rather strange that no mention is made in the diaries of the fact that
the tree was a twin. Father Pedro Font, who accompanied the expedition,
says: “From a slight eminence I here observed the lay of the port from
this point and saw that its extremity lay to the east-southeast. I
also noticed that a very high spruce tree, which is to be seen at a
great distance, rising up like a great tower, from the _Llano de los
Robles_,—it stands on the banks of the _Arroyo de San Francisco_, later
on I measured its height—lay to the southeast.” Further on in the diary
he says: “Beside this stream is the redwood tree I spoke of yesterday:
I measured its height with the graphometer which they lent me at the
mission of San Carlos, and, according to my reckoning, found it to be
some fifty yards high, more or less; the trunk was five yards and a half
in circumference at the base, and the soldiers said that there were
still larger ones in the mountains.”—(Translation edited by Frederick
J. Teggart.) This description of Father Font’s gives rise to a strong
suspicion that the tree now so highly venerated is not the original Palo
Alto from which the place takes its name. The name was first applied to a
land grant.
[Illustration: THE PALO COLORADO (REDWOOD TREE).
“First observed and named by Gaspar de Portolá.”]
LA SALUD
_La Salud_ (health). In the name of this place, not far from the San
Lorenzo River, reached by the Portolá party on October 22, there is
a reference to one of the heaviest of the afflictions from which the
Spaniards suffered during their journey up the state,—serious sickness
and many deaths from scurvy. To their great surprise, after a wetting
received during a heavy storm at this place, all the sick began to
recover. Costansó, in his diary, date of October 22, says: “The day
dawned overcast and gloomy. The men were wet. What excited our wonder
was that all the sick, for whom we greatly feared that the wetting might
prove harmful, suddenly found their pains very much relieved. This was
the reason for giving the canyon the name of _La Salud_.”—(Translation
edited by Frederick J. Teggart.)
LOS GATOS
_Los Gatos_ (the cats), is the rather unpoetic name of a very pretty
town in Santa Clara County, ten miles southwest of San José. From its
location at the mouth of a canyon in the Santa Cruz Mountains, the
inference may be drawn that it was named in reference to the wild-cats
which even at this day infest that region. John Charles Fremont, in his
_Memoirs_, says: “The valley is openly wooded with groves of oak, free
from under-brush, and after the spring rains covered with grass. On the
west it is protected from the chilling influence of the northwest winds
by the _Cuesta de los Gatos_ (wild-cat ridge), which separates it from
the coast.”
“It seems to have been known as early as 1831 as _La Cuesta de los
Gatos_. That there were troublous times about there in other matters
besides wild-cats is evidenced by the story of a lively fight that took
place in 1831 against a band of Indians under a chief named Yoscol.
This chief was eventually captured by the Santa Clara authorities and
beheaded, his head being exposed in front of the mission as a warning to
others.”—(W. Drummond Norie, of Los Gatos.)
SUPPLEMENTARY LIST
_Almadén_ (mine, mineral), a word of Moorish origin. New Álmadén, in
Santa Clara County, where there is a quicksilver mine, is named after the
famous _Almadén_ quicksilver mines of Spain.
_Alviso_ (a surname). Alviso is in Santa Clara County, eight miles
northwest of San José, and received its name from Ignacio Alviso, a
native of Sonora, born in 1772, who was a member of Anza’s party of
colonists in 1775-6. He was the original Alviso of California, and was
the grantee of _Rincón de los Esteros Rancho_.
_Arroyo Hondo_ (deep creek).
_Coyote_, the native wolf of California. Coyote is an Aztec word,
originally _coyotl_. The town of this name is situated thirteen miles
southeast of San José.
_Las Llagas_ (the wounds or stigmata of St. Francis),—in reference to
the legend that St. Francis was supposed to have received, after a fast
of fifty days, the miraculous imprint of the wounds of the Savior in his
hands, feet and side. _Las Llagas_ was the name of a place near Gilroy,
and was also given by the padres to Alameda Creek.
_Madroño_, often misspelled _madrone_, is the name given by the
Spaniards to a very beautiful tree indigenous to California, which is
thus described by Fremont in his _Memoirs_: “Another remarkable tree of
these woods is called in the language of the country _Madroña_. It is a
beautiful evergreen, with large, thick and glossy digitated leaves; the
trunk and branches reddish-colored, and having a smooth and singularly
naked appearance, as if the bark had been stripped off. In its green
state the wood is brittle, very heavy, hard and close-grained; it is said
to assume a red color when dry, sometimes variegated, and susceptible of
a high polish. Some measured nearly four feet in diameter, and were about
sixty feet high.”
_Milpitas_, see page 232.
_San Felipe_ (St. Philip), is the name of a village in Santa Clara
County. There were four saints of this name, perhaps the most
distinguished being St. Philip Neri, a Florentine, born in 1515. He
was the intimate friend of St. Charles Borroméo, patron of the mission
at Monterey, and was the founder of the order of the Oratorians, “who
were bound by no vows, and were not secluded from the world, but went
about reading and praying with the sick and needy, founding and visiting
hospitals and doing various charities.” Then there was St. Philip of
Bethsaida, who, going to Hieropolis, “found the people worshipping a
huge serpent, or dragon, which they thought to be a personification of
Mars. Then Philip took pity on their ignorance. He held up the cross and
commanded the serpent to disappear. Immediately it glided from beneath
the altar, and as it moved it sent forth so dreadful an odor that many
died, and among them the son of the King; but Philip restored him to
life. Then the priests of the serpent were so wroth with the apostle that
they crucified him, and when he was fastened to the cross they stoned
him.”—(_Stories of the Saints._)
_San Martín_ (St. Martin), is a town in Santa Clara County, six miles
north of Gilroy. St. Martin has many legends connected with his history.
Before he became a Christian, he was a soldier and was noted for his
kindness and charity to his comrades. “The winter of 332 was so severely
cold that large numbers perished in the streets of Amiens, where the
regiment of St. Martin was quartered. One day he met at the gate a naked
man, and taking pity on him, he divided his cloak, for it was all he had,
and gave half to the beggar. That night in a dream Jesus stood before
him, and on his shoulders he wore the half of the cloak that Martin had
given the beggar. And he said to the angels who attended him, ‘Know ye
who hath thus arrayed me? My servant Martin, though yet unbaptized,
hath done this.’ Then Martin was immediately baptized.” Again it is
told of him that being invited to sup with the emperor, “the cup was
passed to Martin, before his Majesty drank, with the expectation that he
would touch it to his lips, as was the custom. But a poor priest stood
behind Martin, and to the surprise and admiration of all, the saint
presented the full goblet to him, thus signifying that a servant of God
deserved more honor, however humble his station, than any merely earthly
potentate; from this legend he has been chosen the patron of all innocent
conviviality.”—(_Stories of the Saints._)
[Illustration: AROUND SAN FRANCISCO BAY]
IX
AROUND SAN FRANCISCO BAY
_San Francisco._ Many persons, misled by an incorrect translation of a
certain passage in Palou’s _Life of Serra_, have ascribed the naming of
the bay of San Francisco (St. Francis), to the Portolá expedition of
1769, but, as a matter of fact, the outer bay, the great indentation in
the coast outside of the Golden Gate, between Point Reyes and Mussel
Point, had received this name many years before. In remonstrating with
the _Visitador General_ because no mission had been provided for St.
Francis in Upper California, Serra remarked, “And is there no mission
for our Father St. Francis?” Señor Galvez replied, “_Si San Francisco
quiere misión, que haga se halla su puerto y se le pondrá_ (If St.
Francis wants a mission, let him cause his port to be found and one
will be placed there for him).” By “his port” Galvez referred to a port
already discovered and named, but which had been lost sight of during
the intervening years, and which he wished to have re-discovered. This
is further carried out by the succeeding statements of Palou, in which
he says that after failing to recognize the port of Monterey, “they came
to the port of St. Francis, our father, and they all knew it immediately
by the agreement of the descriptions which they carried,” referring to
descriptions obtained from the papers of the first discoverers. Father
Crespi, who accompanied the expedition, says: “All the descriptions
which we found here we read in the log-book of the pilot Cabrera Bueno,
in order to form a judgment that this is the port of San Francisco. To
make it all clear, the _Señor Commandante_ ordered that during the day
Sergeant Ortega should go out with a party of soldiers to explore.”
Further on in the same diary we read: “From the top of a hill we made out
the great estuary, or arm of the sea, which probably has a width of four
or five leagues.” This is undoubtedly the first occasion when the eye of
a white man rested upon “the great arm of the sea,” that is, the inner
harbor of San Francisco as we now know it.
[Illustration: THE CITY OF YERBA BUENA (SAN FRANCISCO IN 1846-47)
“ ... so-called in reference to the profuse growth of that charming
little vine about the locality.”]
It must be remembered that until the arrival of Portolá, the Spaniards
only knew this part of the coast from the sea side, having no knowledge
of that great inland sea known to us as the bay of San Francisco. When
the party came up by land on their futile search for Monterey, they
reached Fort Point, and there recognized the marks of the outer bay as
given by early navigators and called by them _San Francisco_. Then they
climbed a hill, and looking to the landward saw the “great arm of the
sea,” the inner harbor, to which the name of San Francisco was finally
extended.
Palou ascribed the failure of the party to recognize the port of
Monterey, and the consequent continuance of their journey as far as San
Francisco, to a direct interposition of the divine hand, so that Galvez’s
promise of a mission for St. Francis might be carried out.
The honor of the christening of our world-famous bay probably belongs
to Sebastián Rodríguez Cermeñón, a Portuguese navigator, who was
commissioned in the year 1595 by Philip II to search for safe harbors
along the coast for vessels in the Philippine trade. These ships usually
shaped their return course so as to touch first at about the latitude of
Cape Mendocino, making a knowledge of the harbors south of that point a
matter of great importance, especially in stormy weather. Cermeñón had
the misfortune to lose his vessel, the San Agustín, on Point Reyes, and
was compelled to make his way home, with great peril and suffering, in
a small boat. In his _Derrotero y Relación_ (Itinerary and Narrative),
under date of April 24, 1596, he says: “We sighted New Spain at Cape
Mendocino on November 4, 1595.... We left the bay and port of San
Francisco, which is called by another name, a large bay, in 38⅔ degrees,
and the islets [Farallones] in the mouth are in 38½ degrees, the distance
between the two points of the bay being twenty-five leagues.” It is
clear from this description that he referred to that great indentation
in the coast between Point Reyes and one of the points to the south,
possibly Mussel Point, and that he gave the name of San Francisco to it,
displacing some other name by which it had been previously known. At any
rate, if this is not the origin, it is likely to remain lost in the mists
of the Pacific. Bancroft says: “There can be little doubt that Cermeñón
named the port of his disaster _San Francisco_.”
An absurd theory advanced by certain persons that the name was derived
from that of Sir Francis Drake is wholly unworthy of consideration.
The resemblance between the two names must be regarded as purely a
co-incidence, and any connection between “_El Pirata_” (the pirate)
Drake, as the Spaniards usually called him, and the name of the gentle
St. Francis must be taken in the light of a jest.
Portolá, then, although he was indubitably the discoverer of the bay as
we know it,—the inner harbor,—found the name already applied to the outer
_ensenada_ by his predecessor, Cermeñón.
It is held by some persons that Portolá cannot in all fairness be
considered the actual discoverer of the bay, since it is most probable
that Lieutenant Ortega or perhaps some member of a hunting party which
was sent out actually laid physical eyes upon it first, and it is even
thought possible that Portolá never saw it at all, but remained in camp
all the time during their stay on its shores. Even granting these facts,
the question remains whether he, as the commander of the party making the
expedition which resulted in the discovery, is not still entitled to the
fame which has generally been granted to him.
A parallel might be drawn between the case of Portolá and that of
Columbus. When the famous expedition of 1492 drew near to the shores of
the new world, it was not the great admiral, but a common sailor, Rodrigo
de Triana by name, who first raised the thrilling cry of “land! land!”;
yet, nevertheless, the world justly awards the honor and glory of the
discovery to Christopher Columbus, the leader and the soul of the party,
whose splendid imagination and unconquerable resolution made it possible.
Although the Portolá party made a partial examination at this time of the
shores of what they called the “great arm of the sea,” and Captain Fages
returned for further explorations in 1770, and again in 1772, when he
stood on the present site of Berkeley and looked out through the Golden
Gate, the mission was not established until 1776. Father Palou was its
founder, and he states in his _Life of Serra_ that the presidio was
established with solemn religious services, September 17, 1776, on the
day of the “impressions of the stigmata of St. Francis,” but on account
of a delay in receiving orders, the founding of the mission did not take
place until October 9. On that day a procession was held with the image
of St. Francis, and mass was celebrated by Father Palou himself.
So they prayed and sang their hymns, in the year of ’76, while their
hearts beat high with the zeal of the missionary, and, happily, no
echo of the roll of drums and boom of minute guns came to them across
the untrodden miles of mountain and plain, of forest and prairie, that
separated them from the alien race on the other rim of the continent, for
whom they were all unconsciously preparing the way to the possession of a
great principality.
No natives were present at this mass, for the reason that in the month
of August they had been driven on their tule rafts to the islands of the
bay and the opposite shores, by their enemies, the Salsonas, who lived
about seven leagues to the southeast, and who had set fire to their
_rancherías_ and killed and wounded many of their people, the Spaniards
not being able to prevent it.
The first settlement was three-fold, including the mission of _San
Francisco de Asís_, on the _Laguna de los Dolores_ (the lagoon of
sorrows), the presidio, and the pueblo, separated from one another by
about a league. The Pueblo was at first known as _Yerba Buena_, in
reference to the profuse growth of that vine about the locality. The
change of the name is ascribed by General Sherman, in his _Memoirs_, to
jealousy of the town of Benicia, which was at first called _Francisca_,
in honor of General Vallejo’s wife, and was thought to bear too
marked a resemblance to the name of the great patron, San Francisco.
General Vallejo himself states that the change was made as a matter of
convenience, to bring the three points of the triangle, church, town,
and presidio, all under one name. Whatever the reason for the change,
it is a matter of congratulation that it occurred, for the name of the
venerable saint carries a dignity more commensurate to a noble city than
the poetic, but less impressive _Yerba Buena_.
[Illustration: MISSION OF SAN FRANCISCO DE ASÍS, COMMONLY CALLED MISSION
DOLORES.
“It stood unharmed through the earthquake and fire of 1906 which laid low
all its proud modern neighbors.”]
The church of _San Francisco de Asís_, popularly known as _Mission
Dolores_, still stands in a good state of preservation, having almost
miraculously withstood the earthquake and fire of 1906, which laid low
all its proud modern neighbors. Of its patron, the gentle St. Francis,
it may be said that he was the son of a rich merchant, but that he
abandoned his riches, adopted vows of poverty, and founded the order of
Franciscans. “While in a trance, or vision, after having fasted for fifty
days, he received the miraculous imprint of the wounds of the Savior on
his hands, feet, and side.” His chief attributes were humility, poverty,
and love for animals. In pictures he is always represented as accompanied
by a pet lamb.
