River the United States was still at war with Mexico.

Marshall quickly made plans to travel to Sutter’s trading post and tell him of the find. Sutter and Marshall tested the flakes on January 28 with a little nitric acid Sutter had available. The flakes were inert to the acid, and Sutter concluded they were truly gold.

So the news was good, and the news was bad. Good: it really was gold; Sutter’s men found it on land Sutter was using to build a mill; only a handful of people knew about it. Bad, in fact, really BAD: THE MILL WAS ON LAND NOT INCLUDED IN SUTTER’S MEXICAN LANDGRANT.

California was huge. Land grants did not have clear legal descriptions, were approximate in location, and certainly not fenced. Grantees typically found the best land in the vicinity of their grant and used it. After California statehood this would lead to much litigation, but in 1848 there was no one to complain about it but the Native Americans. Sutter’s mill site was many miles off Sutter’s grant. Sutter, however, was shrewd. First, he sent Marshall to negotiate a deal with the Native Americans that lived in the area of the mill. The deal Marshall struck gave Sutter a “preemption” (a Mexican law legal concept similar to an English common law lease) on a large area around the mill site, permitted Sutter to mine the gold. Sutter, of course, had no clue that his find was merely one manifestation of the biggest gold field ever found, the western gold slope of the Sierra Nevada. If he had known he might have gotten a larger territory or approached other tribes, but he had no way of knowing, and in the end it made no difference.

The preemption was back dated January 1, 1848 so that it predated the discovery of gold, but was it was actually signed on February 4 and said so. Keep that date in mind. It is critical to our narrative.

Sutter realized that, even with the help of his American employees, he alone could not keep squatters off his “preempted” land once they learned of the gold, so he sent another American employee, Charles Bennett, with the preemption and a letter explaining the situation to the only authority Sutter knew that might be able to help him protect his find. Sutter wrote the letter to United States Army Colonel Richard Barnes Mason in Monterey, California, the Mexican capital of the province of Alta California. Early in the Mexican American War the U.S. sent navel forces to land at Monterey and displaced the Mexican authorities. Eventually, Colonel Mason was sent to be U.S. Military Governor of Alta California. He brought along a newly minted West Point graduate as his assistant, Lt. W. T. Sherman, who later would march across Georgia and South Carolina, burn Atlanta, capture Charleston, threaten Richmond Virginia from the rear and, shortly after Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Courthouse, accept the surrender of the Confederacy’s second largest army, that commanded by General Joseph Johnston.

Knowing that Sherman had a bit of legal training, Colonel Mason left the matter to him, and, years later, Sherman reported the event:

“Colonel Mason then handed me a letter from Captain Sutter, addressed to him, stating that he (Sutter) was engaged in erecting a saw-mill at Coloma, about forty miles up the American Fork above his fort, New Helvetia, for the general benefit of the settlers in that section ; that he had incurred considerable expense, and wanted a "pre-emption" on the quarter section of land on which the mill was located, embracing the trail-race in which this particular gold had been found. Mason instructed me to prepare a letter, in answer, for his signature. I wrote off a letter, reciting California was yet a Mexican province, simply held by us as a conquest; that no laws of the United States yet applied to it, much less the land laws, or the pre-emption laws, which could only apply after a public survey. Therefore it was impossible for the governor to promise him a title to the land; yet as there were no settlements within 40 miles, he was not likely to be disturbed by trespassers. Colonel Mason signed the letter, handed it to one of the gentlemen, who had brought the sample of gold, and they departed.”

So Sutter’s plea for approval of his preemption was rejected by Sherman on the grounds that Alta California still belonged to Mexico, the US being in control of it only by right of conquest. After all, Alta California might be returned to Mexico if the U.S. lost the war or agreed to do so in a peace treaty. Sherman understood all that well.

His idea rejected, and no help from the U.S. military forces available to protect his claim, Sutter was soon overwhelmed by hordes of gold seekers from Yerba Buena who were told of the discovery by the Pesky Witnesses, themselves the first claim-jumpers. Thousands more arrived in the next few months.

Not only was Sutter’s hope for a fortune in gold destroyed, his wheat, cattle and leather empire was swept away by the gold seekers who simply took what they wanted and squatted where they wanted. He moved 100 miles north to reach some safety, but it was all over for him. He eventually moved to Lititz, Pennsylvania where he died a pauper. A century later his grave was finally marked to show he was the man who started the gold rush and made California what it is today.

