Daily national Democrat., 1858-10-09
Goose Lake and Head of Pitt River.


Goose Lake and Head OF Pitt River.
correspondent of the Shasta Republican
says:
Ihardlv ever stand on the banks of the
Sacramento river, opposite Shasta, and gaze
into the limpid waters, as they flow swiftly
onward toward the sea, without thinking Of
the place, away in the mountains, where
these waters take their rise. Memory calls
to mind the broad lake-its surface undis
turbed by a ripple; on the east is the pine
clad slope of the main ridge OF the Sierra, at
this point low and known as Plumb Hill ; on
the west and north, are high, precipitous and
barren mountains, rising abruptly from its
shores, and casting their dark shadows over
the waters of the lake. Of all the mountain
more firmly daguerreotyped on memory's
tablet than this wild and romantic lake
known when / saw it august 4, lS49) as
Goose Lake, and SO known to all the thous.
ands of weary pilgrims who, then and in af
ter years, crossed the Sierra Nevada at the
low pass directly opposite it, and wound
their way to the South along its shores, and
across the plains and marshes at the southern
end Here its waters flow over. gathering
into one stream, and form what was then
known by every one to be the head of Pitt
river, and | think SO designated on the old
maps.
Mr.. Yount, a widely known and respected
citizen of Napa Valley, and who has resided
there for more than twenty years, claims to
have explored the country about the head OF
Pitt river about twenty-five years ago.
Eight years since, heard from his lips de
scription of it, as he then saw it, that CORE
ponded entirely with the writer's own OBJ
servations.
l believe that Col. Applegate, of Oregon,
was the tirstto take train of wagons through
from the bend of the Humboldt river. pass.
ing through the remarkable canon known by
his name, crossing the main ridge of the Ser.
ra oppo ite Goose Lake, and thence opening
road northward to Oregon.
Peter Lassen came the route as far as Goose
Lake, and to him, and the men with him, be-
long the credit ofopening the first wagon road
fro Goose Lake southwark down the valley
OF Pitt river ar far as the Big Canyon, and
thence to the Sacramento valley, viG Feather
River Meadows and Dear Creek 1t took the
labor of many weeks for these early pioneers
to cut their way through the great pine for
est, between the Pitt and the head of Feath
er river. Hundreds of the old settlers OF
California had, long before gold was discov-
cred, seen Goose lake and the head of Pitt
river, and their difficulties and hardships in
opening roads through the country, are mat
ters of history, and the subject of household
tales around the hearthstones of many a pio-
neer in California and Oregon.
Thus, along the shores of Goose Lake and
down the val!ey of Pitt river, lay one of the
first great einigrant roads from the States, as
also the first wagon road ever opened from
Oregon to California. In the great rush of
population for California, in 40, though the
larger portion took the Carson and Truckee
routes, at least five thousand people came in
on the Lassen road. At least FIVE thousand
weary pilgrims, eager to behold the golden
land, came pouring over the Lassen Pass, and
the first thing they saw from its heights was
Goose Lake. They drank its waters and, as
they journeyed down Pitt river, prospected
its sands for gold, and pastured their almost
famished teams and herds on the green and
bountiful m aadows that lay along its banks
Goose Lake lies about northeast from Shas-
ia, and Pitt river, flowing from it, runs in a
south westerly direction. For MANY days
travel from its head it has but little fall, and
the stream is sluggish. The valley of the
river is, i'll most places, wide, ard generally
of a rocky, sterile character; though there
are occasional broad bottoms of fertile lands,
meadows and tues. Strata of chalk, both
white and cOlored, show themselves along the
banks of the river, in many places worn by
the storms and eddying waters into all cas-
telated shapes, images, and fantastic forms of
surprising beauty
Any one claiming to be the discoverer of
the head of Pitt river, and its connection with
Goose Lake, at this late day, must be strange
ly blind to that great emigrant road, worn
so wide and deep by the oot-prints of all the
thousands of men and women, and their wa
gons and animals, who have gone before him,
that the grass could hardly grow over it for
century to come