THE GOLDEN GATE
Although this name, not being of Spanish or Indian origin, is not
properly included in these pages, its close relationship to San
Francisco, and its position as the gate-way to the entire state, will not
permit it to be passed by.
In view of the comparatively recent origin of the name, 1844, and the
accessibility of the story, it seems strange indeed that any writer
should have advanced the theory that the Golden Gate received its name
from Sir Francis Drake, yet this wholly unfounded explanation has found
its way into print. In the first place, it has been pretty thoroughly
established by historians that Drake never saw the inner harbor, and
knew nothing of the narrow strait leading to it. In the report of his
voyage, written by one of his companions, we read: “At 38 degrees toward
the line, it pleased God to send us into a faire and good harborow, with
a good wind to enter the same. Our General called this country _Nova
Albion_, and that for two causes;—the one in respect of the white bankes
and cliffes, which ly toward the sea; and the other that it might have
some affinity with our country in name, which sometime was so-called.”
The white cliffs under Point Reyes answer so well to this description
that there can be little doubt that Drake’s anchorage was in the small
outer bay under that point, now known as Drake’s Bay; to say nothing
of the fact that the account of the voyage has no word concerning the
great land-locked harbor, with a narrow strait as its only entrance, a
circumstance so novel that, as Bancroft justly observes, Drake could not
have failed to mention it had he known aught of it.
All discussion of the name _Golden Gate_ is, moreover, brought to an
end by the fact that its real author, John Charles Fremont, gives
a circumstantial account of it in his _Memoirs_. After an elaborate
description of the bay, and its surroundings, he says: “Between these
points is the strait,—about one mile broad in its narrowest part, and
five miles long from the sea to the bay. To this gate I gave the name
of _Chrysopylae_, or Golden Gate; for the same reasons that the harbor
of Byzantium (Constantinople afterwards), was called _Chrysoceras_, or
Golden Horn. The form of the harbor and its advantages for commerce,
and that before it became an _entrepot_ of eastern commerce, suggested
the name to the Greek founders of Byzantium. The form of the entrance
into the bay of San Francisco, and its advantages for commerce, Asiatic
inclusive, suggested to me the name which I gave to this entrance, and
which I put upon the map that accompanied a geographical memoir addressed
to the senate of the United States, in June, 1848.”
Here we have, told in the somewhat pedantic language of its author, the
true story of the first appearance of the famous name _Golden Gate_ upon
the map of the world, and instead of its having been “named by Colonel
Fremont because of the brilliant effect of the setting sun on the cliffs
and hills,” as one writer has fondly imagined, or from any idea connected
with the shining metal, which still lay buried deep from the sight of
man beneath the mountains of the land, it was born in a sordid dream of
commerce. Yet, for so wonderfully apt a name, whatever may have been
Fremont’s motive in selecting it, we owe him a debt of gratitude.
There is some disposition to doubt this explanation of the name _Golden
Gate_, partly on the ground of a distrust of Fremont’s trustworthiness,
and partly because of its far-fetched nature. As to the latter objection
it should be remembered that he was that kind of a man. He was possessed
of a certain amount of erudition which he was fond of showing off, and
this labored method of seeking for a name in the old Greek was quite in
keeping with his character. As to his reliability, although it is quite
possible that he colored events of a political character to suit his own
purposes, in ordinary matters there seems to be no reason to doubt his
statements. At all events, the name Golden Gate does in fact appear upon
his map of 1848 as he says.
[Illustration: THE GOLDEN GATE.
“ ... called by the Indians _Yulupa_, (the place where the sun plunges
into the sea.)”]
According to Dr. Vallejo, the Golden Gate was called by the Indians
_Yulupa_, pronounced _ee-oo-loo-pa_, which means “near the sea plunge,”
that is, the plunge of the sun into the sea, and may be freely translated
as the “Sunset Strait.” The suffix _pa_ is said by Dr. Vallejo to signify
“near.”—(_Memoirs of the Vallejos_, edited by James H. Wilkins, San
Francisco Bulletin, January, 1914.)
ALCATRAZ
_Alcatraz_ (pelican), the fortress-like island in the bay, just inside
the channel, performs the triple duty of a fortified military post,
prison, and light-house. Although but 1650 feet in length, it rises to
a height of 130 feet above the water, and in the shadowy light just
after sunset, its high, rocky walls, topped by the buildings of the
fortifications and prison, make a silhouette against the sky strikingly
like a great dreadnaught, standing guard at the harbor’s entrance.
The story of its naming can not be run to earth, but it probably
originated in some circumstance connected with the great sea-birds whose
ungainly forms may still be seen heavily flapping over the bay, or
resting on the island.
ANGEL ISLAND
_Angel Island_, the Americanization of _La Isla de los Ángeles_ (the isle
of the angels), belies its name, since it has been devoted to the quite
un-angelic business of quarantine station of San Francisco.
Palou, in speaking of the expedition of 1776, says: “They moved to the
island which is in front of the mouth, which they called _Nuestra Señora
de los Ángeles_ [Our Lady of the Angels], on which they found good
anchorage, and going on land, they found plenty of wood and water.”
A story has found its way into print that the island was named “from a
miner who once settled there,” the writer probably mixing it up with the
name of Angel’s Camp, in the Sierras. What a desecration for our island,
with its romantic name of “Our Lady of the Angels,” piously given to it
by the Spaniards in honor of the Virgin!
YERBA BUENA ISLAND
_Yerba Buena_ (the good herb), is the name of a dainty little vine native
to the California woods, which has an agreeable aromatic odor, and was
much in use among the Spanish as a medicinal herb, and to add a pleasant
aroma to their tea. Fremont, who, whatever else may be said of him, had
enough poetry in his soul to feel an expansive joy over the plant life of
this flowery land, describes it as follows: “A vine with a small white
flower, called here _la yerba buena_, which, from its abundance, gives
its name to an island and town in the bay, was to-day very frequent on
our road, sometimes running on the ground, or climbing the trees.” It is
said that the Hupa Indians were in the habit of weaving the tendrils of
this vine in their hair for the sake of the perfume.
Some talk has arisen of late that this poetic and historic name is to be
taken away from our island. Commuters, when you pass it on your daily
journey, let your minds carry you back to the day when the delicate
tendrils of the little vine waved on the island’s steep slopes, and its
sweet scent was wafted on the breeze from the Golden Gate, and do not, I
pray you, consent to call it _Goat_!
MARE ISLAND
_Mare Island_, in San Pablo Bay, separated from Vallejo by a strait
one-half mile wide, a charming spot with an unpoetic name,—is another
example of writers attempting to make difficulties where none exist,
and so they would have us believe that the name of this isle arose,
like Venus, from _mare_, the sea. Apart from the fact that this labored
method of naming places, by seeking in the Latin, was quite foreign to
the custom of the Spaniards, it happens that the true story in this
case is at hand, and can scarcely be doubted, since it occurred in the
immediate family of Dr. Vallejo, who tells it thus: “In early days, the
only ferry-boat on the waters near Vallejo and Benicia was a rude one,
made chiefly of oil barrels obtained from whaling ships, and propelled
by sails. These barrels were secured together by beams and planking, and
it was divided into compartments for the accommodation of cattle, to the
transportation of which it was chiefly devoted. One day, while this boat
was coming from Martínez to Benicia, a sudden squall overtook it, and the
craft pitched fearfully; the animals, chiefly horses, became restive, and
some of them broke through it. The boat was upset, and the living cargo
thrown into the bay. Some of the livestock were drowned, and some managed
to reach either shore by swimming. One of the horses, an old white
mare, owned and much prized by General Vallejo, succeeded in effecting
a landing on the island, and was rescued there a few days after by the
General, who thereupon called the place _La Isla de la Yegua_ (the island
of the mare).”
An interesting corroboration of this story is found on page 574 of
Fremont’s _Memoirs_, where he refers to the island as _La Isla de la
Yegua_.
A statue of a white horse would perpetuate the history of this isle in
a manner both appropriate and beautiful, in the same way that upon the
heights of Angel Island a colossal figure of an angel, or of the Virgin,
and upon Alcatraz a great pelican with outspread wings, might be placed
to tell their stories. In the old world, many legends of the past are
perpetuated in this way, and there is no reason why the equally romantic
episodes in California’s history should not be so commemorated, at least
in those cases that lend themselves readily to purposes of art.
ALAMEDA
It has been thought that this name may have been derived from the
resemblance between Alameda creek, at one time thickly shaded along
its banks by willows and silver-barked sycamores, and an _alameda_ (an
avenue shaded by trees), but since the primary meaning of the word is “a
place where poplar trees grow,” from _álamo_ (poplar or cottonwood), it
requires less stretching of the imagination to believe that some such
grove of cottonwoods near the creek gave it the name. Fray Dantí, in his
diary of the exploration of “the Alameda” in 1795, says: “We came to the
river of the Alameda, which has many large boulders, brought down by
floods, and is well populated with willows, alders, and here and there a
laurel. At a little distance from where the river runs, the tides of the
Estuary come.”
[Illustration: THE FARALLONES.
“ ... standing like watch-dogs at our outer gate.”]
From the name of an insignificant little stream, _Alameda_ has come to be
the designation of one of the most important counties in the state, and
of the flourishing city on the east side of San Francisco Bay, nine miles
east-southeast of San Francisco. This city was once known as _Encinal_
(place of oaks), on account of the groves of beautiful live-oaks there,
nearly all of which have, most unfortunately, been sacrificed to
so-called “improvements.” Yet, some fine specimens still remain in the
county, perhaps the best being those on the campus of the University of
California, at Berkeley, Alameda County. The _encino_ (live-oak), is thus
described by Professor Jepsen: “It is a low, broad-headed tree, commonly
twenty to forty feet, but sometimes seventy feet high. The trunk is from
one to four feet in diameter, usually short, and parting into wide-spread
limbs, which often touch or trail along the ground.” This tree has
little commercial value, but is highly regarded for its hardy nature,
which permits it to flourish in exposed localities along the coast,
where no other tree thrives, and for the perennial green with which it
adorns an otherwise often bleak landscape.—(Notes taken from _The Trees
of California_, by Professor Willis Linn Jepsen, of the University of
California.)
LOS FARALLONES
_Los Farallones_, the three small islands standing like watch-dogs at our
outer gate, about thirty-two miles due west of the entrance to the bay,
derive their name from _farallon_, a word meaning “a small pointed island
in the sea.” Although this word is commonly employed by the Spanish to
designate such islands, and its use in this case is perfectly obvious,
the statement has been made that our isles were named for a certain
Ferolla, one of the early navigators, a theory entirely without value.
The Farallones are frequented by multitudes of sea-fowl, which breed
there and at one time supplied great quantities of eggs for the San
Francisco market. For some twenty years or more the United States
Government, owing to the contentions of rival egg companies, has
prohibited the gathering and sale of these eggs.
MOUNT TAMALPAIS
“To see the sun set over Tamalpais,
Whose tented peak, suffused with rosy mist,
Blended the colors of the sea and sky
And made the mountain one great amethyst
Hanging against the sunset.”
(_Edward Rowland Sill._)
_Tamalpais_ (bay mountain), is in Marin County, five miles southwest
of San Rafael; it rises to a height of 2606 feet above sea level, and
dominates San Francisco Bay and the surrounding country, offering one of
the most magnificent panoramas of sea and land to be seen anywhere on
the earth’s surface. Its name is a compound of two Indian words, _tamal_
(bay), and _pais_ (mountain). The resemblance of the latter word to
the Spanish _pais_ (country), is thought by ethnologists to be purely
accidental.
Dr. Vallejo has an explanation of the meaning of this word which differs
somewhat from the one given by ethnologists. He says it was originally
called _Temel-pa_ (near the sea), and was corrupted into its present form
by the Spaniards. According to Dr. Vallejo, the suffix _pa_ signifies
nearness. (_Memoirs of the Vallejos_, edited by James H. Wilkins, San
Francisco Bulletin, January, 1914.)
A very remarkable circumstance in the history of this mountain is the
fact that it underwent a change of position at the time of the great
earthquake of 1906, of course in conjunction with the entire sheet
of the earth’s surface upon which it stands. On that occasion, the
northeast and southwest sides of the rift slipped upon each other, first
carrying the sheet of land upon which Tamalpais rests to the north,
then the “springback” carried it back toward the south again. According
to the report of the State Earthquake Investigation Commission, “As
a consequence of the movement, it is probable that the latitudes and
longitudes of all points in the Coast Ranges have been permanently
changed a few feet.”
So the old mountain, sitting in Indian stoicism, indifferent to the
storms that sometimes lash its sturdy sides, the fogs that roll in a
white, billowy sea around its foot, and earthquakes that shift its
latitude and longitude some feet, has very appropriately received its
name from the language of the aborigines who once dwelt at its base.
[Illustration: TAMALPAIS.
“ ... like one great amethyst hanging against the sunset.”]
MOUNT DIABLO
_Mount Diablo_ (devil mountain), is an isolated, conical peak of the
Coast Range, in Contra Costa County, about thirty-eight miles northeast
of San Francisco. It rises 3849 feet above the level of the sea, and is
the most conspicuous land-mark in the central part of the state. General
M. G. Vallejo tells the following story to account for the name: “In
1806, a military expedition from San Francisco marched against a tribe
called the Bolgones, who were encamped at the foot of the mountain.
There was a hot fight, which was won by the Indians. Near the end of the
fight, a person, decorated with remarkable plumage, and making strange
movements, suddenly appeared. After the victory, the person, called _Puy_
(evil spirit), in the Indian tongue, departed toward the mountain. The
soldiers heard that this spirit often appeared thus, and they named the
mountain _Diablo_ (devil). These appearances continued until the tribe
was subdued by Lieutenant Moraga, in the same year.”
If this be the true story of the naming of Mount Diablo, and there seems
to be no good reason to doubt it, it is quite likely that the _Puy_, or
devil, was one of the “medicine men” who played upon the superstitions of
the Indians by pretending to be the “spirit of the mountain.”
It is said by Dr. Vallejo that this mountain was regarded by the Indians
as the home of the Devil, called in their language _Pui_, and that the
medicine men claimed to be his agents. (_Memoirs of the Vallejos_, edited
by James H. Wilkins, San Francisco Bulletin, January, 1914.)
SAUSALITO
_Sausalito_ (little willow grove), the diminutive of _sausal_ (willow
grove), or, as formerly and officially written, _Saucelito_ (little
willow, from _sauce_), is on the west shore of the bay, in Marin County,
six miles northwest of San Francisco. This is one of the delightful
suburban towns around the bay, where business men of San Francisco have
their homes.
MARIN COUNTY
Of Marin County, separated from San Francisco by the Golden Gate, and
noted for the beauty of its scenery, we get the story from General M.