A sad, sad story indeed. Bad news for John Sutter; good news for the tens of thousands of gold miners who collectively made a lot of money, and good news for California, which proved itself for the first of many times to be the land of opportunity.

BUT the story doesn’t end there. Remember February 4, 1848, the date of the preemption? Well, it matters that the preemption was signed on February 4 and that Sherman’s letter to Sutter refusing help Sutter in protecting the gold fields was written a week or two later, say February 15. WHY?

We must go back to Thomas Jefferson to answer that question fully, and we will in a later blog post, but, for now, the short answer is: SHERMAN WAS WRONG. How can that be? His logic seemed so correct. His logic was perfect, but his FACTS were wrong.

For several years the US had been at war with Mexico over Texas. Texas had seceded from Mexico, temporarily became the Republic of Texas, and wanted to join the US as a regular state. Mexico threatened to retake Texas and sent military forces. Remember the Alamo? Sorry. That’s REMEMBER THE ALAMO!! The US responded by invading Mexico. It was a successful fight and good practice for the American military forces that were soon to engage in warfare against each other in the bloody American Civil War.

After a while, President Polk determined to bring the Mexican war to an end. He had what he wanted—Texas—which would immediately become a state, a slave state in fact, something he also wanted, although Congress and the rest of the country were divided on that point. To get a peace treaty Polk sent an ambassador extraordinaire to Mexico to negotiate a deal. The man he sent was a career government servant—Nicholas Trist. You probably never heard of Nicholas Trist.

Trist was Thomas Jefferson’s secretary and assistant in the cataloging of Jefferson’s library before it became the Library of Congress. It was his hand that copied Jefferson’s instructions to Captains Lewis and Clark for their epic journey to the Pacific Coast and back. He married Jefferson’s granddaughter and learned from Jefferson himself the concept of manifest destiny—that the United States must stretch from coast to coast, from Canada to Mexico. Trist served in several capacities in government and successfully got himself appointed ambassador to negotiate the peace with Mexico. He went to Mexico but promptly ignored Polk’s instructions to negotiate a cease fire, draw the agreed border so that Texas was free to join the US, and accept $10,000 as compensation. Instead, Trist wrote a 60 plus page letter to Polk explaining why he was forging on in an entirely different direction. Polk telegrammed him four times, each more stridently, to no avail. The last telegram actually recalled Trist, revoking his authority. Water off a duck’s back to Trist.

Trist used the victory of American forces over Santa Ana at the Battle of Chapultepec to conclude treaty negotiations. He and Mexican authorities signed a treaty at Guadalupe Hidalgo, a suburb of Mexico City. Trist was Jefferson’s brilliant alter ego. He convinced Mexico to cede about 2/3s of its territory to the US. Texas and every thing north of a line pretty much between southern Texas and the town of San Diego on the Pacific coast became part of the US, about 600,000 square miles, including, of course, all of California. The U.S. paid Mexico $15 million and assumed $4 million in debts, which came to about $31.60 per square mile. Believe it or not, Polk opposed confirmation of the treaty, but the US Senate had more sense, and it became effective.























So why does this matter to the story of John Sutter? What matters are the dates. Trist and the Mexican authorities signed the Treat of Guadalupe Hidalgo, as it later became known, on February 2, 1848. Does another date in February come back to mind? Remember that it was on February 4, 1848 that Sutter’s representative, Marshall, and the Native Americans signed the preemption, and it was mid—February before Sherman refused to endorse it and protect Sutter’s property. Sherman did that thinking that Alta California was still Mexican territory and in U.S. care only as conquest. But Sherman was dead WRONG. Two days BEFORE the preemption was signed and 10 or more days BEFORE Sherman refused Sutter’s request, Alta California became a territory of the United States. Colonel Mason could have approved the preemption and send forces to keep order and protect Sutter’s legal rights. Unknown to Colonel Mason and Lt. Sherman, Mason, was, in effect, the acting territorial governor of the territory of California, then a part of the U.S. But nobody in California knew the treaty had been signed two days before, 3,000 miles away at Guadalupe Hidalgo. So Sherman said “No” and Sutter lost everything. He might have become the richest man in the world by controlling some of the California gold fields, getting leases from Native American tribes, hiring them as labor, and living like a king. Instead he fled and died a pauper.

Timing certainly is everything.

The Mighty Eastern Sierra Nevada

Introduction To The Sierra Nevada Mountains

[The pictures in this blog are links. If you click on a picture it will open in full scale format in a new window. This is especially nice with the panoramas of mountains which have much more detail in full screen version.]

