The San Francisco call., 1895-12-15


"In those days there were giants in the
land mighty men of old that
were of power and renown."
Ell Doradoi classic, stsried, dulcet Ell
Dorado; name that meant fortune, glory.
audacity and manly daring for centuries
to the cavaliers of Spain, and even the
buccaneers of England. 1t is, even to this
day, word of romance the wide world
over, and, on Spanish lips, the sweetest
sounding word that can be uttered And
right here permit protest to be fled
against our coarse and mushy mouthing
OF the soft and alliterative names that are
no mean intention. The very name OF
this State is poetry and song on Spanish
lips and could and should be music on our
own if we only would have it So El Do
rado is not only one of the charter counties
OF this mighty commonwealth, with its one
Golden Gate open to the Orient, but she is
the mother of all the mines and mountain
counties up and down the land. For it
was in her great, warm, rich heart, right
in the heart OF her heart, that gold was
first discovered.
Fremont and Kit Carson left bleeding
footprints here long before the days Of
gold In fact Ell Dorado, it would SEEM
was always Ell Dorado-the heart of gold,
the heart of California, as she must forever
remain.
And now let me cite fact not published.
Fremont has been derided, this soldier,
Senator, settler and cavalier, for not hav-
ing found gold before Marshall found it !;
but it is a fact that he led directly to the
finding of it by Marshall. More than forty
rhoI
book from a shelf in his cabin and read me
the following from Fremont's report to the
Government:
y February 23-This was our most difficult
day. We were enforced off the ridges by the
quantity of snow among the timber, and
obliged TO take to the mountain sides, where,
occasionally, rocks and a southern exposure
afforded US a chance to scramble along; but
these were steep and slippery with snow
and ice, and the tough evergreens of the
mountain 1mpeded our way, tore our skin
and exhausted our patience. Going ahead
with Carson to reconnoiter the road, we
reached, in the afternoon, the river which
made an outlet OF the lake. Carson sprang
over, clear across place Where the stream was
compressed among rocks, put the partieche
sole OF my moccasin glanced from the icy
rock and pTecipitated me into the river. 1t
was some few seconds before l could recover
myself in the current, and Carson, thinking
me hurt, jumped in after me, and we both had
an icy bath. We tried to search awhile for my
gun. which had been lost in the fail, but the
cold drove US out We afterward found that
the gun had been slung under the ice which
lined the banks of the creek. The
forest was imposing to-day in the magnifcence
OF its trees some of the pines, bearing large
cones, were ten feet in diameter. Cedars also
abOuuded, and we measured one twenty-eight I
and half feet in circumference four feet from
the ground (redwoodSl. Here this noble tree
seemed 10 be in its proper soil and climate.
We found it on both sides of the Sierra, but
most abundant on the west.
ooroa mn bora 70 looIy tbotca
trees of Fremont's," said Marshall. as he
closed the book with a bang. 81 found
them, began to build the mill to make
them into lum Der, and that is the way
We came to find gold away up in the heart
of old El Dorado"
You must know Marshall had not been
Iona from, Oregon. only a year or so. and
OF course knew nothing about the Califor-
MIA Sierras except what he gathered from
the official reports of Fremont. l am not
eager to intrude my opinions, but [ can't
help saving that 1T looks as if Fremont
had quite as much to do with leading up
to the discovery that led up to the victori-
ous results of our great Civil War as Cap
tain Sutter; even more, for if Sutter had
not helped Marshall, the millwright, to
find the big redwoods out of which to
fashion lumber for the vast treeless valleys,
some one else would surely have done so,
and soon; for the city builders, the world
builders, the blue-eyed people, were arriv
ing, arriving, and they must have lumber
to build with.
To the right and to the left, up the
river to the everlasting snow, down the
river to and into the very corntields of the
great Sacramento Valley the infiowing
people passed like ceaseless torrent,
till Ell Dorado was not only denuded of
her noble forests, but literally laid bare to
the bone. Never was seen such ceaseless