G. Vallejo. It appears that in 1815 or ’16, an exploring party from San
Francisco had a fight with the Licatiut tribe, so-called from a certain
root used by them as food, especially in the Petaluma Valley. During this
fight the chief was captured and carried to San Francisco, but afterwards
escaped, and kept up constant hostilities in Petaluma Valley. He was
finally converted to Christianity, and did good service for the whites
as ferryman on the bay, and on account of his skill in navigating these
waters, they called him _El Marinero_ (the sailor); it is thought that
the name of Marin County is a corruption of this word. _El Marinero_ died
at the mission of San Rafael in 1834.
TIBURÓN
_Tiburón_ (shark), is on the Marin County shore, opposite San Francisco.
It has been facetiously suggested that this name may have been derived
from “sharks” of the land variety, but it probably came from some story
connected with those of the sea.
SAN RAFAEL
Even in this land, so prodigal with its flowers from its northern to its
southern borders, San Rafael, the county-seat of Marin County, fifteen
miles north of San Francisco, is notable for the exceeding beauty of its
gardens, where the lily and the rose bloom from year’s end to year’s end.
[Illustration: THE MISSION OF SAN RAFAEL, FOUNDED IN 1817.
“ ... where the lily and the rose bloom from year’s end to year’s end.”]
Its patron, St. Raphael, “is considered the guardian angel of humanity.
He was the herald who bore to the shepherds the ‘good tidings of great
joy which shall be for all people’, and is especially the protector of
the young, the pilgrim and the traveler.” The “herald of great joy”
seems peculiarly fitting as the protector of a place where nature has
done so much for the “joy of living.”
The mission of _San Rafael Arcángel_ (St. Raphael the Archangel), founded
in 1817, has now disappeared, not a vestige remaining of it.
A spur of the Coast Range in Southern California bears the name of the
_San Rafael Mountains_.
BENICIA
_Benicia_ (a surname), is the name of a town in Solano County, on the
north side of Carquínez Strait, twenty-eight miles northeast of San
Francisco. Its story may best be told in the words of General Sherman, in
the following quotation from his _Memoirs_: “We found a solitary adobe
house, occupied by Mr. Hastings and his family, embracing Dr. Semple, the
proprietor of the ferry. The ferry was a ship’s boat, with a lateen sail,
which could carry six or eight horses. It took us several days to cross
over, and during that time we got well acquainted with the doctor, who
was quite a character. He was about seven feet high. Foreseeing, as he
thought, a great city on the bay somewhere, he selected Carquínez Straits
as its location, and obtained from General Vallejo title to a league
of land, on condition of building a city to bear the name of General
Vallejo’s wife, Francisca Benicia. Accordingly, the city was first called
_Francisca_. At this time, where San Francisco now is was known as _Yerba
Buena_; now some of the chief men of that place, knowing the importance
of a name, saw their danger, and so changed the name to _San Francisco_.
Dr. Semple was so outraged at their changing the name to one so nearly
like his town that he, in turn, changed his town’s name to the other name
of Mrs. Vallejo, and _Benicia_ it has been to this day.”
LAS PULGAS RANCHO
_Las Pulgas Rancho_ (the fleas ranch), is near Redwood City. The story
of this place, with its unpleasantly suggestive name, although of
little importance in itself, is told here for the light it throws upon
the manners and customs of the original dwellers in the land. Father
Engelhardt, in his _History of the California Missions_, describes
their way of living thus: “Their habitations were primitive, in summer
often but a shady spot, or mere shelter of brush. Their winter quarters
consisted of a flimsy structure of poles fixed in the ground, and drawn
together at the top, at a height of ten or twelve feet. The poles were
interwoven with small twigs, and the structure then covered with tules,
or tufts of dried grass. In some places these dwellings were conical
in shape, in others oblong, and their size ranged according to the
number of people. At a distance they resembled large bee-hives, or small
hay-stacks. On one side there was an opening for a door, at the top
another for smoke. Here the family, including relatives and friends,
huddled around the fire, without privacy, beds or other furniture. A few
baskets, a stone mortar or two, weapons, some scanty rags of clothing,
food obtained from the hunt, or seeds, were kept here. All refuse food
and bones were left where they were dropped, giving the earth floor the
appearance of a dog-kennel. Fleas and other vermin abounded in this mass
of filth, which soon became too offensive even for savages, and they
adopted the very simple method of setting fire to the hut and erecting
another.”
After reading this description, we are not surprised when Father Crespi
tells us that, having arrived at a deserted Indian village, and some of
the soldiers having rashly taken refuge in the huts for the night, they
soon rushed out with cries of “_las pulgas! las pulgas!_” (the fleas! the
fleas!). He goes on to say, “for this reason, the soldiers called it the
_Ranchería de las Pulgas_” (the village of the fleas), a name borne by
the ranch to this day.
La Perouse, in his _Voyage Autour du Monde_, says the padres were never
able to change this form of architecture common to the two Californias.
The Indians said they liked open air, and that it was convenient, when
the fleas became too numerous, to burn the house and construct a new one,
an argument not without merit.
POINT LOBOS
_Point Lobos_ (seal point, from _lobo marino_, sea-wolf), is just outside
of the Golden Gate, on the south side, near the spot where the seals
crawling about on the rocks have long been one of the chief attractions
of the famous Cliff House.
SUPPLEMENTARY LIST
_Álamo_ (cottonwood tree), is the name of a place in Contra Costa County,
twenty-four miles northeast of San Francisco.
_Alvarado_ (a surname), that of one of the first governors of the state.
Alvarado is a village in Alameda County, on Alameda Creek, twenty-four
miles southeast of San Francisco. Juan Bautista Alvarado was a central
figure in California history. He was born at Monterey, February 14, 1809,
and from ’27 on occupied various official positions, including that of
governor of the state. Bancroft says of his character and appearance:
“In physique Don Juan Bautista was of medium stature, stout build, fair
complexion, and light hair; of genial temperament, courteous manners,
and rare powers of winning friends. There was much in his character to
praise, much to condemn. He was a man of dissipated habits, and engaged
in intrigues, but in his favor it may be said that he had more brains,
energy and executive ability than any three of his contemporaries
combined; he was patriotic and with good intentions toward his country,
honorable in private dealings, and never enriched himself by his
intrigues. He was not personally guilty of having plundered the missions,
only responsible through being governor at that time. The accusations
made against him of an unjust policy towards foreigners were entirely
false.”
_Bolinas_, the name of a town in Marin County, delightfully situated
on Bolinas Bay, eighteen miles northwest of San Francisco. Bolinas is
probably a corruption of _Baulines_, an Indian word of unknown meaning. A
land grant called _Los Baulines_ was located at the same place, and was
probably the name of an Indian village.
_Point Bonito_ (pretty point), is the southern extremity of Marin County,
on the north side of the Golden Gate.
_Carquínez_ is the name of the strait flowing between the counties of
Contra Costa and Solano, and connects San Pablo Bay with Suisún Bay. The
strait is eight miles long, and at its narrowest part nearly a mile
wide. All the waters flowing through the great central valley of the
state from the Sierra Nevada pass through this strait. According to the
scientists the name _Carquínez_ is derived from Karkin, the name of an
Indian village in that region, but Dr. Vallejo has another story. He says
the commandant at Monterey, who was a man with some classical education,
named it from the Greek word _karkin_, crab, because of the report made
by the Lieutenant Vallejo expedition of having found a great number
of little crabs there. (_Memoirs of the Vallejos_, edited by James H.
Wilkins, San Francisco Bulletin, January, 1914.)
_Contra Costa_ (opposite coast), so-called on account of its original
position directly opposite San Francisco. It should be explained that
the name Contra Costa, which scarcely seems appropriate in its present
application, was originally applied to the whole of the coast opposite
San Francisco. Afterwards the part directly facing San Francisco was cut
off to form Alameda County, thus destroying the significance of the name
Contra Costa.
_Martínez_ (a surname), is the name of the county-seat of Contra Costa
County, and is on the south shore of Suisún Bay, thirty-six miles
northeast of San Francisco. Ignacio Martínez was a native of the city
of Mexico, born in 1771. He was a military officer under the Mexican
government in California, and was _commandante_ at San Francisco from
1822 to ’27. Bancroft says of him: “He was not popular as an officer,
being haughty and despotic, but as a rancher he is spoken of as a very
courteous and hospitable man. The town of Martínez takes its name from
him or his family.”
_Montara Point_ and Montara Mountains are in the western part of San
Matéo County. Montara is a surname.
_Olema_, said to be an Indian word meaning “coyote,” is the name of
a town in Marin County, one mile from the head of Tomales Bay, and
thirty-five miles northwest of San Francisco.
_Pacheco_ (a surname), that of a pioneer family of California. The town
of Pacheco is in Contra Costa County, thirty miles northeast of San
Francisco. Although Governor Romualdo Pacheco, of whom Bancroft says that
“his record as a citizen, in respect of character, attainments and social
standing was a good one,” was the most prominent member of the family,
the town was not named in his honor, but for Salvio Pacheco, a man who
served in many military and civil offices. “He spent his life on Mount
Diablo Rancho, on which is the town bearing his name.”
_Pescadero_ (fishing place), is in a fertile valley of San Matéo County,
on the coast about forty-four miles south of San Francisco. There are a
number of _Pescaderos_ in the state.
_Pinole_ is said to be an Aztec word, applied to any kind of grain or
seeds, parched and ground. Of this flour a very appetizing sort of gruel
was made. The town of Pinole is in Contra Costa County, twelve miles west
of Martínez. It is the site of extensive powder works. See page 239.
_Portolá_ (a surname), is the name of a town in San Matéo County, and was
named in honor of the celebrated discoverer of San Francisco Bay.
_Potrero_ (pasture ground), is one of the districts of San Francisco.
This is only one of the many _Potreros_ in the state.
_Presidio_ is a word used by the Spaniards in the double meaning of
prison or military post. It may be that the custom of using convicts
as soldiers, prevalent with the Spanish, had something to do with
this double usage of the word. The Presidio of San Francisco, now a
regular military post of the United States, although still retaining its
Castilian name, is picturesquely and delightfully situated on the north
end of the peninsula. There is also a government presidio at Monterey.
_Point Reyes_ (kings point), was named by Vizcaíno in honor of the “three
wise men,” or “holy kings,” because it was discovered on the day of their
devotion. This point is in Marin County and is the outer point of Drake’s
Bay, where the noted adventurer is supposed to have made his anchorage,
and where Cermeñón was wrecked.
_Rodéo_ (round-up of cattle). Rodéos were held, and in some parts of
the state still take place, for the purpose of separating and branding
the cattle belonging to individual owners, an operation decidedly
necessary when pastures were unfenced, and in early days one of the most
picturesque features of California life. The village of Rodéo is in
Contra Costa County.
_San Anselmo_ (St. Anselm), is in Marin County.
_San Bruno_, a village near San Francisco, was named for St. Bruno, the
founder and first abbot of the Carthusian Order. This order of monks is
among the most severe in its rules, requiring almost perpetual silence
of its members. Its devotees are only permitted to speak together once a
week. They never eat flesh, and are compelled to labor constantly.
_San Gerónimo_ (St. Jerome), is the saint usually pictured as accompanied
by a lion, in commemoration of the well-known story of the removal of a
thorn from the foot of one of those beasts by Jerome, and the devotion of
the lion to him afterwards. San Gerónimo is the name of a small stream in
Marin County, noted for its salmon fisheries.
_San Gregorio_ (St. Gregory), is in San Matéo County, twenty-four miles
southwest of Redwood City. St. Gregory was a noble Roman who devoted his
wealth to charity, and turned his home into a hospital and monastery. He
was elected to the high office of Pope, and became the composer of what
is called from him the “Gregorian Chant.”
_San Leandro_ (St. Leander), is in Alameda County, on San Leandro Creek,
sixteen miles southeast of San Francisco. St. Leander was at one time
Bishop of Seville, and is one of the patron saints of that city.
_San Lorenzo_ (St. Lawrence), was a saint who suffered martyrdom by being
roasted on a gridiron. The legend relates that he said to his tormentors,
“I am now sufficiently cooked on this side, turn me over and roast me on
the other.” San Lorenzo is in Alameda County, twenty miles southeast of
San Francisco.
_San Matéo_ (St. Matthew), is the name of a county bordering on San
Francisco Bay, and of a town on the west shore of the bay, twenty-one
miles south of San Francisco. St. Matthew was a Hebrew by birth, and the
author of the book of the Scriptures that bears his name.
_San Pablo_ (St. Paul), is in Contra Costa County, on San Pablo Bay,
fifteen miles northeast of San Francisco. One of the legends concerning
St. Paul is that “the church called ‘San Paolo delle Tre Fontane,’ near
Rome, is built over three fountains which are said to have sprung up at
the three places where the head of St. Paul fell and bounded, after being
cut off by the executioner. It is said that the fountains vary in the
warmth of the water,—the first, or the one where the head fell, being
the hottest; the next, or that of the first bound, cooler; and the third
still cooler.”
_San Quentin_ (properly San Quintín) is a village in Marin County, on the
west shore of San Francisco Bay, eleven miles north of San Francisco.
This place, where the forbidding walls of the State’s Prison shut out the
light of California’s glorious sun from the unfortunates enclosed there,
very fittingly bears the name of a saint whose gloomy story runs thus:
“San Quintín was the son of Zeno. He became converted and gave up a high
command which he held in the Roman army, in order to preach. He labored
especially in Belgium, and suffered death by being impaled on an iron
spit.”—(_Stories of the Saints._) It is probable, however, that the town
was not directly named for this saint, but received the name indirectly
from Point Quintín, on the Marin coast, which was so-called from an
Indian chief of that region who had been thus christened by the Spaniards.
_San Ramón_ (St. Raymond), is in Contra Costa County, nine miles east of
Haywood. “St. Raymond belonged to the Order of Mercy, and labored for the
captives among the Moors. By the Mahometans, among whom he was long a
captive, for the ransom of his Christian brethren, his lips were bored
through with a red-hot iron, and fastened with a padlock,” an effective,
if cruel method of preventing him from preaching the Christian faith.
_Suñol_ (a surname). Suñol is a town in Alameda County, thirty-six miles
southeast of San Francisco. In Fremont’s _Memoirs_ he refers to Don
Antonio Suñol, probably a member of the same family for whom this town is
named.
_Tocaloma_ is a delightful secluded glen and creek in Marin County, not
far north of San Francisco, where a hunting and fishing preserve is
maintained. The word is Indian, but its meaning has not been ascertained.
_Tomales Bay_ is an inlet of the Pacific Ocean, extending southeastward
into Marin County. It is fourteen miles long. The village of Tomales is
on the bay of the same name, fifty-five miles northwest of San Francisco.
The name _Tomales_ is a Spanish corruption of the Indian _tamal_ (bay), a
word which came to be applied to the natives in the neighborhood of San
Francisco Bay.