California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains (from the Spanish for snowy saw tooth and usually called just “the Sierra”) comprise some of the highest and most rugged terrain in the United States. Paradoxically, they are also among the most accessible. The western side of the Sierra is a modest slope from California’s Central Valley to near the higher crests, and highways deeply penetrate the 400 mile granite uplift, or massif, we call the Sierra, a handful of them creeping over high passes, most at elevations of 6,000 feet or more. More on those daring western roads in later blog entries.



In contrast, the eastern side of the Sierra is a steep escarpment, or cliff, falling abruptly 10,000 feet from the Sierra ridge line close to 14,000 feet in elevation to the Owens Valley at just 4,000 feet. Then, just 20 to 30 miles away across the Owens Valley, lays the equally steep face of the White Mountain Range in which White Mountain Peak tops out only a few hundred feet shorter than the Sierra’s giant Mount Whitney. But good fortune smiles on the bold, for, along the base of this daunting escarpment runs highly accessible US Highway 395. From it you can experience the most rugged and highest terrain in the lower 48 states, California’s best preserved gold rush town, the thrill of walking into an active volcano, the sad beauty of Manzanar, the almost unearthly splendor of alpine lakes, the mountain encircled breeding ground of half of California’ seagulls, the touch of the oldest living things on earth, and more. Those who visit the Eastern Sierra escarpment shown on the right will be moved by the beauty and joy Earth in all her variety and splendor.


This narrative proceeds from north to south as in my most recent trip there. Begin your trip in Reno or Carson City, Nevada and drive south along 395. These are the major things you will experience, but by no means does this blog exhaust the possibilities. A full trip takes a few days, but a delightful and thrilling jaunt can be accomplished with one overnight stop.



Topaz Lake, Antelope Valley And The Basin and Range Country

South of Carson City, 395 skirts Topaz Lake, actually, but not obviously, a reservoir. It is indeed topaz in color, partly from the glacial melt carried to it by its source, the West Walker River, which flows east from the slopes of the Sierra. As you come down from the area of the lake you will be in the Antelope Valley, a typical alpine valley located between the Sierra and the Sweetwater Range to the East. The Sweetwaters are one of the multiple ranges of the Basin and Range country mountains that lie east of the Sierra. And the Antelope Valley is one of its basins. The Basin and Range mountains and valleys are like a gigantic washboard all the way from California to the great salt desert in Utah. The image is the Antelope Valley with a snow storm coming in.




The Basin and Range country, which technically includes the Sierra as its westernmost range, was formed by the collision of the Pacific Tectonic Plate with the North American Tectonic Plate. The Plates are huge, irregular pieces of the Earth’s crust and mantle. The 7 major plates and myriad smaller ones constitute the jigsaw puzzle of the surface of the earth and their movement, driven by heat from the Earth’s molten core, is responsible in one way or another for the prominent surface features of the Earth. The Pacific Plate, which underlies the Pacific Ocean, simply smashed against and continues to smash against (hence the San Andreas Fault and California’s abundant earthquakes) the North American Plate until the North American Plate corrugated, alternately pushing up mountains and dropping down grabben (valleys) to relieve the pressure. Erosion later moved some of the mountains into the valleys so the escarpments of most of the Basin and Range mountains are not as abrupt as the Eastern Sierra escarpment. The high profile of the Sierra created an especially effective rain shadow, and that, coupled with the fact that the Sierra are the tallest mountains and its associated grabben (Owens Valley) the deepest valley (originally 10,000 feet deeper before Sierran erosion) means that the Eastern Sierra escarpment is the sharpest feature of its type in the Basic and Ranch country.
The basin and range shape of the area can be seen in the photo above-flat valley floor, sharply defined mountain range.

The Walker River

After leaving Topaz Lake and the Antelope Valley, 395 winds along the course of the West Walker River valley, which separates the Sierra escarpment from the Sweetwaters to the East. The road climbs up and over Devils Gate Pass, at 7,500 feet a low point in the Sweetwaters, but higher than Donner Pass. The scenery remains one of mighty vistas and intimate little valleys, some with the hot springs that pervade the eastern escarpment. The gigantic fault that allowed the tilting up of the Eastern Sierra is a natural pathway for the volcanic activity of the area (more on that later), and the hot springs that are the product of that persistent volcanism. It is not unusual to see active springs giving off steam and slightly sulfurous smells along the side of the highways.

