Show State il Parade at Angels Camp California Prepared by bl National Geographic Oeo Society ton D n C C. Service T H they HOLD y are re not worth a a 1 g dollar l That is is what ha Dap Daniel el I Webster Ve ster though thought of California California Califor Califor- nia and arid oth other r r southwestern lands when it as was proposed that we take them Ulem as as indemnity aft after i the war with Mexico What sympathy sympathy thy h he added can there bo bp be between tie be t v t tween v e Jhc the p people ople c vf California and the state Eastern states Webster gave that opinion of California CaU Call Cali fornia in in the I senate only 88 years I ago ago Today TodDY it is the wealthiest state west of the Mississippi l and has some some people On One of them said t to a a visitor It n took my folks years t to get to California a. a They l landed in m Virginia about 1650 and andI I m moved v d west with th the frontier My My- fath father r g got t here herein In In the life Up in Humboldt c county nty at a For ty ty-niner's ball for which men grow full bc beards a Swe t eyed bright Iad said My s must b be all of years old It it was was s old v en my ray mother brought it una the Horn H rn from Nova Scotia Her m men j n fOught fought grizzly bears and and Klamath In Indians ians gold panned and timber to build schooners Only Only- once in 15 5 or 20 years did they get down down to to San Franci Francisco Francico co and then by sea by-sea sea no railroad rail bail road r reached nor northwest C California till long after ter she w was grown My Iy father father- was general Mariano Vallejo th ih the last r l Mexican n officer to command this post proudly asserted asserted as as- V. V Emparan of or Son Sonoma He w was s born at Monte Monte- r rey y are hi his si silver ver sa Saddle dle sword spurs a and d pi pistols After AUer Ain ric ac acquired Calif California he he became me a a p patriotic tri t i influential al cit citizen United d z n of the Uri t States In In such ways was came came th the whites whites' who p pC people pl plC this land divergent races from sources sources' far apart 1 Many any Came ame From Frn n F Foreign Lands In In Napa county you see h how hJ J French Frenc Italian a and 1 derman German grape grap g growers form forin y t ct another racal stra strain n. n In ISSO Q third one e of all people peo peo- pIe then h here hare re had co fome come ie from foreign for tor- for j eign lands a fact which was profoundly profoundly pro pro- to o i influence the human and economic geography of this this' old oldest st stand and largest of of all Pacific C Cb Coast st sf states states- Seek Seck quiet country lanes that lead lenc to long established establish homes a of ofT f. f both bath native American and foreign stock and you OU sense the social maturity of oC this complex yet mellow land Monterey was was a a. a seat scat of Sp Spanish hish culture before Washington D. D C C. Ci was vas even ev surveyed Russians had built Fort Ross and w w. w wyre re growing wheat ind trading counterfeit w wampum warn m- m pum pum for Cor otter oHer skins before peace en ended ed the the War Var of 1812 Ever T r siri since I Hubert b rt H Howe we Ban Bancroft's ancroft's an an- cr crofts croft's rt's painstaking re researches earch s writers writ writ- ers have told and nd rel retold ld the story of early California i and they iney jl y still til make uSe of Bancroft's Incomparable ble source material preserved now at the stale state university in Berkeley To see what the th white lT nan man an has has' done with work rork t tools s. s and science in developing this x r gion lonas gionas lon as it Is Isnow Isnow Is now mow consider the place where his labors began Ride Ride through gh the Mother Lode Lade countr countr t where the first pick marks on this now lush opulent land were made by the gold golds s seekers kers Every hillside gully and stream bed shows sho the s scars ars of shafts tunnels and frantic digging Ruined huts and half hat d deserted fields ghost towns dot these gold from which boarded men men in in red red- flannel shirts gouged nuggets and panned the yellow du dust t. t Melancholy Iy Columbia Is adumbrative of nil all ll these h sc early ari ca camps p In n its old old Wells Wells- Fargo stagecoach office y you u see seethe the clumsy sc scales l s on which Ich records prove more th than ri irr in gold was vas weighed In o boom days people lived and worked vo ked here now the village Is shrunk to a a. a bare Ghost T I Towns Are Arc Numerous us All through Sierra foothills you find these fading towns with such names as Rough and Ready Slug Gulch You Bet a and d. d Grizzly Fl Flats ts At t now V. Placerville long Ions stood the big iC t tree ee on n. n whose stout limbs o t men Rould be strung up nt at once or In Tu county Is the the cabin of Br Bret Biet i H Harte rt whose characters characters charac charac- i in Te Tc essee's Par Pardner lne and The Outcasts of Poker Flat were dr drawn wn from r rn hereabouts Another shack is is labeled Mark Marie vains T Cabin Violent Twains Twain's murderous murder murder- ous thieving though life in these dig diggings ings was Twain was able ble later to to say Always do right it will gratify some and astonish the rest resU I In those halcyon