December 30, 1970 (12 pages)

tyes "to one hundred million years, hn SS — EIGHT HORSE TEA The dead rivers of California, so far as known, are all on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada. They are all auriferous and, therefore have been sought for and examined, They have yielded probably (1870) three hundred million dollars, They are not less interesting, therefore, to the miner than to the geologist, not less important to the statesman than to the antiquarian, The largest dead river is known as the Big Blue Lead, and has been traced from the Little Grizzly, in Sierra County, across Nevada County to Forest Hill, in Placer County, a distance of 65 miles. The course is southeast, the position about. 30 miles west of and parallel with the Little Grizzly and 2800 feet at Forest Hill, showing an average fall of 33 feet per mile, The live rivers of the Sierra Nevada run at right angles to the course of the range and have cut canyons from 1500 to 3000 feet in depth, and they are separated by ridges which are from three to six miles apart and are as high as the canyons are deep. The Blue Lead runs across the ranges from 200 to 3000 feet below their summits, The traveler does not see any signs of a dead river in these ridges, which are high and have the same general appearance at the Blue Lead as at other places, . In my own search for a glimmer of light upon this puzzling phenomenon I have consulted such authorities as were available to me, The professional geologists and engineers, of course, go much deeper and considerably more obscurely into the subject than do the general writers, including Hittel. _ The eminent engineer, Lindgren, who devoted much study to this region, in his exhaustive work, "The Tertiary Gravels of the Sierra Nevada," leads the reader through a maze of the four divisions of the Tertiary period—the Pliocene, the Miocene, the Oligocene, the Eocene, each representing ages of time but constituting scarcely a fraction of the five great ages into which geology is divided. The science of geology is variously described, One definition is: "Attempt to furnish the reason why the earth is what it is." Another: "Geology treats of the histroy of the world as recorded in rocks," The concept of geologic time also varies, It was reckoned by the ancients as without limits, by modern scientists, such as Thompson and Huxley, at from sixty million As these dead river channels are considered from the standpoint of geology and geologic time, the preponderant theory is that in some distant era the topography of the Sierra Nevada underwent violent change or changes whereby it was elevated far above its original height. Thus it was that Hittle asks and answers this question: "Why did the Big Blue die and leave nothing but its gravels and its gold to tell the story of its greatness?" His conclusion is -that the ‘main cause must have been the rise of the mountain range. To reflect upon a river, at least a half mile in width and carrying ten times the water flow of the Sacramento river,clinging to elevations three to five thousand feet above the level of an ocean only one hundred and fifty miles distant, is to know (in the opinion of Hittel) that the Sierra was upheaved. The terrific grade of thirty-three feet to the mile of that phantom river between the Little Grizzly and Forest Hill would, on the basis of present-day levels, compare with the five foot fall to the mile of modern Sacramento, the water course which lies parallel to and apparently succeeded the Big Blue. Intrudes another question: "Was the Big Blue the predecessor of any live stream?" Speculation on this point opens fantastic possibilities—the possibility that the Columbia river may have continued southward instead of turning abruptly westward to the Pacific at Oregon's north border. Of that possibility, the historian says: pe The Sacramento does not carry one-fourth of the water which ran down the Big Blue, probably not one-tenth. ff we — could. ascertain that the quantity of rain has not altered, then we would be justified in presuming that the Columbia river, . which would about fill the bed of the Big Blue, instead of turning westward at Walla Walla, originally continued southward until the lifting up of Shasta and Lassen and adjacent ridges ‘ stopped its course and compelled it to break through the Cascase Range. 4 Hittel adds this conclusion; "With our present limited knowledge, we are not justified in calling the Big Blue either the Dead Sacramento or the Dead Columbia." It is of interest to recall that the theory has been advanced at times with considerable spirit that the Big Blue never was a river, that it was only a lacustrine or alluvial deposit. But miners who have delved into its grave will tell you that it has all of the attributes of a river which died and was suitably buried, It has a long course, a width nearly uniform, a channel approximately straight, some bends with eddies on the inner side. Moreover, it exhibits peculiar quartz material unlike any found in the neighboring ridges or in any of the streams to the eastward, water-worn gravel which must have been. carried far, flat stones pointing downstream as a strong current would have placed them, strata of coarse and fine gravel which must have been deposited in a stream, a uniform descending grade, and an immense quantity of gold which required ages to scatter By Edmu through a deposit up to 300 fe The Big Blue in place driftwood and trunks of tree tary streams of various size have abound along its entire ever characteristic of a rive once rolled its channel has di: Buried deep in the: bosor Nevada is the secret of how they died. The theory of » some particulars improbable the phenomenon of river cha range lengthwise. ~ Chapte THE GREA The recent discovery of r eastern slope of the mountain: soon being settled by a large g is exciting considerable: attenti with regard to the constructio Energetic measures are bein, constc ction of roads to: the should not be behind her sis the most practicable route to . (Graniteville) and that the 4 Virginiatown is only one bundr . and distances on this route have From Nevada to Ranch, 18 miles; Jackson's R; 6 miles; Summit to Drexel’ miles; Drexel's Ranch to Sj miles, ~NE The above account is the ti porary press of the inceptio, term the Great Highway, the Sacramento Valley and way po; The route was based on what , a highly favored crossing of been known from the earliest it previously had had but scant . of the Great Highway the vo} limited must be considered , mountain transportation. Coincident with the movem, a thoroughfare to the Washoe an Tet eee ete pte ae as =_——— Pat Se eer pens eee aoe o~ —— ="sS ; eel eit eat aera ~ =