Highway 89 And Monitor Pass

Not far south of Antelope Valley California State Highway 89 comes east out of the Sierra and ends at 395. 89 has crawled up from Lake Tahoe by crossing Luther Pass, at 7,700 feet, and then Monitor Pass, at 8,300 feet only 200 feet shy of the highest elevation achieved by a California State Highway. Monitor Pass is the location of the Leviathan Mine, accessible from 89, although little remains visible. Here are some bits and pieces.

It is worth the side tour, however, for the stark and spectacular view from near the top of the pass. Coming back down 89 to 395, the view over the Basin and Range country seems endless, and you will get a better idea of how it was formed.

Bridgeport

Descending from the Sweetwaters 395 enters the Bridgeport Valley, a large flat and very fertile plain at the headwaters of the East Walker River. It too is a grabben of the Basin and Range country. Bridgeport is a small but active little town that is THE nightlife for a long way in all directions. There are a few motels, one with a diner attached, and two late night bars with satellite, wide screen TVs. There is also the cute Inyo County Courthouse.

East of Bridgeport, the Sierra is pierced by the headwaters of the East Walker River, penetrating to alpine and glacial lakes. At the north edge of town Twin Lakes Road reaches west to two small glacial lakes nestled at the base of the Sierra redoubt. These were formed by the action of a glacier that carved out the canyons east of the lakes and then retreated at the end of the last ice age. The glacier pushed a pile of rocks and soil down the canyon as it grew and, when it retreated, it left the pile, called the terminal moraine, blocking the mouth of the canyon. The lower lake formed behind the moraine. In fact, the glacier did the trick twice: it grew, retreated, leaving one moraine, and it grew and retreated again, leaving a second moraine slightly higher up the canyon. Behind the second moraine a second lake formed. Surrounded by the steep slopes of the canyon and now also by trees, the lakes are evidence of the era of Sierran glaciers and proof of the presence of intense beauty even in this stark and rocky landscape.

Bodie

The 12-mile side road to Bodie turns east off 395 south of Bridgeport. Partially paved and climbing to over 8,000 feet, the road rises into the Bodie Mountains and pops you out at the rootenest, shootenest, tootenest, and most violent gold rush town of them all. Remote, high, cold and snowy in winter, hot and buggy in summer, Bodie existed for only one reason: to keep the miners feed, housed and amused, with emphasis on the “amused,” between their shifts in the mines that dotted the nearby hills sides. Bodie had a lot of gold and at one time had 10,000 residents, 65 saloons, two banks, a brass band, a railroad, miner's and mechanic's unions, several newspapers, and a jail. A violent town, it has always had a boot hill. A lot of Bodie is left. It is the best preserved gold rush mining town in the west and well worth the detour off 395.

Mono Lake

South of the Bodie turnoff but still hugging the Sierra escarpment the highway crosses Conway Summit, at 8,100 feet, and drops down into Mono Basin. The view of Mono Lake from the summit is superb. The Lake is a large, round volcanic formation with a real volcanic island—Negit—in the middle of it. Negit (“blue winged goose” in the local native American language) erupted last just 250 years ago. The Lake is highly saline and alkaline because it has no outlet except evaporation, and the habitat to a brine shrimp and alkali flies. Almost 2,000,000 birds migrate through the Lake area, resting and feeding on the abundant protein available in and around the Lake. A significant part of the California sea gull population breeds at the Lake, flying over the Sierra to get there. It has a stark beauty that belies its ecologically fecund resources. There is a great visitors’ center with a wonderful view over the Lake.

Mono Lake also exhibits some strange but very interesting geological formations. The lake level goes up and down. It went ‘way down when the LA Department of Water & Power tapped the Lake for water but, when litigation stopped that activity 20 years ago, it began to rise. The lower water level, however, exposed strange tufa formations in the Lake. These are calcite towers up to 20 feet high formed by the precipitation of minerals in tower shape, created from the bottom up as supersaturated hot spring water containing the calcite seeped upward into the cooler lake water. Underwater in centuries past, the lower water level of the lake exposed these formations. The strange towers are visible from the shore of the lake on both North and South sides.

At Mono Lake California Highway 120 comes down out of the Sierra after crossing Tioga Pass in the Yosemite National Park. If the pass is open, Yosemite Valley can be reached in a few hours and is a quick and scenic path back over the Sierra and Central California if you choose not to venture further south.