mining days he hewrot wrote The Jumping Frog of eras ems County Each Each spring now the once hedonic town of Angels Camp stages a jumping frog roc contest content entries come even from distant Ar Ar- kansas Guests with what Pope called nice foppish gusto custo look with gluttonous avidity 9 on rn the fat fatt t legs g of these prize prize- winning prize frogs Though from these hills some gold seekers took their dizzy millions the real contribution of the Gold Rush to California's destiny is often oCten overlooked Think of the blacksmiths blacksmiths blacksmiths black black- smiths carpenters cowboys farmers farmers farmers farm farm- ers doctors lawyers and teachers who came with the gold hunting horde They cleared land built towns and roads sent East for Cor wives raised husky Sons of the Golden West and spread the raw canvas s for this 1936 1036 picture of northern north north- em ern California at work Few comparatively got rich In Inthe inthe inthe the mines that wasn't economic production anyway They simply found the thc gold at first and took it In Iri time time mining settled down to a business of deep shafts stamp mills smelters timbered tunnels roads and towns All this tilis meant r more ore food machinery lumber transportation tion clothing amuse amuse- ments To supply these farms to grow tow mea meat t nn gr grain in developed towns to with factories schools and music halls grew up to take care of mines Thines of farms of each other Law grew too from this pioneer experience th the doctrines of ot appropriation appropriation appropriation and use the laws of mining w Water ter rights and grazing Students of jurisprudence say it Is seldom that the customs of a people have had their origin development and final adoption by a legislature all aU within one l lifetime as came to pass n here r Sutter Founded Found d Sacramento John A. A Suiter Sutter Swiss S adventurer built builta a trading post on on land given him by the thc Mexicans That was the beginning of Sacr Sacramento mento in m 1839 It was was' a strategic location soil was rich the river afforded easy transport to San Francisco and the new town was right in the path of settlers coming from Crom the East through Emigrant Gap Sure swift steps in the rise of that town epitomize the the Am American conquest of this region First S fought the Indians then then hired red them to farm his lands run his cattle and work about his fort tort Kit C Carson and John C. C Fremont came came here for Cor fresh h horses I S Into Slitters Slitter's Fort now Sacramento to in 1841 drove the first Immigrant Immigrant Immigrant grant wag wagon n train to cross the Plains From here men went in 1847 18 to rescue the Donner party snowed in in inand and fi fighting starvation Sutter's hired man digging ng to b build a sawmill found gold at t Colama Coloma Coloma Co Co- loma lama In 1848 and started the great stampede This lawless horde robbed and ruined Sutter he died poor boor Others held the fort and traded d furiously They charged 64 to shoe a horse 2000 a ton ton to haul freight to the thc mines It cost costa a pinch n h of gold dust to buy a drink of whiskey and only men with big hands hands' were hired to tend barl bar Dance halls never closed even today today today to to- day one one advertises itself as as' asBon Bon BonTon BonTon Ton Ton Dance Hall Beautiful Girls Galore Miners coming to celebrate celebrate cele cele- brate brought their th ir gold in an m old sock or in yeast c cans ns Modern youths buy a n strip of tickets each good oo for a dance with a taxi tax girl California became a state in 1850 That year e r more than miners sw swarmed through Sutter's Fort from Crom the East About it a wild lawless town was growing a town of ot tents an and r ro rough gh boards o of saloons eating places placeS' stores nn and blacksmith black smith Most goods came first to Francisco by sea and imd nd then up the Sacr Sacramento mento river st State f Almost Divided Once Jumping from Monterey to San Jose Vallejo and Benicia the state capital got to Sacramento in 1854 Manya Many a bitter battle jias as been fought at this this' capital none more exciting than that which once almost divided California into h two o s states ates Only the diverting advent of the Civil war prevented t thi this is From Missouri came the Pony Express Express Express Ex Ex- press in in in- 1860 Next spring riders carried Lincoln's inaugural address through from St Joe in seven sevenda's days das and ond seventeen hours the fastest fast tast est trip on r record cord Then a 3 half half- ounce letter cost 5 on one v no now is flown by overnight plane for Cor six cents Building east from o in 1869 the Central Pacific met the Union Pacific railroad at Promontory tory Point in Utah Senator Stanford Stan ford Cord drove a golden spike Isolation Isolation Isola Isola- I Ilion tion lion was ended Men and goods moved west at t unheard of low rates at speed thought miraculous mir culous Today Sacramento railroad shops are arc among the worlds world's largest About the old fort where pioneer blacksmiths shod mules filed saws and whittled out pick handles Corthe for Cor forthe forthe the miners rises now ow a busy city of more mure than factories Including canneries of fruit and vege vege- tables |