_Vallejo_ (a surname), is the name of a place in Solano County. The
Vallejos were among the most prominent of the California pioneer
families. “The founder of the family was Ignacio Vicente Ferrer Vallejo,
born at Jalisco, Mexico, in 1748. He came of a family of pure Spanish
blood, and of superior education. The most distinguished of his large
family was Mariano Guadalupe, born at Monterey in 1808. Don Mariano
served with great ability in various capacities under the Mexican
government, and was at one time _Commandante General_ of California.
He was the founder of Sonoma, and it was to his untiring efforts that
the development of the north was largely due. He foresaw the fate of
his country, and finally cast in his lot with the United States, for
which he seems to have been but ill-repaid. I have found none among
the Californians whose public record in respect of honorable conduct,
patriotic zeal, executive ability, and freedom from petty prejudices of
race or religion or sectional politics is more evenly favorable than
his.”—(Bancroft.)
[Illustration: NORTH OF SAN FRANCISCO]
X
NORTH OF SAN FRANCISCO
SONOMA
_Sonoma_, the name of the northern county, and of the town in the
beautiful Sonoma Valley, forty-five miles north of San Francisco, is
of doubtful origin. It is probable that it comes from Indian, rather
than Spanish sources. In the native dialect of that region there is the
constantly recurring ending _tso-noma_, from _tso_ (the earth), and
_noma_ (village), hence, _tsonoma_ (earth village or earth place). The
name was given by missionaries to a chief of the Indians there, and later
applied to all the Indians at the mission. From Indian sources it seems
there was a captain among them who was commonly called _Sonoma_, but
who was known by a different name among his own people.—(University of
California Publications in American Archaeology and Technology.)
The name Sonoma is explained in a different way by Dr. Vallejo, who
says it was named for an Indian chief called _Sono_, a word signifying
“nose,” given to the chief as his appellation because of the very large
development of that feature of his face. The suffix _ma_ is said by
Dr. Vallejo to mean “valley” or “land,” and thus Sonoma would bear the
meaning of “nose valley,” or “nose land,”—(_Memoirs of the Vallejos_,
edited by James H. Wilkins, San Francisco Bulletin, January, 1914.)
It has been said that Sonoma means “valley of the moon,” in reference to
the shape of the valley, but there is probably more of poetry than of
truth in this story.
At this place, _San Francisco de Solano_, the last of the great chain of
missions, was founded July 4, 1823. The mission buildings have been put
in a fair state of preservation and the church has been restored by the
state.
[Illustration: NAPA VALLEY
“ ... said to have been the cradle of the Suisún race.”]
NAPA
_Napa_ is the name of a county, river and city, the county adjacent to
San Pablo Bay, into which the river falls. The town is the county-seat
of Napa County, and is on the river of the same name, about thirty-nine
miles northeast of San Francisco. The Napa Soda Springs are an
interesting natural feature of this place.
_Napa_, accented in some of the old documents as _Napá_, was the name
of an Indian tribe who occupied that valley, said to have been one of
the bravest of the California tribes, and who constantly harassed the
frontier posts. The entire tribe was practically wiped out by smallpox in
1838.
According to S. A. Barrett, in the University of California Publications
in American Archaeology and Technology, there is a Pomo Indian word,
_napa_, meaning “harpoon point,” between which and the name of the town
of Napa there may be some connection.
Dr. Vallejo says the suffix _pa_ signifies proximity, and that Napa means
“near mother,” or “near home,” or “mother-land,” and that according to
tradition Napa Valley was the cradle of the Suysun race.—(_Memoirs of the
Vallejos_, edited by James H. Wilkins, San Francisco Bulletin, January,
1914.)
CARNE HUMANA
Among the names of the old Spanish land grants are many that hold a
suggestion of interesting and sometimes tragic tales, now lost in the dim
shadows of the past. Of such is _Carne Humana_ (human flesh), the name
of a grant in Napa County, near St. Helena. This spot may have been the
scene of one of those horrible acts of cannibalism to which the Indians
of the entire Southwest were quite generally addicted. Captain Fages, in
his diary of one of the expeditions to San Francisco Bay, mentions that
this practice prevailed among the Indians of that region to a certain
extent, but seems to have been confined to the eating of the bodies
of enemies slain in battle, and only the relatives of the slayer were
permitted to take part in the abhorrent feast.
SANTA ROSA
_Santa Rosa_ (St. Rose), the county-seat of Sonoma County, is fifty-seven
miles northwest of San Francisco.
An interesting story is told of Santa Rosa de Lima, said to be the only
canonized female saint of the New World. She was born at Lima, in Peru,
and was distinguished for her hatred of vanity, and her great austerity,
carrying these characteristics to such an extreme that she destroyed her
beautiful complexion with a compound of pepper and quicklime. When her
mother commanded her to wear a wreath of roses, she so arranged it that
it was in truth a crown of thorns. Her food consisted principally of
bitter herbs, and she maintained her parents by her labor, working all
day in her garden and all night with her needle. The legend relates that
when Pope Clement X was asked to canonize her, he refused, exclaiming:
“_India y Santa! Asi como llueven rosas!_” (An Indian woman a saint! That
may happen when it rains roses!) Instantly a shower of roses began to
fall in the Vatican, and did not cease until the Pope was convinced of
his error. This saint is the patroness of America, and is represented as
wearing a thorny crown, and holding in her hand the figure of the infant
Jesus, which rests on full-blown roses.—(_Stories of the Saints._)
MENDOCINO COUNTY
_Mendocino County_, in the northwestern part of the state, is
distinguished for its extensive forests of redwoods. The main belt of
these trees extends through this county, and they may here be seen in
their highest development. They vary in height from 100 to 340 feet,
and reach a diameter of from two to sixteen feet, having a red, fibrous
bark sometimes a foot in thickness. Notwithstanding their great size,
the delicacy of their foliage, which takes the form of flat sprays,
gives them a graceful, fern-like appearance. The age of mature redwoods
is said to range from 500 to 1300 years. The special characteristics of
the wood of these trees are, its durability when buried in the soil, and
its resistance to fire. Commercially it is valuable for many purposes,
being preferred to steel for water supply conduits, and, in the form of
saw-dust, found to be better than cork for packing fresh grapes.—(Notes
from _The Trees of California_, by Professor Willis Linn Jepsen, of the
University of California.)
Probably the first written mention of these trees occurs in the diary of
Gaspar de Portolá, the discoverer of San Francisco Bay, whose attention
was attracted to them while on his way up the coast, and from whom they
received the name of _palo colorado_ (redwood). Altogether, the credit of
their discovery seems to belong to Portolá, although it has been given by
some persons to Archibald Menzies, who wrote a description of the trees
in 1795.
The village of Mendocino is on the coast, about 130 miles northwest
of San Francisco. The name was first applied to the cape, which was
discovered by Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, in 1542, and named by him for Don
Antonio de Mendoza, first viceroy of New Spain.
KLAMATH
_Klamath_ is the name of a village in Humboldt County, but is
particularly known as applied to the Klamath River, which flows in a deep
and narrow canyon through the counties of Siskiyou and Humboldt.
The word, in its different forms of _Klamath_, _Tlametl_, and _Clamet_,
is the name by which these Indians were known to the Chinooks, and
through them to the whites, their proper designation in their own
language being _Lutuami_.—(Bancroft’s _Native Races_, Vol. 1, page 444.)
The meaning of the word has not been positively ascertained, although
it is thought by ethnologists to be a possible corruption of _Maklaks_
(people, community,—literally, the encamped). The Klamaths were a hardy
people, who had many slaves captured from other tribes. The slave trade
seems to have been carried on quite extensively among the California
Indians.
MODOC COUNTY
_Modoc_, the county in the northeastern corner of the state, is notable
as having been the home of the only California tribe that ever caused
serious trouble to the United States Government. The Modoc wars are a
matter of history.
The Modocs were a fierce tribe of Indians who lived at the head-waters
of Pit River, and the name is thought by some persons to mean “head of
the river,” or “people, community,” but ethnologists are of the opinion
that it means “south people,” probably used by tribes living north of the
Modocs. Bancroft, quoting from Steele, in Indian Affairs Report of 1864,
page 121, says: “The word _Modoc_ is a Shasta Indian word, and means all
distant, stranger, or hostile Indians, and became applied to this tribe
by white men in early days from hearing the Shastas refer to them by
this term.” It does not appear that Bancroft had any genuine scientific
authority for this statement.
Powers, in his _Tribes of California_, states that some persons derive
this name from _Mo-dok-us_, the name of a former chief of the tribe under
whose leadership they seceded from the Klamath Lake Indians and became an
independent tribe. As it was common for seceding bands to assume the name
of their leader, Powers is inclined to accept this explanation of the
name.
SHASTA
To account for the name _Shasta_, a number of theories have been
advanced, no one of which seems to be positively established. According
to the Bureau of Ethnology, “Shasta may be a corruption of _Sus-tí-ka_,
apparently the name of a well-known Indian living about 1840 near the
site of Yreka. The name was applied to a group of small tribes in
Northern California, extending into Oregon, who were soon extinguished by
the development of mining operations.”
[Illustration: MOUNT SHASTA.
“ ... its summit glistening with snow and visible at a distance of 140
miles down the valley.”]
Bancroft, in his _Native Races_, says, “Shasta was apparently the name of
a tribe living about 1840 near Yreka, a tribe made up of several groups.
They were a sedentary people, living in small houses, similar to those
in use by the Indians on the coast immediately to the west. Their food
was made up of acorns, seeds, roots, and fish, particularly salmon. The
salmon was caught by net, weir, trap, and spear. Their arts were few.
They had dug-out canoes of a rather broad, clumsy type. The bow was their
chief weapon, and their carving was limited to rude spoons of wood and
bone. Painting was little used, and basketry was limited to basket caps
for the women, and small food baskets of simple form. The tribe soon
succumbed to the unfavorable environment of the mining camp, and is now
almost extinct.... The Shasta Indians were known in their own language
as _Weohow_, a word meaning ‘stone house,’ from the large cave in their
country.”
“_Shas-ti-ka_ was probably the tribal name of the Shasta Indians.
_Wai-re-ka_ (mountain) was their name for Mt. Shasta.”—(Powers’ _Tribes
of California_.)
Another theory advanced is that Shasta is a corruption of the Russian
word _tchastal_, (white, or pure mountain), and still another that
it comes from the French _chaste_, (pure), but it is likely that its
resemblance to these words is purely accidental, and that its origin is
Indian.
Whatever may be the derivation of its name, there is no question that
Mount Shasta, with its snow-capped summit, has but few rivals for scenic
beauty among its mountain sisterhood. It is an extinct volcano, with
a double peak, and rises to a height of 14380 feet. There are minor
glaciers on the northern slope. Fremont says of it: “The Shastl peak
stands at the head of the lower valley, rising from a base of about
one thousand feet, out of a forest of heavy timber. It ascends like an
immense column upwards of 14000 feet (nearly the height of Mont Blanc),
the summit glistening with snow, and visible, from favorable points of
view, at a distance of 140 miles down the valley.”
On a United States map of date of 1848, drawn by Charles Preuss from
surveys made by Fremont and other persons, the name appears spelled as
_Tshastl_.
Mount Shasta is in Siskiyou County, and is the most conspicuous natural
feature in that part of the state.
SISKIYOU COUNTY
Except that it is of Indian origin, nothing authentic has been obtained
concerning _Siskiyou_, the name of the county in the extreme north of the
state. Several popular theories have been advanced, one to the effect
that Siskiyou means “lame horse.” If that be true the word must have been
introduced into the Indian language after the coming of the Spaniards,
since horses were unknown to the Indians before that period. Another
story, perhaps more pleasing than true, runs as follows: “On the summit
of a mountain in Oregon, just over the divide, there is a beautiful,
level spot, watered by cool springs, which overlooks the country for
miles around. Here the powerful Shasta, Rogue River, and Klamath tribes
used to meet to smoke and indulge in dancing and games. They called the
place _Sis-ki-you_, the ‘council ground’.”
Siskiyou County is notable for its mountain scenery, and includes within
its borders the famous Mount Shasta.
TRINITY COUNTY
_Trinity County_ received its name from Trinidad Bay, which was
discovered and named by Captain Bruno Ezeta, on Trinity Sunday, in the
year 1775. Trinidad is the Spanish word meaning Trinity.
Trinity River was so-named through the mistaken belief that it emptied
into Trinidad Bay.
Trinidad is also the name of a village in Humboldt County, on the ocean
shore, twenty miles north of Eureka.
YREKA
_Yreka_, the name of the county-seat of Siskiyou County, is an Indian
word, of which the spelling has probably been corrupted, perhaps in a
spirit of facetiousness, from the original _Wai-ri-ka_ to its present
eccentric form. Various theories have been offered in explanation of
the word, but the only one apparently based on scientific data seems
to be that it means “north place.” One writer advances the whimsical
explanation that the word was formed by the transposition of the letters
in “bakery,” but fails to explain what becomes of the letter “b.” This
is, of course, but an idle invention.
_Yreka_ is said by Powers, in his _Tribes of California_, to be the
Indian word for “mountain,” especially applied to Mt. Shasta. Its former
spelling was _Wai-ri-ka_. Here is a contradiction between scientists.
SUPPLEMENTARY LIST
_Agua Caliente_ (hot water, hot springs), a village in Sonoma County,
forty-five miles north of San Francisco.
_Altúras_ (heights), the county-seat of Modoc County, 110 miles north of
Reno.
_Point Arena_ (sandy point), is the name of the cape on the Mendocino
coast, and of the village in that county, 110 miles northwest of San
Francisco.
_Bodega_ (a surname), that of its discoverer, Don Juan de la Bodega
y Quadra, Captain of the schooner Sonora, who sailed into Bodega Bay
October 3, 1775. This bay, and the town of Bodega Roads are in Sonoma
County, about sixty-four miles northwest of San Francisco.
_Point Cabrillo_ (a surname), that of the celebrated Spanish explorer,
Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo.
_Calistoga_, one of those hybrid words of which California has too many.
This word was the invention of Samuel Brannan, an early settler, and is
compounded of the first syllable of California and the last of Saratoga.
It is given here lest it be mistaken for Indian or Spanish.
_Cazadero_ (hunting-place).
_Chileno_ (Chilean, native of Chile).
_Punta Delgada_ (thin or narrow point). See _Punta Gorda_.
_Cape Fortunas_ (cape fortunes). Fortuna is a village in Humboldt County,
twelve miles south of Eureka.
_Del Norte_ (of the north), is the name of the county in the extreme
northwestern corner of the state.
_García_ (a surname), the name of a creek in Mendocino County.
_Punta Gorda_ (thick or broad point). Punta Gorda and Punta Delgada
are adjacent points on the northern coast whose contrast in shape is
indicated by their names. See _Punta Delgada_.