South of Mono Lake and before you reach Crowley Lake, the June Lake Loop Road reaches several beautiful alpine lakes in glacial basins carved from the escarpment. There story is similar to Twin Lakes near Bridgeport. Just south of June Lake Junction and Wilson Buttes on 395 you will cross from the Mono Lake watershed into the Rock Creek watershed at Deadman’s Pass, at just over 8,000 feet. Obviously, you are still in the high territory.

The Long Valley Caldera

750,000 years ago the volcano now known as the Long Valley Caldera cataclysmically erupted. It buried thousands of square miles of the west under many feet of pyroclastic flow (to you and me it’s molten rock propelled by powerful erupting gasses) and covered a large part of the American West (almost to Kansas City) with pumice and ash. Today you drive through this 20 mile by 17 mile crater almost without seeing it. On highway 395 you more or less go right through the middle. On the west Mammoth Mountain rises up and on the east almost equally tall Glass Mountain. Placid Crowley Lake at the southern end of the caldera gives the impression of a pleasant mountain valley lake, but the gently sloping floor of the volcano belies the history of the beast. The continued presence of magma (masses of fluid molten rock) in the volcanic magma chamber only 4 miles beneath your feet and the frequent nearby hydrothermal activity, including that powering a couple of geothermal power plants, show that the volcano is still “active.” Several years ago multiple magnitude 6 earthquakes warned that the Long Valley Caldera may erupt again at any time. Still it’s worth stopping the car and enjoying the majesty of the Mammoth Mountain region.

Owens Valley

Following 395 just South of Crowley Lake, you will cross a low divide at Tom’s Place (from which you can get a great view of the huge Mount Tom to the West) and drop rapidly down into the Owens Valley. The Owens Valley is the heart of the Eastern Sierra. After passing through the town of Bishop stop the car at a safe place. Standing in the middle of the Owens Valley you will see some of the most magnificent mountains on earth. To the east rise up the White Mountain Range, 14,000 feet tall, guarding the northern end of Death Valley, harboring the oldest living things on earth—the 6,000-year-old bristlecone pines. To the west lie the Sierra, Mount Whitney, Mount Ritter, Mount Lyle, the Minarets, thousands of feet of sheer rise from the valley floor. Stand still and slowly turn 360 degrees. From here you will literally see the bones of the earth. You may get a tear in your eye and feel just about one foot tall, but will know the goddess. This is a two part panaroma of the Owens Valley. Starting on the left it pans due West to due East through North.

The White Mountains And The Ancient Bristlecone Pines

The White Mountains are the second tallest peaks of the Basin and Ranch Country, if you count the Sierra in that territory. From the foot of the Sierra escarpment looking east they appear every bit as big as the Sierra.

On the east side California Highway 168 heads east out of the own of Big Pine and heads for Westgard Pass over the south shoulder of the White Mountains. If you follow 168 and turn left a little before the pass onto White Mountain Road (closed in winter) you can reach the crest of the mountains on a mostly paved road. Near the top is the Sierra Overlook. If you are there, do NOT, under any circumstances, fail to stop at Sierra Overlook. A 100-yard, relatively flat walk brings you to the lip of a sheer drop into the Owens Valley, and, on a clear day, a view of the Eastern Sierra escarpment from north of Tahoe south to where the Sierra tail off into the Mojave Desert. The Owens Valley is at your feet—well, actually, 6,000 feet below your feet, and the big guy of the Sierra—Mt. Whitney—is right in front of you. If the view from the floor of the Owens Valley made you feel a foot tall, this view will make you feel six inches tall.

These trees were already almost 2,000 years old when Babylon and the Indus River Valley civilizations were new, were over 1,000 years old when the Egyptians built their first pyramid—the step pyramid at Saqqara, were far more than sprouts before men settled in what first passed for a city. Further along the road is the White Mountains visitor center, where you can learn about the bristlecone pines and why, in this arid, high, cold, windy place the trees grow old, old, old. A walk of a mile or so from the visitor center takes you to the Patriarch Grove. Methuselah, the oldest known of the bristlecones is here, the oldest living thing—over 6,000 years. Pic below. You can touch the trees. You can feel the spirit of the Earth in them. You will feel about two inches tall at this point, but it is worth every inch you lost.

