Fremont weekly freeman. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio) 1850-1853, 1850-12-07
NUMBER 80.
The Lake Of California.

AN INDIAN TRADIT1oN.-The aborigines of
California, like those of every other portion
of America, have long been fading away be-
fore the progressive march of civilization, or
mixing with the Spaniards who conquered
them two centuries ago, have lost their ideni-
ty as aborigines. Like their Eastern breth-
ren they are leaving their ancient hunting
grounds, the homes and sepulchres of their
father, and wandering they hardly know
where, while the white man, as by some right
divine, takes and calls their lands his own
But still they have their legends and their
/ traditions, and even now they gather around
their broken council fres-a mockery of pal
mier days-and tell, the father to their sons,
| the tales of former times, which their forefath-
ers had told to them.
Among the traditions current among them
is the following, which is certainly full of in
terest. They relate that where the bay of
San Francisco now is was formly a great lake,
longer, and broader and deeper than the bay.
According to their accounts, this lake was more
than three hundred miles in length, with no
outlet to the ocean except in the rainy season
when it would overflow its banks, and small
stream would flow to the ocean, thirty miles
South of the present outlet to the bay.
The ridge of hills along the coast wa then
unbroken,and served as a dyke to prevent the
waters of the lake from escaping to the ocean.
The level of the lake was many feet above
that of the ocean, and its waters extended for
up what is now known as the Sacramento
valley, and Southwark covering the valley of
the San Joaquin.
On the banks of this lake. centuries ago,
populous tribes of Indians dwelt whose villages
lined its shores. Indeed, if credence is to be
given to the tales of the Indians, the popula-
ton of California will never equal those ancient
days, when the red men fshed in the fresh
waters ofthe lake, and hunted their deer un-
disturbed through the forest
The hills along the coast are formed of soft
sandstone, and through this, the tradition re-
lates, the water began to make a breach,
which yearly grew wider, until it burst through
and among the hills with tremendous power,
leaving steep cliffs and precipices to mark its
way. And what was once a lake several
hundreds miles in length is now a bay not
forty miles long This may have been the
cause for such change, but it would seem
far more reasonable to attribute it to some
volcanic commotion which in those days might
have been as prevalent there as they are now
in Mexico and Central America.
How far this tradition can be corroborated,
must be determined by those who have means,
But no one who has seen the steep bluffs
around San Francisco, or has passed the sin
gular entrance of the bay, called the Golden
Gate, with its perpendicular wall or has seen
the no less singular bluffs of Raccoon Straits
a few miles north of San Francisco, can for a
moment doubt that they were formed by some
powerful agency, either FIRE or water.
On hills around San Francisco, fresh water
shells are found, and the small island of Yer
ba Buena, which lies directly opposite the town
rising out of the bay at least one hundred
feet, is completely covered with sheels, which
facts 60 far prove the truth of the tradition
which has no doubt been handed down from
former generations, as marking an era no less
important in Indian tradition than the deluge
is in sacred history. This event may have
taken place thousand years, or even
twenty centuries ago, as the tradition affords
no date as te when it occurred. It's sub
ject well worthy of study, and whicn may
throw some light as to the origin of
the gold dust, and the manner of its distribu-
ton over SO large tract of country.