tyes "to one hundred million years, hn SS — EIGHT HORSE TEA The dead rivers of California, so far as known, are all on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada. They are all auriferous and, therefore have been sought for and examined, They have yielded probably (1870) three hundred million dollars, They are not less interesting, therefore, to the miner than to the geologist, not less important to the statesman than to the antiquarian, The largest dead river is known as the Big Blue Lead, and has been traced from the Little Grizzly, in Sierra County, across Nevada County to Forest Hill, in Placer County, a distance of 65 miles. The course is southeast, the position about. 30 miles west of and parallel with the Little Grizzly and 2800 feet at Forest Hill, showing an average fall of 33 feet per mile, The live rivers of the Sierra Nevada run at right angles to the course of the range and have cut canyons from 1500 to 3000 feet in depth, and they are separated by ridges which are from three to six miles apart and are as high as the canyons are deep. The Blue Lead runs across the ranges from 200 to 3000 feet below their summits, The traveler does not see any signs of a dead river in these ridges, which are high and have the same general appearance at the Blue Lead as at other places, . In my own search for a glimmer of light upon this puzzling phenomenon I have consulted such authorities as were available to me, The professional geologists and engineers, of course, go much deeper and considerably more obscurely into the subject than do the general writers, including Hittel. _ The eminent engineer, Lindgren, who devoted much study to this region, in his exhaustive work, "The Tertiary Gravels of the Sierra Nevada," leads the reader through a maze of the four divisions of the Tertiary period—the Pliocene, the Miocene, the Oligocene, the Eocene, each representing ages of time but constituting scarcely a fraction of the five great ages into which geology is divided. The science of geology is variously described, One definition is: "Attempt to furnish the reason why the earth is what it is." Another: "Geology treats of the histroy of the world as recorded in rocks," The concept of geologic time also varies, It was reckoned by the ancients as without limits, by modern scientists, such as Thompson and Huxley, at from sixty million As these dead river channels are considered from the standpoint of geology and geologic time, the preponderant theory is that in some distant era the topography of the Sierra Nevada underwent violent change or changes whereby it was elevated far above its original height. Thus it was that Hittle asks and answers this question: "Why did the Big Blue die and leave nothing but its gravels and its gold to tell the story of its greatness?" His conclusion is -that the ‘main cause must have been the rise of the mountain range. To reflect upon a river, at least a half mile in width and carrying ten times the water flow of the Sacramento river,clinging to elevations three to five thousand feet above the level of an ocean only one hundred and fifty miles distant, is to know (in the opinion of Hittel) that the Sierra was upheaved. The terrific grade of thirty-three feet to the mile of that phantom river between the Little Grizzly and Forest Hill would, on the basis of present-day levels, compare with the five foot fall to the mile of modern Sacramento, the water course which lies parallel to and apparently succeeded the Big Blue. Intrudes another question: "Was the Big Blue the predecessor of any live stream?" Speculation on this point opens fantastic possibilities—the possibility that the Columbia river may have continued southward instead of turning abruptly westward to the Pacific at Oregon's north border. Of that possibility, the historian says: pe The Sacramento does not carry one-fourth of the water which ran down the Big Blue, probably not one-tenth. ff we — could. ascertain that the quantity of rain has not altered, then we would be justified in presuming that the Columbia river, . which would about fill the bed of the Big Blue, instead of turning westward at Walla Walla, originally continued southward until the lifting up of Shasta and Lassen and adjacent ridges ‘ stopped its course and compelled it to break through the Cascase Range. 4 Hittel adds this conclusion; "With our present limited knowledge, we are not justified in calling the Big Blue either the

Dead Sacramento or the Dead Columbia." It is of interest to recall that the theory has been advanced at times with considerable spirit that the Big Blue never was a river, that it was only a lacustrine or alluvial deposit. But miners who have delved into its grave will tell you that it has all of the attributes of a river which died and was suitably buried, It has a long course, a width nearly uniform, a channel approximately straight, some bends with eddies on the inner side. Moreover, it exhibits peculiar quartz material unlike any found in the neighboring ridges or in any of the streams to the eastward, water-worn gravel which must have been. carried far, flat stones pointing downstream as a strong current would have placed them, strata of coarse and fine gravel which must have been deposited in a stream, a uniform descending grade, and an immense quantity of gold which required ages to scatter By Edmu through a deposit up to 300 fe The Big Blue in place driftwood and trunks of tree tary streams of various size have abound along its entire ever characteristic of a rive once rolled its channel has di: Buried deep in the: bosor Nevada is the secret of how they died. The theory of » some particulars improbable the phenomenon of river cha range lengthwise. ~ Chapte THE GREA The recent discovery of r eastern slope of the mountain: soon being settled by a large g is exciting considerable: attenti with regard to the constructio Energetic measures are bein, constc ction of roads to: the should not be behind her sis the most practicable route to . (Graniteville) and that the 4 Virginiatown is only one bundr . and distances on this route have From Nevada to Ranch, 18 miles; Jackson's R; 6 miles; Summit to Drexel’ miles; Drexel's Ranch to Sj miles, ~NE The above account is the ti porary press of the inceptio, term the Great Highway, the Sacramento Valley and way po; The route was based on what , a highly favored crossing of been known from the earliest it previously had had but scant . of the Great Highway the vo} limited must be considered , mountain transportation. Coincident with the movem, a thoroughfare to the Washoe an Tet eee ete pte ae as =_——— Pat Se eer pens eee aoe o~ —— ="sS ; eel eit eat aera ~ =