Off 395

Other side roads lead off 395 to the west up into the Sierra escarpment, some to trailheads like that of the trail to the peak of Mt. Whitney. Others lead to glacial lakes and alpine settings. All are beautiful and awe-inspiring. Glacier Lodge Road follows Big Pine Creek to near the foot of Palisade Glacier, the southernmost glacier in the U.S. Onion Valley Road leads west out of the town of Independence to the many lakes at the foot of Kearsarge Pass. The Whitney Portal Road from the town of Lone Pine leads to the Whitney trailhead. The face of Whitney with the Alabama Hills appears below. The Alabama Hills used to be called the Kearsarge Hills until a band of Southern gold hunters moved into the area and renamed them. You may recall that the Kearsarge ( a Union warship) sank the Alabama (a Confederacy warship) in a battle just off the coast of England.

Manzanar

South of Big Pine and before Independence on 395 you will pass one of the saddest places in California—Manzanar. Little remains of it now except a memorial, and the entrance gate, but Manzanar was one of the camps into which America herded its citizens of Japanese extraction at the beginning of World War II. The flimsy wood and tar paper shacks are gone, but the spirit of this lonely, remote place moves anyone who stops and walks a little along the paths those innocents trod. One of the several original machine gun towers has been re-erected to remind us this barren place was essentially a prison for people whose only disloyalty to the country was the ethnicity of their forebears. Can you imagine being forced to live 4 years in the equivalent of a German stalag located in the middle of nowhere because your father was, for example, Swedish? A great American shame.

Volcanic Activity

The Eastern Sierra south of Bishop is a hotbed of volcanic activity, most of it older than the eruptions of the Long Valley Caldera to the north. Here there are reddish brown cinder cones, eroded lava flows and mounds of volcanic material push up by the hot magma below by the score. In Lone Pine to the west of 395 you will see the Alabama Hills, volcanic intrusions pushed above the level of the Owens Valley floor by rising magma. Further south along 395 you will encounter chains of mini-volcanoes. You won’t notice them unless you look for them with the idea in mind that there are recent volcanoes. At one place the highway literally cut slices through a small cinder cone. They are the characteristic reddish brown in contrast to the dun color of the alluvial valley floor and since they are of harder rock, appear rougher.

Death Valley

Lone Pine is the cutoff for anyone headed east for Death Valley, the Panamint Valley, the Panamint Mountains, gold rush towns like Cerro Gordo and Darwin and Searles Dry Lake, the source of a large fraction of world’s supply of some very exotic minerals, and to the east of Death Valley, the town of Searchlight and the rest of Nevada. More on Death Valley and the Panamints in a later entry.

Getting Back To The Rest Of California

Just as the Sierra crest declines down into the Mojave, 395 continues to head south with Los Angeles in mind. If you are heading to the California Central Valley instead you can cross the southern Sierra on California Highway 178 and go all the way to Bakersfield. 178 crosses Walker Pass, at 5,240 feet the lowest of the Sierra Passes south of Lake Tahoe. It is nevertheless rugged and winding. These largely sedimentary rocks have been tilted on end by the Sierra uplift and then eroded into spikes and fins. At Lake Isabella 178 turns south down the Kern River canyon and emerges from the foothills near Bakersfield. The adventurous, however, will turn north at Lake Isabella on California Highway 155. 155 climbs steeply over the southern ramparts of the Sierra, up, up to Greenhorn Summit at 6,100 feet and then slowly winds down to the Central Valley near Delano. Along the way 155 passes huge granite boulders embedded in the sedimentary rock of the roadside cuts. These boulders were formed as magma globules were eroded and displaced by glacial action and ended up buried in the sediment of the coastal plain. California’s Coast Range mountains did not exist then, and the sediments of the Central Valley were still several thousand feet further up the mountain. The silt was washed down and, pushed by glaciers, buried the boulders, was transformed into sedimentary rock layers by heat and pressure, pushed up 5,000 feet by the mountain building collision between the North American Plate and the Pacific Plate and then exposed by more erosion. In miniature this is the story of the California Mountains.

No matter where you come out of the Sierra you will have learned that the Eastern Sierra are awe-inspiring, mesmerizing, and just really big. They also remind us why we visit the high places of the Earth: from there you can see forever, or at least a few tens of millions of years.

Answers to the "Which is Larger" Part of the California Georgraphy Quiz

We all know California is huge, but even the various political and geologic bits and pieces are big--bigger than some states. Here are the the answers to the "Which is Larger" part of the California Geography quiz posted earlier.

Which is larger in area?

The County of San Bernardino or the State of Maryland?
The County of San Bernardino is huge. It has about 20,000 square miles. Maryland is only about 10,000.

The County of Los Angeles or the State of Rhode Island?
The County of Los Angeles is about 4,083 square miles and Rhode Island is 1,214. The City of Los Angeles all by itself comes close to the size of Rhode Island. It has almost 1,000 square miles of territory.