_Gualala_, a village in Mendocino County, forty miles west of Cloverdale.
This is an Indian word, “probably from _walali_, a generic term of
the Pomo language, signifying the meeting-place of the waters of any
in-flowing stream with those of the stream into which it flows, or
with the ocean. The present spelling is probably influenced by the
Spanish.”—(S. A. Barrett, in California Publications of Archaeology and
Ethnology.)
_Hoopa_, a village in Humboldt County, on the Trinity River, was named
for the Hupa Indians, a tribe on the lower Trinity River. Hoopa Mountain
was named in the same way.
_Point Laguna_ (lagoon point).
_Oro Fino_ (fine gold), is the name of a village in Siskiyou County,
twenty-five miles southwest of Yreka. This name is in contrast to the
place called _Oro Grande_ (coarse gold), in the southern part of the
state.
_Petaluma_, the name of a town in Sonoma County, forty-two miles
northwest of San Francisco. Petaluma was the name of an Indian village
situated near the site of the present town on a low hill, and according
to S. A. Barrett the word is compounded of _peta_ (flat), and _luma_
(back), making _Petaluma_ (flat back), but Dr. Vallejo has another
explanation of its meaning. He holds that the suffix _ma_ means “valley”
or “land,” and that Petaluma is a combination of three Suysun words,
_Pe-talu-ma_, signifying “Oh! fair valley,” or “Oh! fair land.”—(_Memoirs
of the Vallejos_, edited by James H. Wilkins, San Francisco Bulletin,
January, 1914.)
_Pomo_ is northeast of Ukiah. “Pomo was an Indian village on the east
bank of the Russian River, in the southern end of Potter Valley, a short
distance south of the post-office at Pomo. The word is an ending, meaning
‘people of, village of’.”—(S. A. Barrett.)
_Tomales Bay_ is just north of Drake’s Bay, in Marin County. The word is
a Spanish corruption of the Indian _tamal_ (bay).
_Ukiah_ is the county-seat of Mendocino County, and is on the Russian
River, 110 miles northwest of San Francisco. “The word is said to be
derived from the Indian _yokaia_, _yo_ (south), and _ka-ia_ (valley),
the name of a village about six miles southeast of the present town of
Ukiah.”
[Illustration: THE CENTRAL VALLEY]
XI
THE CENTRAL VALLEY
TEHAMA COUNTY
_Tehama County_ lies at the extreme northern end of the great Central
Valley of the state. There is a village of the same name in the county,
on the Sacramento River, twelve miles southeast of Red Bluff.
The name _Tehama_ was derived from an Indian tribe, but the meaning of
it has not been ascertained. Two definitions have been offered,—“high
water,” in reference to the overflowing of the Sacramento River, and “low
land,” but these may be among those attempts to account for our names by
making the name fit the circumstances, a method which has resulted in
many errors. All that can be positively stated is that the word is of
Indian origin.
COLUSA
_Colusa_ is a county in the northern part of the Central Valley, and
has a county-seat of the same name, situated on the west bank of the
Sacramento River, sixty-five miles northwest of Sacramento.
This name appears as _Colus_ on the land grant located at that place, and
is said by Powers, in his _Tribes of California_, to be a corruption of
_Ko-ru-si_, a tribal name, a more reasonable explanation than any other
that has been offered. General Will Green, said to have known the tribe
well, was of the opinion that Colusa meant “the scratchers,” in allusion
to a strange custom among these people of scratching one another’s faces.
While it is true that the prevalence of this custom is mentioned by the
Spaniards, Captain Fages referring to it in terms of great distaste,
there is no scientific corroboration of that definition for the word
_Colusa_.
YUBA
_Yuba_ is the name of a county in the Central Valley, of Yuba City, the
county-seat of Sutter County, and of the Yuba River, which is formed by
the union of three branches rising in the Sierra Nevada.
The name _Yuba_ was first applied to the river, the chief tributary of
the Feather. The theory has been advanced that it received the name of
_Uba_, or _Uva_, the Spanish word for grapes, from an exploring party in
1824, in reference to the immense quantities of vines loaded with wild
grapes growing along its banks, _Uba_, becoming corrupted into _Yuba_,
but Powers, in his _Tribes of California_, says Yuba is derived from a
tribe of Maidu Indians named _Yu-ba_, who lived on the Feather River.
This is probably the true explanation of the name. It is to be noted that
Fremont, in his _Memoirs_, speaks of it as Indian: “We traveled across
the valley plain, and in about sixteen miles reached Feather River, at
twenty miles from its junction with the Sacramento, near the mouth of the
Yuba, so-called from a village of Indians who live on it. The Indians
aided us across the river with canoes and small rafts. Extending along
the bank in front of the village was a range of wicker cribs, about
twelve feet high, partly filled with what is there the Indians’ staff of
life, acorns. A collection of huts, shaped like bee-hives, with naked
Indians sunning themselves on the tops, and these acorn cribs, are the
prominent objects in an Indian village.”
YOLO
_Yolo_ is the name of a county in the northern part of the Central
Valley, and of a village near Woodland.
_Yolo_, or _Yoloy_, was the name of a Patwin tribe, and the word is said
by the Bureau of Ethnology to mean “a place abounding with rushes.”
In 1884 there were still forty-five of the tribe living in Yolo County.
SOLANO
This county, situated in the Central Valley, immediately northeast of San
Francisco, was named, at the request of General Mariano Vallejo, in honor
of an Indian chief of the Suisunes who had aided him in war against the
other natives. The name of this chief in his own tongue is said to have
been _Sem Yeto_, “the Fierce one of the Brave Hand,” or _Sum-yet-ho_,
“the Mighty Arm,” and, judging by the description given of him by Dr.
Vallejo, he must have been a living refutation of the common belief that
the California Indians were invariably squat and ill-formed, for he was
a splendid figure of a man, six feet, seven inches in height and large
in proportion. He was converted to Christianity and received the name of
the celebrated missionary, Francisco Solano, as well as a grant of land
containing 17752 acres, known as the Suisún Grant.
SUISÚN
_Suisún Bay_ is a body of navigable water connected with San Pablo Bay by
the Carquínez Strait, and is the outlet of the San Joaquín and Sacramento
Rivers. Suisún City is in Solano County, on a slough, about fifty miles
northeast of San Francisco. Suisún was the name of an Indian village on
that bay, and the word is said by some persons to mean a “big expanse.”
The name was probably first given to the land grant.
This region was the home of an important tribe of Indians who had an
interesting and tragic history. Their religious capital, if such it
could be called, was at Napa, near which place there was a certain
stone from which they believed one of their gods had ascended into upper
air, leaving the impress of his foot upon the stone. General Vallejo
says that in 1817 a military expedition under command of Lieutenant José
Sánchez crossed the straits of Carquínez on rafts, for the double purpose
of exploring the country and reducing it to Christianity. “On crossing
the river they were attacked by the Suisún tribe, headed by their chief
Malaca, and the Spaniards suffered considerable loss; the Indians fought
bravely, but were forced to retire to their _ranchería_, where, being
hotly pursued, and believing their fate sealed, these unfortunate people,
incited by their chief, set fire to their own rush-built huts, and
perished in the flames with their families. The soldiers endeavored to
stay their desperate resolution, in order to save the women and children,
but they preferred this doom to that which they believed to await them at
the hands of their enemies.” The Suisún tribe is now entirely extinct,
a large number having been carried off by a frightful epidemic of
smallpox. Dr. Vallejo states that this tribe, a people described by him
as possessing many attractive qualities, was estimated by his father
to number at least 40,000 persons in 1835. After the great epidemic,
which was brought down by the Russians from the north, and which lasted
during the three consecutive years of 1837-38-39, there were barely
two hundred left. Thus the disappearance of the California Indians was
occasioned, not by the white man’s bullets or fire-water, nor even by
the deteriorating influence of a changed mode of living, nor by the loss
of native sturdiness through an acquired dependence upon the church, but
suddenly and fearfully by the introduction of the hideous diseases of
civilization.
SACRAMENTO
_Sacramento County_ and the city of the same name, the state capital,
situated near the center of the Great Valley, received their names from
the river, which, following the usual custom of the Spaniards, was
christened first, being named in honor of the Holy Sacrament.
Captain Moraga first gave the name of _Jesús María_ to the main river,
calling the branch _Sacramento_, but later the main stream became known
as _Sacramento_, and the branch as _El Río de las Plumas_ (the river of
the feathers).
COSUMNE
_Cosumne_ is the name of a village in Sacramento County, about
twenty-two miles southeast of Sacramento. The Cosumne river rises in El
Dorado County, near the Sierra Nevada, and enters the Mokelumne about
twenty-five miles south of the city of Sacramento.
_Cosumne_ is an Indian word, said to mean “salmon,” and was taken from
the tribe who lived upon the river. The frequent occurrence of the ending
_amni_, or _umne_, in the names of rivers in the Sierras has led to
the mistaken conclusion that the suffix actually means “river,” but we
have the statement of A. L. Kroeber, Professor of Anthropology in the
University of California, that, “The supposition may be hazarded that the
ending _amni_, or _umne_, is originally a Miwok ending, with the meaning
‘people of’.” Thus the meaning of Cosumne may be “people of the village
of Coso,” and of Mokelumne, “people of the village of Mukkel,” and so on
through all the names having this ending.
Powers, in his _Tribes of California_, says _Kos-sum-mi_ was the Indian
word for “salmon,” and that this is the probable origin of the name
Cosumne.
The Bureau of Ethnology has an interesting paragraph on the manners and
customs of these Indians: “They went almost naked; their houses were of
bark, sometimes thatched with grass, and covered with earth; the bark was
loosened from the trees by repeated blows with stone hatchets, the latter
having the head fastened to the handle with deer sinews. Their ordinary
weapons were bows and stone-tipped arrows. The women made finely-woven
conical baskets of grass, the smaller ones of which held water. Their
amusements were chiefly dancing and foot-ball; the dances, however,
were in some degree ceremonial. Their principal deity was the sun, and
the women had a ceremony which resembled the ‘sun dance’ of the tribes
of the upper Missouri. Their dead were buried in graves in the earth.
The tribe is now practically extinct.”—(quoted from Rice, in _American
Anthropology_, III, 259, 1890.)
SAN JOAQUÍN
_San Joaquín County_, famous for its vast fields of wheat, is a part of
the great Central Valley, and the river of the same name rises in the
Sierras, flows north-northwest through the valley and unites with the
Sacramento River near its mouth.
The river was named in honor of St. Joachim, the father of the Virgin.
Lieutenant Moraga first gave the name to a rivulet which springs from the
Sierra Nevada, and empties into Lake Buena Vista. The river derived its
name from this rivulet.
The rich valley of the San Joaquín, two hundred miles long and thirty
miles wide, with its wide, treeless expanses where the wild grasses grew
rankly, was once a paradise for game. Fremont says: “Descending the
valley we traveled among multitudinous herds of elk, antelope, and wild
horses. Several of the latter which we killed for food were found to be
very fat.” Herds of wild horses still range in California and Nevada, and
are sometimes captured for sale, fine specimens bringing high prices.
STANISLAUS
_Stanislaus_ is the name of the county just south of San Joaquín, and of
one of the tributaries of the San Joaquín River.
The word _Stanislaus_ is said to be derived from an Indian chief of that
region, who became Christianized and was baptized under the Spanish
name of _Estanislao_. He was educated at Mission San José, but became a
renegade, and incited his tribe against the Spaniards. In 1826 he was
defeated in a fierce battle on the banks of the river now bearing his
name.
Fremont thus describes the scenery along the Stanislaus: “Issuing from
the woods, we rode about sixteen miles over open prairie partly covered
with bunch grass, the timber re-appearing on the rolling hills of the
River Stanislaus, in the usual belt of evergreen oaks. The level valley
was about forty feet below the upland, and the stream seventy yards
broad, with the usual fertile bottom land which was covered with green
grass among large oaks. We encamped in one of these bottoms, in a grove
of the large white oaks previously mentioned.”
MERCED
_Merced_ (mercy), is the name of the county south of Stanislaus, of its
own principal stream, and of its county-seat. The river was named by
the Spaniards, in honor of the Virgin, _El Río de Nuestra Señora de la
Merced_ (the river of our Lady of Mercy). This name was given to the
stream by the Moraga party as an expression of their joy and gratitude at
the sight of its sparkling waters, after an exhausting journey of forty
miles through a water-less country.
According to Fremont, this stream was called _Auxumne_ by the Indians:
“In about seventeen miles we reached the Auxumne River, called by the
Mexicans _Merced_.... We encamped on the southern side of the river,
where broken hills made a steep bluff, with a narrow bottom. On the
northern side was a low undulating wood and prairie land, over which a
band of about three hundred elk was slowly coming to water, feeding as
they approached.”
The Merced River is notable in that it flows along the floor of the
Yosemite Valley. Like all the other streams that have their rise in
the Sierras, its character in its upper and lower reaches is vastly
dissimilar. In the days of its turbulent youth it is a wild and
boisterous stream, and in the voice of its hissing, roaring waters the
wayfarer hears no sound of “mercy,” but after it makes its tremendous
plunge down the western slope of the Sierras, and debouches upon the
floor of the valley, it takes on a serene air of maturity, and widens
into a placid river, its current flowing sluggishly between low, level
banks.
MADERA COUNTY
_Madera_ (wood, timber), is the name of the county to the southwest
of Stanislaus. It occupies a stretch of fertile land, and was called
_Madera_ by the Spaniards on account of its heavy growth of timber.
FRESNO COUNTY
_Fresno_ (ash-tree), so-called in reference to the abundance of those
trees in that region, is the name of a county in the San Joaquín Valley,
in the heart of the grain and fruit country. Raisins and wine are its
especial products. Its capital city and principal stream also bear the
name of Fresno.
KINGS COUNTY
This county, now appearing under its English form, originally received
its name from the river, which was discovered by a Spanish exploring
party in 1805, and called by them _El Río de los Santos Reyes_ (the river
of the Holy Kings), in honor of the “three wise men.”
A considerable part of the area of this county was at one time covered
by Tulare Lake, but the shrinkage of that body of water through the
withdrawal of its sources of supply have added nearly the whole of the
territory occupied by its waters to the arable land of the county. This
subject is further discussed under the head of Tulare.
[Illustration: EL RÍO DE LOS SANTOS REYES (THE RIVER OF THE HOLY KINGS).
“ ... named in honor of the three wise men.”]
The river seems to have been known at one time as the _Lake Fork_, by
which name Fremont mentions it in the following paragraph: “We crossed
an open plain still in a southeasterly direction, reaching in about
twenty miles the Tulare Lake river. This is the Lake Fork, one of the
largest and handsomest streams in the valley, being about one hundred
yards broad, and having perhaps a larger body of fertile lands than any
of the others. It is called by the Mexicans _El Río de los Reyes_. The
broad alluvial bottoms were well wooded with several species of oaks.
