search for precious metals. Mineral King, perhaps the preeminent site in the region, was imagined to be the area’s equivalent to Sutter’s Mill in the northern Sierra. However, the site never produced a commercially viable quantity of either gold or silver.
Lumbermen turned out to be as equally disillusioned as their mining counterparts. The discovery of the giant sequoia wetted the appetites of entrepreneurs who anticipated enormous profits from milling lumber from such gigantic trees. Unfortunately for the lumbermen, the sequoia wood proved to be too brittle for most construction purposes. Fortunately for the species, the labor-intensive effort required to fell the big trees turned out to be a commercially unviable enterprise. The mills never made much of a profit—some even lost money—and most of the sequoia wood was used for fence posts or shakes. Sadly, many lumber companies failed to realize the relatively poor quality of sequoia lumber until after entire groves were destroyed. Converse Basin, one of the finest stands of big trees, witnessed the destruction of every significant sequoia save one—the Boole Tree, which turned out to be the eighth-largest sequoia in the world.
Unlike mining and lumbering, cattle and sheep grazing in the San Joaquin Valley was fairly profitable, which ultimately produced a growing competition among ranchers for rangeland. In order to feed their herds and flocks properly, ranchers and sheepherders searched farther and farther afield for green pastures, inflicting extensive environmental damage on the meadows on the west side of the southern Sierra. Fires, set by the ranchers and sheepherders to clear pastures and create passage, ran unchecked throughout the range. Thousands of hooves trampled sensitive meadows each season. The resulting erosion produced by the combination of spreading fires and trampling stock created inevitable watershed degradation.
Hiker on the Mt. Whitney Trail (Trip 95)
California Geographical Survey
While the ranchers and loggers were investigating the natural resources of the area, the California Geographical Survey, under the leadership of Josiah D. Whitney, began exploring the High Sierra. The survey’s charge was to ascend the high peaks to obtain precise measurements that would enable accurate mapping of this previously uncharted region. As part of the 1864 survey, William H. Brewer led Clarence King, Richard D. Cotter, James T. Gardiner, and Charles F. Hoffman from Visalia to a base camp at Big Meadow. Proceeding east into the high mountains, the party climbed and named Mt. Silliman along Silliman Crest and Mt. Brewer on the Great Western Divide.
From a campsite near Mt. Brewer, King and Cotter left the others behind to make a multiday attempt on Mt. Whitney. Although failing to reach the range’s highest summit, the pair did scale 14,048-foot Mt. Tyndall, a mere six miles northwest. Following the climb, the party regrouped near Mt. Brewer and returned to Big Meadow.
Undeterred by the failed attempt on Mt. Whitney, King tried again, leading a small party from Three Rivers up the recently constructed Hockett Trail to Kern River. After following the river north for several miles, they veered away toward the big peak. Ultimately, their summit bid fell short by 300 to 400 vertical feet.
Following the second failed attempt, King join the resupplied and expanded survey party at Big Meadow in order to explore the Kings River area, which they would compare favorably to Yosemite Valley. After exploring the South and Middle Forks, and the Monarch Divide separating the two gorges, the party traveled upstream along Bubbs Creek and over the Sierra Crest at Kearsarge Pass, before descending to Fort Independence in Owens Valley.
From Independence, the group journeyed north through Owens Valley, eventually crossing back over the Sierra Crest at Mono Pass before establishing a base camp at Vermillion Valley (currently under the waters of Lake Edison). Although the exact route is undetermined, the survey headed south toward Le Conte Divide, from where Cotter, and a soldier named Spratt, made a 36-hour assault on Mt. Goddard, turning back about 300 feet below the summit. Returning to Vermillion Valley after yet another failed summit bid, the party headed north to Wawona, concluding the survey for the year. The California Geographical Survey made a more limited expedition along the east side of the range in 1870, before disbanding in 1874.
Despite failing to reach the summits of Mt. Whitney and Mt. Goddard, the Brewer Party was the first group of explorers to develop a significant understanding of the topography, botany, and geology of the High Sierra. In addition to scientific findings, the survey named several significant features, including Mt. Whitney, the highest summit in the continental United States.
Seeds of Preservation
Over his lifetime, John Muir made nine separate excursions into the backcountry of Sequoia and Kings Canyon, ultimately increasing public awareness of the beauty and majesty of the region as a whole and of the giant sequoias in particular. Over time, an increasing number of concerned citizens joined Muir to champion the cause of protecting the unique character of the region. These citizens included George W. Stewart, the youthful city editor of one of Visalia’s newspapers. Eventually, national and international figures lent their voices to the idea of setting aside this area as parkland.
As ranching and farming increased in the San Joaquin Valley, so rose the demand for water for irrigation. Watershed degradation from mining, logging, and grazing in the southern Sierra conflicted with the agricultural needs of the ranchers and farmers downstream. Concern over water issues, combined with a growing preservationist ethic, created increased opposition to the unmitigated consumption of the area’s natural resources and the environmental destruction of the landscape.
The first official step toward the establishment of a national park in the region occurred in 1880, when Theodore Wagner, US Surveyor General for California, suspended four square miles of Grant Grove, prohibiting anyone from filing a land claim. Unfortunately, a 160-acre claim had already been filed adjacent to the area (Wilsonia remains in private hands to the present day). Although little progress toward preservation was made in subsequent years, the seeds of a grand idea had been planted.
Backpacker near Columbine Lake, Sawtooth Pass Trail (Trip 13)
The Kaweah Colony
A group of socialist utopians from San Francisco created one of the more colorful chapters in the history of the region. Armed with a big dream, a heady dose of gumption, and a limited supply of capital, thirty-some members of the Cooperative Land and Colonization Association filed claims on nearly 6,000 acres of prime timberland within the Giant Forest. As a means of funding their utopian society, the colonists planned to build a road from Three Rivers to a proposed mill near their timber claims to harvest timber and mill it for sale.
Controversy swirled around the legality of the colonists’ land claims, which became an ongoing dilemma. Despite the brewing controversy, nearly 160 colonists were camped along the North Kaweah River in 1886, ready to begin construction on their wagon road. Idealism and optimism reigned within the colony, as they successfully built the road over the following four years. Despite using only hand tools, the quality of construction and the grade of the road were remarkable. Coaxing a steam tractor named Ajax to a saddle at the end of the road, the colonists erected a portable sawmill. However, a variety of complications prohibited them from fully realizing their dream, including inexperience, internal squabbles, insufficient funds, and an inability to secure full title to their land claims. By 1892 the dream ended and the remaining trustees officially dissolved the colony.
Although the utopian dream of the Kaweah Colony was short-lived, their road had a much longer life. Eventually extended from Colony Mill to the Giant Forest by the US Army, the road was opened to one-way traffic in 1903,