The great California Central Valley or the State of West Virginia?
The great California Central Valley was formed when the granite plutons (big balls of molten rock, 60 to 100 miles in diameter) of the Sierra Nevada mountains lifted up those mountains. The Valley is about 60 miles wide and 450 miles long, or about 27,000 square miles. West Virginia is about 24,000.

Riverside County or the State of Vermont?
Nope. You guessed wrong on this one. Big as Riverside County is, Vermont is little bigger. Riverside County was formed in 1893 by taking a large piece of the then truly huge San Bernardino County and adding some territory from San Diego County.

The State of New Hampshire or Imperial County?
This one is a ringer also. New Hampshire is larger than Imperial County.

More answers to come!

Answeres to the Which is Further West Questions:

OK, OK, so I have dragged out the answers far too long. Here are the answers for section 2-Which is further West:

1. The City of Fresno or the City of Santa Barbara?
ANSWER: Fresno is at 119.77139W longitude. Santa Barbara, even though it is on the coast is at 119.69722W.

2. Lake Tahoe or the City of Santa Barbara?
ANSWER: Lake Tahoe, not Santa Barbara. Tahoe is at 120.03333W

3. The City of Colma (San Mateo County, just South of SF) or San Simeon (Hearst Castle)?
ANSWER: San Simeon. I had to have one coastal town west of the mountain places. San Simeon is at 121.18972W and Coloma is at 120.88917W.

4. The City of Santa Barbara or the floor of Yosemite Valley?
ANSWER: But once again it's Yosemite. Yosemite Valley is at 119.66417W and Long Beach is at 118.18833W

5. The City of San Diego or the City of San Bernardino?
ANSWER: San Berdo wins. The City of San Bernardino is at 117.28889W. San Diego is at 117.15636W

Bonus question on East and West. Which is farther EAST (NOT West): California or Nevada? Careful. This is not obvious.
ANSWER: On a map it looks like Nevada is completely east of California, but sharp eyed gamesters may notice that in one place along the Colorado River border between California and Arizona south of Lake Havasu City, California extends eastward many miles as the Colorado River bends in that direction. If it were bent just a few more miles further east, that part of the California eastern border would actually be further east than the long straight eastern border that Nevada shares with Utah and represents Nevada's easternmost extent. So Nevada is further east, but not by very much despite the common misconception.

Which is larger answers in a few days.

The Tunnels of San Francisco

You might have guessed that San Francisco has twice as many hills in its city limits as does Rome, but did you know it also has one heck of a lot of tunnels? The reason, of course, is all those hills.

Tunnel building is a longstanding tradition in San Francisco, but since the results are largely invisible, most people don’t know that as they walk or drive down a street they may be passing over a major hole in the ground.

San Francisco’s first major tunnel was the 1,000-foot-long Stockton Tunnel, opened in 1914 to carry four lanes of cars and buses under the edge of Nob Hill from the main business district to Chinatown and North Beach. It worked so well that tunnel building in San Francisco took on a furious pace. In 1918 a streetcar tunnel over two and a half miles long under Twin Peaks, the City’s highest "hills," was opened from downtown to the outer Sunset District. When the surface streetcars on Market Street, the City’s main drag, were undergrounded in the 1980’s, the Twin Peaks Tunnel and the new Market Street Tunnel were connected to make a rapid transit tunnel over six miles long.

Ten years later another streetcar tunnel was finished. The Duboce or Sunset Tunnel carries streetcars under the northern edge of Mount Sutro from Market Street to the inner Sunset District.

In 1952 a 1,600-foot tunnel under Russian Hill, called the Broadway Tunnel for the street that runs through it, was opened to take cars and buses from North Beach to the Western Addition. The Broadway Tunnel was built by the Morrison Knudsen Corporation, which also built many major public works in the Bay Area.

After these successes car and bus tunnels were proposed everywhere, and some were even built. Tunnels carry six-lane-wide Geary Street under Masonic Heights and a super trench takes Geary under Fillmore Street.

The granddaddy of all Bay Area tunnels was built in 1936 during the construction of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge. The bridge connects Oakland and San Francisco and was essentially a replacement for the extensive ferry system. The bridge is in two main sections, a double suspension bridge on the west end and a cantilevered bridge on the east end. These main sections meet in the middle of San Francisco Bay at Yerba Buena Island. San Francisco’s name before the gold rush was Yerba Buena (the "place of the good grass”; and the name was used for the island. To get the roadway from one side of the island to the other, the engineers dug a huge tunnel through the middle of the island. It is still the largest diameter, single-bore tunnel in the world with five lanes of traffic going each way, one above the other and each high enough for big trucks in any lane. Since the island is within the city limits, the Yerba Buena Tunnel qualifies as a San Francisco landmark.