This is the principal affluent of the Tulare Lake, a strip of water which
receives all the rivers in the upper or southern end of the valley.”
TULARE COUNTY
_Tulare_ (place of tules, or rushes), is the name of a county in the
south-central part of the state, of Tulare Lake in Kings County, and of
a town in the San Joaquín Valley. The county is remarkable for the high
mountain peaks of the Sierra Nevada, on its northeast border. Among these
is Mount Whitney, about 14500 feet in height.
_Tulare Lake_, in Kings County, at one time filled a shallow depression
about thirty miles in length, and received through a number of small
streams the drainage from the southern part of the Sierra Nevada,
soon losing the greater part of this water by evaporation. It is now
practically dry, as a result of the withdrawal for irrigation purposes of
Kings and Kern Rivers, and the territory formerly covered by it has been
to a great extent placed under cultivation. The lake was discovered in
1773 by Commandant Fages, while hunting for deserters from the presidio
at Monterey, and called by him _Los Tules_ (the rushes), from the great
number of those plants with which it was filled. In 1813 Captain Moraga
passed through the valley of this lake, and named it _Valle de los Tules_
(valley of the rushes).
SUPPLEMENTARY LIST
_Acampo_ (common pasture), is the name of a village in San Joaquín
County. See Final Index.
_Arroyo Buenos Aires_ (creek of the good airs), is in San Joaquín County.
_Caliente_ (hot), is the name of a town in Kern County.
_Chico_ (little), is the name of a town in Butte County, ninety-six
miles north of Sacramento. This place derives its name from the Rancho
Chico (the little ranch), of which General John Bidwell was the original
grantee. The Arroyo Chico and the town both took their names from the
ranch.—(Mr. Charles B. Turrill.)
_Chowchilla_, a large ranch in the San Joaquín Valley, takes its name
from the Chowchilla Indians, a branch of the Moquelumnan family. Fremont
refers to this name under a somewhat different spelling: “The springs and
streams hereabout were waters of the _Chauchiles_ and _Mariposas_ Rivers,
and the Indians of this village belonged to the _Chauchiles_ tribe.”
_Dos Palos_ (two sticks, or trees), is in Merced County, twenty miles
southwest of Merced.
_Esparto_ (feather-grass), is a town in Yolo County.
_Esperanza_ (hope), is in Kings County, west of Lake Tulare.
_Hornitos_ (little ovens), is in Mariposa County, sixteen miles northwest
of Mariposa. An attempt has been made to account for this name as a
reference to the intense heat sometimes prevalent in that region, but
the probable origin of the name is that given by Mr. J. P. Gagliardo,
a resident of the place, who says it was derived “from a number of
_hornitos_ built here by the first settlers, who located here about the
early fifties.” _Hornos_ (ovens), of brick and adobe, built out-of-doors,
and used to bake the bread for several families, were in very common use
among the first Spanish settlers of California. Ovens were also used
by the Indians, for, instead of eating their food raw or imperfectly
cooked, they used quite elaborate methods in its preparation. Their ovens
are thus described in the _Handbook of American Indians_, by Dr. Pliny
E. Goddard, of the American Museum of Natural History: “The pit oven,
consisting of a hole excavated in the ground, heated with fire, and
then filled with food, which was covered over and allowed to cook, was
general in America, though as a rule it was employed only occasionally,
and principally for cooking vegetal substances. This method of cooking
was found necessary to render acrid or poisonous foods harmless, and
starchy foods saccharine, and as a preliminary in drying and preserving
food for winter use. Most of the acorn-consuming Indians of California
cooked acorn mush in small sand-pits. The soap-root was made palatable
by cooking it in an earth-covered heap. The Hupa cook the same plant for
about two days in a large pit lined with stones, in which a hot fire is
maintained until the stones and surrounding earth are well heated; the
fire is then drawn, the pit lined with leaves of wild grape and wood
sorrel to improve the flavor of the bulbs, and a quantity of the bulbs
thrown in; leaves are then placed on top, the whole is covered with
earth, and a big fire built on top.” Mr. Charles B. Turrill states that
“the meal of the ground acorns was placed in shallow hollows in the sand
and water poured on it, by which means the bitter principle was leached
out. Then the meal was placed in baskets and cooked by putting hot stones
therein. The cooking was done in the basket, not in the sand.” Other
Indians used pit ovens for baking clams, and the Panamints of California
roasted cactus joints and mescal in pits. The Pueblo Indians used
dome-shaped ovens of stone plastered with clay, a form that may have been
imitated by the Spaniards, since their ovens were of that character.
[Illustration: IN THE SIERRA NEVADAS.
“East Vidette, the Alps of the King-Kern divide.”]
_Modesto_ (modest), is the county-seat of Stanislaus County, and is
thirty miles south of Stockton. According to residents of this town, “The
place was first named Ralston in the year 1870, in honor of Mr. Ralston,
who was then a very prominent resident of San Francisco, and president
of the Bank of California. He was so modest that he preferred that some
other name be adopted, so the name was changed to _Modesto_.” If this be
the true story, it was surely a unique reason for the naming of a town.
_Oroville_ (gold-town), is a hybrid word made up of the Spanish _oro_
(gold), and the French _ville_ (town). Oroville is the county-seat of
Butte County, and is on the Feather River, in the heart of a mining and
fruit region.
_Río Vista_ (river view), is in Solano County, on the Sacramento River.
Modern. Incorrect construction. It should be _Vista del Río_.
_Tehachapi_, an Indian word of which the meaning has not been
ascertained, is the name of the mountain pass in Kern County across the
Sierra Nevada, of which it approximately marks the southern limit, and of
a town in the same county, thirty-five miles southeast of Bakersfield.
“In the famous Tahichapah Pass was a tribe called by themselves
_Ta-hi-cha-pa-han-na_, and by the Kern Indians _Ta-hich_. This tribe is
now extinct.”—(Powers’ _Tribes of California_.)
_Vacaville_ is situated in a beautiful and fertile valley in Solano
County. It received its name from a family named _Vaca_, who were at one
time prominent in that region. Manuel Vaca, the founder of the family,
was a native of New Mexico, and came to California in 1841. “He was a
hospitable man of good repute.”
[Illustration: IN THE SIERRAS]
XII
IN THE SIERRAS
THE SIERRA NEVADA
_The Sierra Nevada Mountains_, California’s wonder-land, derive their
name from _sierra_ (saw), and _nevada_ (snowy),—descriptive of the
saw-toothed outlines of the summits of the range, and the mantle of
perpetual snow that covers the highest tops.
The term _Sierra Madre_, absurdly translated by some persons as “Mother
of Christ,” means, of course, “Mother Sierra,” that is, the largest
mountain range personified as the mother of the smaller ranges.
“The Sierra Nevada is generally considered to extend from Tehachapi
Pass in the south to Lassen Peak in the north, and constitutes the
dividing ridge between the great basin on the east, to which it falls
abruptly, and the San Joaquín and Sacramento Valleys on the west. It is
characterized by deep and narrow valleys, with almost vertical walls
of rock thousands of feet in height, and its scenery is of surpassing
grandeur, much more imposing than that of the Rockies. Many of its higher
summits are covered with perpetual snow.”—(Lippincott’s _Gazetteer_.)
PIT RIVER
Among the many tributary streams that carry the waters of the Sierra
Nevada down the western slope into the Sacramento, the _Pit_, often
incorrectly spelled _Pitt_, is one of the most important, and, although
not properly belonging in these pages, is included for the sake of the
information to be gained concerning Indian customs.
[Illustration: IN THE HIGH SIERRAS.
“Above the snow line, south from Mount Brewer.”]
The natives along this river were in the habit of digging pits near
the banks to catch bear and deer, and, on occasion, even their human
enemies. The pits were dug in the regular trails of animals, twelve to
fourteen feet deep, conical in shape, with a small opening at the top,
covered with brush and earth. Signs, such as broken twigs, were placed
as a warning to their own people, and sharp stakes were placed in the
bottom to impale any creature that might fall in. Another account of
this custom is given in Miller’s _Life Among the Modocs_: “Pits from ten
to fifteen feet deep were dug, in which natives caught man and beast.
These man-traps, for such was their primary use, were small at the mouth,
widening toward the bottom, so that exit was impossible, even were the
victim to escape impalement upon sharpened elk and deer horns, which were
favorably placed for his reception. The opening was craftily concealed by
means of light sticks, over which earth was scattered, and the better to
deceive the unwary, travelers’ footprints were frequently stamped with a
moccasin in the loose soil.” It was from these Indian pits that the river
received its name.
PLUMAS
_Plumas_ (feathers), is the name of a county in the northeastern part of
the state. It is drained by the Feather River, which flows through one
of the deepest and most picturesque canyons in California. The county
is characterized by its wild and rugged scenery, its deep canyons and
extensive forests of evergreen trees. In the northwest corner Lassen
Peak, now an active volcano, rises to a height of 10437 feet.
The county derives its name from its principal stream, which now appears
under its English form of _The Feather_, but which was originally named
_El Río de las Plumas_ (the river of the feathers), by Captain Luís A.
Argüello, who led an exploring party up the valley in 1820, and whose
attention was attracted by the great number of feathers of wild fowl
floating on the surface of the river. Even to this day the valley of
the Feather has remained a favorite haunt of the wild ducks and geese,
as will be attested by the many hunters who seek sport there during
the season. By an inconsistency, the county has retained the original
Spanish name, _Plumas_, while that of the river has been Americanized.
An erroneous and extremely far-fetched explanation of the name has often
appeared in print to the effect that it was derived from a fancied
resemblance between the spray of the river and a feather.
THE AMERICAN RIVER
The _American River_, another of the names which have been translated
from the original Spanish, is formed by three forks rising in the Sierra
Nevada, and empties into the Sacramento at the site of the city of that
name. The three branches forming it run in deep canyons, sometimes two
thousand feet in depth, and the scenery along its course is of a rugged
and striking character.
The river was originally called _El Río de los Americanos_ (the river of
the Americans), probably from the presence on its banks of a company of
western trappers, who lived there from 1822 to 1830, and _not_ “because
it was the usual route of travel by which Americans entered the state,”
as is stated by Bancroft and others.
In Fremont’s time it was still known by its Spanish name, by which he
refers to it in the following paragraph: “Just then a well-dressed
Indian came up, and made his salutations in very well-spoken Spanish.
In answer to our inquiries he informed us that we were upon the _Río de
los Americanos_, and that it joined the Sacramento River about ten miles
below. Never did a name sound more sweetly! We felt ourselves among our
countrymen, for the name of American, in these distant parts, is applied
to the citizens of the United States.”
[Illustration: EL RÍO DE LAS PLUMAS (FEATHER RIVER).
“To this day the valley of the Feather is a favorite haunt for wild ducks
and geese.”]
EL DORADO COUNTY
_El Dorado_ (the gilded man). Although it is known to most people, in a
vague, general way, that the name _El Dorado_ was given to this county on
account of the discovery of gold there, the romantic tales connected with
the name are probably not so well known. The Indians of Peru, Venezuela,
and New Granada, perhaps in the hope of inducing their oppressors to
move on, were constantly pointing out to the Spaniards, first in one
direction, then in another, a land of fabulous riches. This land was
said to have a king, who caused his body to be covered every morning
with gold dust, by means of an odorous resin. Each evening he washed
it off, as it incommoded his sleep, and each morning had the gilding
process repeated. From this fable the white men were led to believe
that the country must be rich in gold, and long, costly, and fruitless
expeditions were undertaken in pursuit of this phantom of _El Dorado_. In
time the phrase _El Dorado_ came to be applied to regions where gold and
other precious metals were thought to be plentiful. According to General
Vallejo, one Francisco Orellana, a companion of the adventurer Pizarro,
wrote a fictitious account of an _El Dorado_ in South America, “a region
of genial clime and never-fading verdure, abounding in gold and precious
stones, where wine gushed forth from never-ceasing springs, wheat fields
grew ready-baked loaves of bread, birds already roasted flew among the
trees, and nature was filled with harmony and sweetness.” Although old
Mother Nature has not yet provided us with “bread ready-baked” or “birds
ready-roasted” in California, her gifts to her children have been so
bountiful that they may almost be compared to the fabulous tales of _El
Dorado_, the gilded man.
PLACER COUNTY
_Placer_, the county in the Sierras famous for its surface gold-mining,
has a puzzling name for which no satisfactory explanation has yet been
found. Although it has been used in Spanish countries for centuries in
the sense of surface mining, dictionaries remain silent upon the subject.
The theory often advanced that the word is a contraction of _plaza de
oro_ (place of gold), bears none of the marks of probability, and another
that it means “a river where gold is found” is not supported by adequate
authority. One old Spanish dictionary gives the meaning of _placer_ as
“a sea bottom, level and of slight depth, of sand, mud, or stone,” and
states also that the word is sometimes used to designate places where
pearl diving is carried on. It may be that the word was extended from
this usage to include placer mining, since in that case the gold is found
in shallow pockets near the surface. This theory is offered here as a
mere suggestion.
Placer County has some of the most striking mountain scenery in the
state, and has been the theatre of many remarkable events in its
history, particularly those connected with the “days of ’49.” In the town
of Placerville, the county-seat of El Dorado County, there is an instance
of a change of name from English to Spanish for the better, for this
place was originally called _Hangtown_, in commemoration of the hanging
of certain “bad men” on a tree there.
THE TRUCKEE RIVER
The _Truckee River_ rises on the borders of El Dorado and Placer
Counties, and is the outlet of Lake Tahoe, discharging its waters into
Pyramid Lake in Nevada. This mountain stream is justly celebrated for the
wild charm of its scenery. There is a village bearing the same name, in
Nevada County, well-known to travelers through being on the regular route
to Tahoe. At this place winter sports, tobogganing, skiing, skating,
etc., are provided for San Franciscans, who need to travel but a few
hours to exchange their clime of eternal spring for the deep snows of the
Sierras.
The explanation generally accepted for the name of _Truckee_ is that it
was so-called for an Indian, by some accounts described as a Canadian
trapper, who guided a party of explorers in 1844 to its lower crossing,
where the town of Wadsworth now stands. The party, who were suffering
from thirst, felt themselves to be under such obligations to the Indian
for having guided them to this lovely mountain stream, with its crystal
waters and abundance of fish, that they gave it his name. Of this Indian
it is said that “he joined Fremont’s battalion, and was afterwards known
as Captain Truckee; he became a great favorite with Fremont, who gave him
a Bible. When he died he asked to be buried by white men in their style.
The miners dug a grave near Como, in the croppings of the old Goliah
ledge. Here he was laid to rest, with the Bible by his side.”—(_History
of Nevada County._)
[Illustration: EL RÍO DE LOS AMERICANOS (AMERICAN RIVER).
“It runs in deep canyons and the scenery along its course is rugged and
striking.”]