The Golden Gate Bridge, finished at almost the same time, has its own tunnel. The Funston Avenue Tunnel takes traffic approaching the bridge under the picturesque San Francisco Presidio. On the other side of the bridge and thus just outside of San Francisco, Golden Gate Bridge traffic passes through the two Waldo Tunnels to reach the population centers of Marin County.

There are also railroad-only tunnels. Southern Pacific RR bored four tunnels between Third and Townsend Streets just south of San Francisco’s downtown and the south border of the City, over 8,000 feet long, in 1908. The Belt Line RR Tunnel, dug by the Harbor Commission in 1914, goes under Fort Mason on the north edge of the City.

There are even massive sewer tunnels. Since San Francisco collects all of its wastewater, including rain runoff for treatment and disposal. Massive trench tunnels and holding tanks ring the City on three sides, picking up the waste water, storing almost 200,000,000 gallons at a time and transporting it to three treatment plants.

Perhaps the most amazing "tunnel" of all is the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system. In San Francisco it bores deep under the City from the Ferry Building at the edge of the Bay to the Ingleside District, south of Twin Peaks. Down Market Street it runs in a tunnel UNDER the streetcar tunnel. At the Bay it dives from its tunnel under the dirt of the City into a steel and concrete tube over five miles long crossing under San Francisco Bay to Oakland. There it connects once again to a land tunnel under Oakland’s port facilities. BART trains cross through the tunnel in a matter of minutes from one side of the Bay to the other. When originally proposed, BART would also have bored under San Francisco’s hills to emerge near and cross the Golden Gate Bridge, but that San Francisco tunnel was never built.

Some Answers to the Geography Quiz

OK, I have kept you in suspense too long. I will post the answers, but over the next couple of weeks a section at a time. Here is part one:

1. Mt. Whitney (36.6275N). Monterey is at 36.6003N. Hard to believe because most people think of Whitney as being in the southern part of California and Monterey a little south of San Francisco, but look a map and make sure that the north orientation is straight up and down. For all latitudes check the USGS web site: http://www.nationalatlas.gov/natlas/natlasstart.asp which has a latitude/longitude search engine.

2. Death Valley. Death Valley extends far to the north of Whitney, although places like Stove Pipe Wells, Furnace Creek and Bad Water, which are well known landmarks are south of the mountain.

3. The City of Los Angeles. It extends north to include the community of Sylmar, north of the San Fernando Valley. While Ventura is "north" along US 101, the coastal highway, in this area the highway runs almost due east/west. The northern border of the City of Ventura is south of the northern border of the City of Los Angeles.

4. Yosemite. Yup, that's right. Yosemite Valley itself is at 37.71639N and Palo Alto is at 37.44194N. Even though you drive south from the San Francisco Bay Area to get to Yosemite that is because the river canyons which the highways follow to get up into the mountains tend to run from southwest to northeast. Fact is though that Yosemite is almost due east of the San Francisco Bay Area.

5. San Francisco is further North than Berkeley. Sorry, this is a little tricky, but with a good map you can figure it out. In their wisdom the early California legislature determined to give San Francisco control of a much larger portion of San Francisco Bay than San Francisco's relative land area might seem to merit. Thus for example, the eastern border of San Francisco includes an acre or two of the tip of the former Alameda Naval Air Station, which is mostly in Alameda County. That placed the Island of Yerba Buena in the middle of the bay and Treasure Island, when it was filled in just to the north of Yerba Buena, well inside the San Francisco borders. Relative to this question is the fact that the San Francisco border was also extended far to the north into the area just off the Contra Costa County shoreline and what was to become the City of Richmond to the little island called Goat Island, which is only a couple of hundred yards south of the Richmond/San Rafael Bay Bridge. While Berkeley is north of the land area of most, if not all, of San Francisco, its northern border is far south of Goat Island.

6. Mono Lake is at 38.01667N. Oakland is at 37.8044N. Even though Mono is in the great southwestern desert east of the Sierra Nevada it is still north of Oakland.


7. Reno is at 39.52972 and Mendocino "on the northern California coast" is at 39.37078N