LAKE TAHOE
_Tahoe_ is another of the Indian names whose meaning can not be
ascertained with any degree of certainty. The definition “Big Water,”
the one usually given, is considered doubtful by ethnologists. The
statement has been made by intelligent Indians now living on the banks
of the lake that the word, pronounced _Dá-o_ by them, means “deep” and
“blue.” Yet it is much to know that this pearl among all lakes has at
least been fortunate enough to receive an indigenous name, escaping by
a narrow margin the ignominious fate of being called Lake Bigler, for a
former governor of the state. It appears that Fremont was the first to
give to this body of water a name, and it is shown upon his map under
the rather indefinite title of Mountain Lake. Afterward it was known for
a short time as Lake Bigler. The story goes that in 1859 Dr. Henry de
Groot, while exploring the mountains, learned that _tah-oo-ee_ meant “a
great deal of water,” and from this Tahoe was evolved as an appropriate
name, but did not become attached to the lake until the period of the
Civil War. During that time the Reverend Thomas Starr King, the famous
“war” clergyman of San Francisco, visited the lake, and inspired by
indignation against the Democratic Governor Bigler, whom he regarded as
a secessionist, he definitely christened it _Tahoe_, for which we may
be grateful to his memory, regardless of the motives by which he was
actuated.
Tahoe is partly in Placer, and partly in El Dorado, at the eastern base
of the Sierra Nevada, a portion of its waters also extending into the
state of Nevada. It is twenty-two miles long and ten wide, and has an
elevation of 6225 feet above sea level. It is especially remarkable for
its great depth, being over 1500 feet deep.
AMADOR COUNTY
_Amador_ (literally “lover”), but in this case a surname. Amador is
the long, narrow county lying between Calaveras and El Dorado, and was
probably named in honor of the Amador family, either Don Pedro Amador,
or his son, José María. Pedro Amador is said to have been a “soldier of
fortune” in the Spanish army, who came to California in 1771. His son,
José María, was also a soldier and a renowned Indian fighter, and was
known to be living as late as 1883.
CALAVERAS
_Calaveras_ (skulls), is the name of a county in the central part of the
Sierra Nevada, on the eastern border. This county is famous for its gold
and copper mines, and its Giant Sequoias. The river, to which the name of
Calaveras was first given, rises in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada
and flows southwest, emptying into the San Joaquín about fifteen miles
below Stockton.
The river received its rather lugubrious name at the hands of Captain
Moraga, who led the first expedition up the Sacramento and San Joaquín
rivers. In his diary, Moraga says that the river tribes fought against
those of the Sierra for possession of the salmon in the stream, and
that in one battle as many as three thousand were said to have been
killed and left on the field. A great number of skulls, relics of this
bloody conflict, were found by Moraga scattered along the creek bed, and
caused him to give it the name of _Las Calaveras_. We find in Fremont a
corroborating reference to the salmon as a cause of dissension among the
Indians of that region: “This fish had a large share in supporting the
Indians, who raised nothing, but lived on what nature gave. A ‘salmon
water,’ as they named it, was a valuable possession to a tribe or
village, and jealously preserved as an inheritance.”
[Illustration: SHORE OF LAKE TAHOE.
“ ... pearl among all lakes.”]
Particular interest was aroused in the Indian relics of this county some
years ago by the finding of the celebrated “Calaveras skull,” purporting
to have been taken from the Tertiary deposit, a stratum in which no human
remains had ever before been discovered. A close examination into the
circumstances, however, caused scientists to look with great doubt upon
the assertion that the skull had been taken from the Tertiary deposit.
In the _Handbook of American Indians_, published by the Smithsonian
Institute, the following reference appears: “Remains of aborigines are
plentiful in this county, embedded in ancient river gravels, from which
gold was washed. By some scientists these remains were thought to belong
to the Tertiary Age, but their resemblance to the modern Indian makes
this doubtful. The Calaveras skull, still preserved in the Peabody Museum
of Archaeology and Ethnology, at Cambridge, Massachusetts, was said to
have come from the gravels of Bald Mountain, at a depth of 130 feet, but
there are good reasons for suspecting that it was derived from one of the
limestone caves so numerous in that region.”
TUOLUMNE
_Tuolumne_ is the name of the county in the Sierras just east of
Calaveras, and of the river which rises at the base of the Sierra
Nevadas, and flows into the San Joaquín, twenty-five miles south of
Stockton, a part of its course running through a deep canyon.
Here we have another of the river names ending in _umne_, already
discussed under the heading of _Cosumne_. As stated before, _umne_
probably means “people of,” and it is held by some authorities that
the meaning of _Tuolumne_ is “people of the stone houses, or caves.”
Bancroft maintains this theory, holding that the name is a corruption of
_talmalamne_, “a group of stone huts or caves, or collection of wigwams.”
Objection has been raised to this theory on the ground that the Indians
of California were not cave-dwellers, but universally lived in flimsy
huts made of sticks and grass. This objection is cleared away in some
measure by a very interesting paragraph in the diary of Padre Pedro
Muñoz, who accompanied the Gabriel Moraga expedition of 1806 into that
region. The passage in question relates: “On the morning of this day, the
expedition went toward the east along the banks of the river, and having
traveled about six leagues, we came upon a village called _Tautamne_.
This village is situated on some steep precipices, inaccessible on
account of their rough rocks. The Indians live in their _sótanos_
(cellars or caves); they go up and come down by means of a weak stick,
held up by one of themselves while the one who descends slips down. They
did not wish to come down from their hiding-places, and for me the ascent
was too difficult. This village probably has about two hundred souls,
judging by the considerable mass which we repeatedly made out among the
rocks and corridors [or ledges], in the manner of balconies, which the
precipice made.” This meeting with the cave-dwellers occurred at a spot
about six leagues from the Guadalupe River, after the expedition had left
the Merced. It is not, of course, to be inferred from this circumstance
that the California Indians were genuine “cliff dwellers,” but rather
that, at least in the mountainous parts of the state, they may have had
the habit of taking refuge in natural caves from inclement weather or
attacks of enemies.
As to the pronunciation of the word, it is said that the Indians called
it _Tu-ah-lúm-ne_, rather than _Tuólumne_, which is the general usage.
MARIPOSA
_Mariposa_ (butterfly), is famous as the county that holds within its
borders two of the wonders of the earth, the Yosemite Valley and the
Giant Sequoias. Some of these trees are three hundred feet high, thirty
feet in diameter, and 2400 years old, having unfolded their feathery
fronds before Christ came upon the earth. According to Professor Jepsen,
“they are the direct descendants of the species dominant in the Tertiary
Period,” and thus are a living reminder of the plant life of that dim and
distant past of which the animal life is pictured for us in the fossil
remains of the mammoth and saber-tooth tiger of the La Brea asphalt
beds.
[Illustration: MARIPOSA SEQUOIAS.
“ ... some of these unfolded their feathery fronds before Christ came
upon the earth.”]
Nearly every writer who has attempted to account for the name _Mariposa_
has fallen into the error of ascribing it to the charming little flower
called the Mariposa lily. Fremont, with his intense appreciation of the
beauty of the wild flowers covering the whole country with a carpet of
many hues at the time of his passage over the Sierra, says: “On some of
the higher ridges were fields of a poppy which, fluttering and tremulous
on its long thin stalk, suggests the idea of a butterfly settling on a
flower, and gives to this flower its name of Mariposa (butterflies),
and the flower extends its name to the stream.” It is almost a pity
to demolish such a pretty story, yet it is unavoidable, for the true
explanation is at hand in the diary of Padre Muñoz, who accompanied
the Gabriel Moraga expedition of 1806 into the Sierra. He says: “This
spot [not far from the Merced river], was called _Las Mariposas_ (the
butterflies), on account of their great multitude, especially at night
and in the morning, so much so that they became excessively annoying,
carrying their desire to hide from the rays of the sun so far that they
followed us everywhere, and one even entered into the ear of one of the
leaders of the expedition, causing him a great deal of annoyance, and
not a little trouble in getting it out.” This story is corroborated by
the fact that at the present day equally great numbers of butterflies,
equally annoying, swarm through the mountain forests during a certain
part of the autumn.
YOSEMITE
_Yosemite_ (grizzly bear, not _large_ grizzly bear, according to the
scientists), said to have been called _Yohamite_ by the natives, is
one of the few Indian names whose meaning has been ascertained with a
reasonable degree of certainty. It must be remembered that Yosemite,
like most Indian words, has been greatly corrupted from its original
form, which was _u-zú-mai-ti_, _o-só-mai-ti_ or _uh-zú-mai-ti_, according
to the tribe using it, and the valley was never known by this name to
the Indians, but always as _A-wa-ni_, from the name of their principal
village. Considering the great alteration of the name from its native
form, it does not seem to be a matter of vital importance whether it
shall now be used as one word, Yosemite, or in two words, Yo Semite,
although the latter form was at one time the more general usage, and is
greatly preferred by some persons. The valley was discovered in 1851
by Major James D. Savage of the United States army, while chasing the
Indians, who had a bad habit of sallying forth from their hiding-place
in the valley to commit depredations. The name was chosen by Dr. L. H.
Bunnell, surgeon of the expedition, who tells the story in his _Discovery
of the Yosemite_. He gave it the name of an Indian tribe living there and
to whom this name had been given by other tribes, they calling themselves
_Ah-wah-nee_. Their chief, Ten-ei-ya, said that when he was a young man
the name _Yosemite_, or _Yohamite_, had been chosen because the tribe
lived in the mountains and valleys which were the favorite resorts of
the bears, and because his people were expert in killing them. He also
said, perhaps in a spirit of boasting, that the name was bestowed upon
his tribe to express the idea that they were held in as much fear as the
bears. This band of Indians was said to have been originally composed of
outlaws or refugees from other tribes, and may have well deserved their
evil reputation.
Indian names, few of which can be scientifically defined, have been given
to many peaks and waterfalls in the valley. In the folder printed by the
Southern Pacific Railroad Company more or less fanciful definitions are
given for these names, for which there is no foundation in fact except in
the case of Yosemite itself and _Hunto_, which really does mean “eye,”
though not “_watching_ eye.” Tenaya Peak was probably named for the
Yosemite chief, Ten-ei-ya. The definition of _Pi-wa-ack_ as “cataract of
diamonds” is absurd on its face, for a moment’s thought will remind any
one that diamonds were wholly unknown to the Indians of that time and
place.
“_Ma-ta_ (the canyon), a generic word, in explaining which the Indians
held up both hands to denote perpendicular walls.”—(Powers’ _Tribes of
California_.)
“_Tis-se-yak_ is the name of an Indian woman who figured in a legend.
The Indian woman cuts her hair straight across the forehead and allows
the sides to drop along her cheeks, presenting a square face, which the
Indians account the acme of female beauty, and they think they discover
this square face in the vast front of South Dome.”—(Powers’ _Tribes of
California_.)
_Cho-ko-nip-o-deh_, translated as “baby basket” in the Southern Pacific
folder, means literally “dog-place” or “dog-house.”—(Powers’ _Tribes of
California_.)
MONO
_Mono_ is the name of a county on the eastern border of the state, and
of the lake near the eastern base of the Sierra Nevada. This lake is
fourteen miles long and nine miles wide, and is peculiar in having no
outlet, its waters being strongly saline and alkaline. It lies 6730 feet
above sea-level and is almost completely destitute of animal life.
[Illustration: VERNAL FALLS IN THE YOSEMITE VALLEY.
“The valley was called by the Indians _A-wa-ni_, from the name of their
principal village.”]
This name, corrupted from _Monache_, the name of the Indians of this
region, through its resemblance to the Spanish word _mono_ (monkey), has
been the cause of considerable confusion, and of a number of extravagant
theories, such as the supposed existence of monkeys in that country,
or the resemblance of the natives to those animals, but the similarity
between the two words is regarded by ethnologists as purely accidental.
The meaning is obscure, but it is said that the name was applied to some
Shoshonean tribes of southeastern California by their neighbors on the
west.
INYO
_Inyo_, a word of unknown meaning, was the name of a tribe of Indians in
the Sierra. Inyo County is on the eastern border of the state, adjacent
to Nevada. Its largest stream is the Owens River, which flows into Owens
Lake, another body of saline water having no outlet. This county has the
unenviable distinction of containing within its borders the terrible
“Death Valley,” where the bones of so many unfortunates have been left
to whiten under the desert sun, and which still claims a victim now and
then. This desolate valley is forty miles long, lying far below the
level of the sea, is destitute of all vegetation, totally without water,
subject to terrific heat, and in all respects well deserves its funereal
name. Inyo is unique in containing the highest and lowest points in the
United States, Mount Whitney and Death Valley, within sight of each
other. In other parts of the county the mountain scenery is of remarkable
grandeur, and the gold mines in which it is unusually rich are still
worked with profit.
AMARGOSA RIVER
_Amargosa_ (bitter), is the very appropriate name of a river of Nevada
and southeastern California which flows into Death Valley, sometimes
known also as the Amargosa Desert. The mountains lying northeast of the
river’s upper course are sometimes called the Amargosa Mountains. Fremont
gives a characteristic picture of this dreary country in the following
paragraph: “We traveled through a barren district, where a heavy gale was
blowing about the loose sand, and, after a ride of eight miles, reached
a large creek of salt and bitter water, running in a westerly direction,
to meet the stream bed we had left. It is called by the Spaniards
_Amargosa_, the bitter water of the desert.”
SUPPLEMENTARY LIST
_Alta_ (high), is a village in Placer County, sixty-eight miles northeast
of Sacramento, two miles from the great American Canyon. The altitude of
this place is 3607 feet above sea level. The name is modern and was only
given to the place after the building of the Central Pacific Railroad.
_Cerro Gordo_ (large, thick hill), is the name of a famous mining camp in
Inyo County.
_Cisco_ is a town in Placer County, situated at an altitude of 5934 feet
above sea level. Cisco is a word of disputed origin. It has been said to
be derived from the Algonquin word _cisco_, meaning a fish, a sort of
oily herring found in the Great Lakes, but it seems unlikely that such
a name should be transported all the way from the Great Lakes to the
Sierras, especially as no fish of that kind is to be found there. Other
persons believe the word to be derived from the Spanish _cisco_ (broken
pieces of coal), but for this there appears to be no legitimate reason.
In the _History of Placer County_ the statement is made that the town was
named for John J. Cisco, at one time connected with the United States
Government, an explanation which is probably the true one.
_Esmeralda_ (emerald), a village in Calaveras County.
_Hetch Hetchy_ is the Indian name of a deep valley in the Sierra,
lying north of the Yosemite, which will some day cease to be a valley
and become a lake, as the people of San Francisco have succeeded in
obtaining the permission of the United States Government to turn it into
a reservoir for the city’s water supply. An explanation of the meaning
of the word Hetch Hetchy has been obtained through the kindness of John
Muir, who says: “I have been informed by mountaineers who know something
of the Indian language that Hetch Hetchy is the name of a species of
grass that the Tuolumne Indians used for food, and which grows on the
meadow at the lower end of the valley. The grain, when ripe, was gathered
and beaten out and pounded into meal in mortars.” The word was originally
spelled _Hatchatchie_.
_Lancha Plana_ (flat-boat), is in Amador County, and its story is thus
told by Mr. Junius Farnsworth, an old resident of Stockton: “This town
is located across the Mokelumne River from Poverty Bar, a name given to
a gravel bar in the river which was exceedingly rich in placer gold, and
to which thousands of early day miners were attracted. Those who came
from the north side of the Mokelumne centered in Lancha Plana and reached
Poverty Bar by means of a flat-boat, or flat ferry. The Spanish soon
designated the settlement on the north bank of the river as Lancha Plana,
as it was the point at which the flat-boat tied up.”
_Moquelumne_ is the name of a river which rises in the high Sierra in
Alpine County, flows southwesterly and empties into the San Joaquín.
The word is a corruption of the Miwok _Wakalumitoh_, the Indian name
of the river. The Moquelumne family was made up of an aggregation of
tribes which occupied three sections, one lying between the Cosumnes and
Fresno Rivers, another in Marin, Sonoma, and Napa Counties, and a third
occupying a small area in the south end of Lake County. (A. L. Kroeber,
in _American Anthrop._ VIII, no. 4, 1906.) The Miwoks constituted the
great body of this family, the different branches of which were connected
by a similarity of languages. The Miwoks are described as being quite
low in the scale of civilization, and “it has been asserted that this
tribe of Indians ate every variety of living creature indigenous to their
territory except the skunk. The skins of jack-rabbits were rudely woven
into robes, and they bought bows and arrows from the mountain Indians
for shell money. Cremation of the dead was usual, and all possessions
of the departed were burned with them. Their names were never afterward
mentioned and those who bore the same names changed them for others.
Widows covered their faces with pitch, and the younger women singed their
hair short as a sign of widowhood.”—(_Handbook of American Indians._)
_Muk-kel_ was the name of the principal village of this tribe, and if
_umne_ does in fact mean “people of”, Moquelumne may be “people of the
village of Muk-kel.”
_Panamint Range_ of mountains was named for the Panamint tribe, who
belonged to the Shoshonean family, and lived around the Panamint Valley,
in Inyo County, southeastern California. Many unfortunate seekers after
gold have lost their lives in this desolate mountain range.
_Pinto Range_ (painted or spotted range), so-called because of the
variegated colors of the rocks. This range is in Inyo County.
_San Andreas_ (St. Andrew), is the county-seat of Calaveras County,
and is situated near the Calaveras River, fifty-six miles southeast of
Sacramento. Placer gold mining was at one time extensively carried on
here. St. Andrew, the patron saint of this place, was the brother of
Simon Peter, and was the first called to be an apostle. He suffered
martyrdom by being crucified, supposedly on a cross shaped like the one
that bears his name. He is the patron of the Order of the Golden Fleece,
and of the great Order of the Cross of St. Andrew.—(_Stories of the
Saints._) San Andreas is anomalous in being almost the only Spanish name
in the mining district. The circumstances of its naming have not been
ascertained.
_Sonora_, named for the province of Sonora in Mexico, is the capital of
Tuolumne County, and is situated ninety miles southeast of Sacramento.
It received its name from the large number of Sonorans from the Mexican
province who mined there in the very early days. This is a mining period
name and has no real connection with Spanish names.
_Tenaya Peak_ in Yosemite Valley is named for Ten-ei-ya, chief of the
Yosemite Indians.
_Vallecito_ (little valley), is in Calaveras County, fifty-five miles
northeast of Stockton.
_Wawona_, in Mariposa County, is said by some authorities to be a
Moquelumnan word meaning “big tree,” but this definition is regarded by
ethnologists with doubt.
CAMINO REAL
_Camino Real_ (royal road, or the King’s highway). The Camino Real was
the road connecting the missions, and was the chief means of intercourse
between the different settlements during the early years of the state’s
history. After American occupation the road fell into disuse, but at
present is being reconstructed along the old route, with many extensions
and branches, and will, when finished, be one of the finest roads in the
United States.
PRONUNCIATION OF SPANISH NAMES.
While it scarcely falls within the province of this book to enter into
an elaborate discussion of the matter of pronunciation of Spanish names,
it is thought desirable to present a few of the simplest rules, with
some examples, so that persons unacquainted with the language may avoid
at least the worst of those pit-falls set for their inexperienced feet
by our nomenclature. It should be mentioned that in California the
Spanish-American usage, rather than the Castilian, is followed in the
pronunciation of the c and z. The rules of pronunciation quoted here
are those given in Ramsey’s text books, generally regarded as excellent
authority.
VOWELS.
_A_ sounds like _a_ in _ah_, midway between the English _a_ in _father_
and that in _fat_. Example, _Pala_, pronounced _Pah´lah_.
_E_ sounds like _a_ in _hay_, its sound being slightly varied according
to situation. Example, _Rode´o_, pronounced _Ro-day´o_.
_I_ sounds like _ee_ in _bee_. Example, _Vista_, pronounced _Vees´tah_.
_O_ sounds like _o_ in _hope_. Example, _Contra Costa_, pronounced
_Cone´trah Coast´ah_. This name is frequently mispronounced by using the
short sound of _o_, as in _not_.
_U_ sounds like _u_ in _rule_. Example, _La Punta_, pronounced _La
Poon´tah_.
_Y_, when a vowel, is equivalent to _i_. _Y_ is considered a vowel only
when standing alone, as in _y_ (the conjunction _and_), or at the end of
a word, as in _ley_ (law), but is sometimes used interchangeably with
_I_ at the beginning of a word, as in _San Ysidro_, pronounced _San
Ee-see´dro_, and sometimes spelled _Isidro_. In other cases it is a
consonant and is pronounced like the _y_ in the English _yard_.
CONSONANTS.
Only those consonant sounds differing from English usage need be
mentioned here.
_C_ has two sounds. Before _e_ and _i_ it is pronounced like _s_ in
_seat_, that is, in Spanish-American usage; examples, _Cerro_, pronounced
_Ser´ro_, and _Cima_, pronounced _See´mah_. In all other cases _c_ has
the sound of _k_; examples, _Carlos_, pronounced _Kar´loce_, _Colorado_,
pronounced _Ko-lo-rah´do_ (each _o_ long, as in _hope_), _Cuesta_,
pronounced _Kwes´tah_, and _Cruz_, pronounced _Kroos_.
_Ch_ has the sound of _ch_ in _church_. Example, _Chico_, pronounced
_Chee´ko_.
_D_ is slightly softened, and when occurring between vowels and at the
end of words it is almost like _th_ in _then_. Examples, _Andrade_,
pronounced _Ahn-drah´-dthay_, and _Soledad_, pronounced _Sole-ay-dadth_.
_G_ has two sounds. Before _e_ and _i_ it has the sound of strongly
aspirated _h_. Examples, _German´_, pronounced _Hare-mahn´_, and _giro_,
pronounced _hee´ro_. In all other cases it sounds like _g_ in _go_.
Examples, _Gaviota_, _Goleta_, _Guadalupe_, _Granada_. In _gue_ and
_gui_ the _u_ is regularly silent; exceptions to this rule are marked
by the diaeresis, as in _Argüello_, pronounced _Ar-gwayl´yo_, or in
Spanish-American, _Ar-gway´yo_.
_H_ is silent except in the combined character _ch_. Example, _La Honda_,
pronounced _La On´dah_, with long _o_, as in _hope_.
_J_ has the sound of strongly aspirated _h_. Examples, _Pájaro_,
pronounced _Pah´hah-ro_, and _San José_, pronounced _San Ho-say´_. This
letter is one of the worst stumbling-blocks in the pronunciation of
Spanish names.
_Ll_ has the sound of the letters _lli_ in the English _million_, but in
many parts of Spanish-America it is pronounced like _y_ in _beyond_. The
latter is not considered an elegant pronunciation. Example, _Vallejo_,
properly pronounced _Val-yay´ho_, but in Spanish-American, _Va-yay´ho_.
_N_ has the sound of the letters _ni_ in the English _pinion_. Example,
_Cañada_, pronounced _Can-yah´dthah_.
_Q_ only occurs before _ue_ and _ui_, and sounds like _k_, the following
_u_ being always silent. Example, _San Quintín_, pronounced _San
Keen-teen´_.
_S_ has the hissing sound of _s_ in _say_, _base_, and is never
pronounced like _sh_ as in _mansion_, or _z_ as in _rose_. Thus in _Santa
Rosa_ the _s_ is sharply hissed and is not pronounced as _Santa Roza_.
_Z_ is sounded in Spanish-America like sharply hissed _s_, as in _say_ or
_base_. Example, _Zamora_, pronounced _Sah-mo´rah_.
A peculiarity of pronunciation common to almost all Spaniards is the
confusion of the _b_ and the _v_ so that one can hardly be distinguished
from the other. Vowel sounds are pronounced shortly and crisply, never
with the drawling circumflex sound sometimes heard in English. Without
going into the complications of the division of syllables, it may be
stated that the fundamental principle is to make syllables end in a vowel
as far as possible; examples, _Do-lo-res_ (not _Do-lor-es_), _Sa-li-nas_
(not _Sal-in-as_).
ACCENT.
All words ending in _n_ or _s_ or a vowel are regularly accented on the
next to the last syllable; examples, _Sausalíto_, _Altúras_, _cómen_.
All others are accented on the last syllable; examples, _San Rafael´_,
_Avenal´_. In words following the above rules no mark is used, but in the
exceptions, which are many, the stress must be indicated by the written
accent. Examples, _Portolá_, _Jolón_, _Álamo_, _Los Ángeles_.
ARTICLES.
In the Spanish language articles agree with their nouns in gender and
number. The forms of the definite article are _el_ (singular) and _los_
(plural) for the masculine, _la_ (singular) and _las_ (plural) for the
feminine. Examples, _El Portal_ (the portal, or gate), _Los Gatos_ (the
cats), _La Paz_ (the peace), _Las Vírgenes_ (the virgins).
LIST OF NAMES MOST LIKELY TO BE MISPRONOUNCED, WITH THEIR PHONETIC
PRONUNCIATION.
_Agua_ pronounced _Ah´gwah_. Spanish Americans often
mispronounce this word by leaving out
the _g_, calling it _ah´wa_.
_Aguajito_ ” _Ah-gwah-hee´to_.
_Alameda_ ” _Ah-lah-may´dthah_.
_Los Ángeles_ ” _Loce Ahng´hell-ess_.
_Asunción_ ” _Ah-soon-see-on´_, with the _o_ long, as
in _hope_.
_El Cajón_ ” _El Kah-hon´_, with the _o_ long, as in
_hope_.
_Camino Real_ ” _Kah-mee´no Ray-ahl_´.
_Cañada_ ” _Kahn-yah´dtha_, with the _d_ slightly
softened like _th_ in _then_.
_Carpintería_ ” _Kar-peen-tay-ree´ah_.
_Carquínez_ ” _Kar-kee´ness_.
_Conejo_ ” _Ko-nay´ho_.
_Corral_ ” _Kore-rahl´_.
_Dolores_ ” _Do-lo´ress_.
_Farallones_ ” _Fah-rahl-yo´ness_, in Spanish-American,
_Fa-rah-yo´ness_.
_Los Gatos_ ” _Loce Gah´tos_, the _o_ long, as
in _hope_.
_Guadalupe_ ” _Gwa-dah-loo´pay_.
_La Jolla_ ” _La Hole´yah_, or in Spanish-American,
_Ho´yah_.
_La Joya_ ” _La Ho´yah_.
_La Junta_ ” _La Hoon´tah_.
_Laguna Seca_ ” _Lah-goo´nah Say´cah_.
_Lagunitas_ ” _Lah-goo-nee´tas_.
_Matilija_ ” _Mah-tee-lee´hah_.
_Merced_ ” _Mare-sedth´_, with the _d_ slightly
softened like _th_ in _then_.
_Mesa_ ” _May´sah_.
_Ojo_ ” _O´ho_, with the _j_ strongly aspirated.
_Pájaro_ ” _Pah´hah-ro_.
_Paso Robles_ ” _Pah´so Ro´blace_.
_Portolá_ ” _Por-to-lah´_.
_Punta Arenas_ ” _Poon´tah Ah-ray´nas_.
_Rodéo_ ” _Ro-day´o_.
_Salinas_ ” _Sah-lee´nas_.
_San Gerónimo_ ” _Sahn Hay-ro´nee-mo_.
_San Jacinto_ ” _Sahn Hah-seen´to_.
_San Joaquín_ ” _Sahn Wha-keen´_.
_San José_ ” _Sahn Ho-say´_.
_San Juan Bautista_ ” _Sahn Whan Bau-tees´ta_.
_San Julián_ ” _Sahn Hoo-lee-ahn´_.
_San Luís Obispo_ ” _Sahn Loo-ees´ O-bees´po_.
_San Martín_ ” _Sahn Mar-teen´_.
_San Quintín_ ” _Sahn Keen-teen´_, colloquially spelled
_Quentin_.
_Santa Fé_ ” _Sahnta Fay´_.
_Santa Inez_ ” _Sahnta Ee-ness´_.
_San Ysidro_ ” _Sahn Ee-see´dro_, also spelled _Isidro_.
_Suñol_ ” _Soon-yole´_.
_Vallejo_ ” _Val-yay´ho_, in Spanish-American
_Vah-yay´ho_.
_Las Vírgenes_ ” _Las Veer´hen-ess_.
[Illustration: MAP OF THE MISSIONS.
Used by the courtesy of Father Engelhardt.]
[Illustration: FINAL LIST AND INDEX]
FINAL LIST AND INDEX
_Abalone_ (the great sea-snail of the Pacific Coast). See page 75.
_Acampo_ (common pasture). See page 282. This name is used here in the
sense of “camp,” and was given by the Southern Pacific Railroad years
ago, in reference to a camp of wood choppers and Chinese which was
located there.
_Acolito_ (acolyte), is in Imperial County.
_Adelante_ (onward, forward), now changed to Napa Junction, is in Napa
County. This place was called _Adelante_ in the hope that its location on
Napa River would cause it to become the principal city of the valley.
_Adobe_ (sun-dried brick).
_Agua_ (water), is in very common use in referring to springs, usually
accompanied by a qualifying adjective. See page 339. This word is usually
mispronounced by Spanish Americans.
_Agua Amargosa_ (bitter water). See page 154.
_Agua Caliente_ (hot water, hot spring). See pages 76 and 259.
_Agua Cayendo_ (falling water).
_Agua Dulce_ (sweet water, fresh water).
_Agua Fria_ (cold water, cold spring).
_Agua Hedionda_ (stinking water, sulphur spring).
_Aguaje del Centinela_ (water hole, or watering place of the sentinel),
the title of a land grant.
_Agua del Medio_ (middle spring).