The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1897-02-04
WITH THE HUMBOLDT TRAPPERS
BY CHAS II. SHiNS.

The Humboldt country is heavil,
timbered region something more thar
two hundred miles north of Sa,
Francisco Bay. It is entirely off tn
line of any railroad and IS only reachet
by coast line steamers or by stag
from Ukiah, Redding or Southern Ore
gOn. 1t has magnificent forests, opel
glades and prairies, extensive marsl
islands, great rivers and high noun
tains Game of every kind known il
Northern California is especially abun
dant, and there is 10 district of tht
Pacific Coast that offers greater in
ducements to the sportsman. The
Adirondacks, much as they were /;
half century ago, but on a very mucl
larger scale, can be found here in the
Humboldt back country" Here. too
is the district where the last of the ia
nous trappers and hunters of the
West have made their homes and are
waiting for the. end. They have
tramped westward all the way from
the PecOs and the Missouri; they
fought with long forgotten tribes OF
Indians on the plains and in the Rock
les; they trapped beaver in the valley
of the Sacramento before it held al
American settlement; they were the
pathmakers whose footsteps were fol
lowed by Bidwell, Reading and Ere
mont. They were boys with the ia
nous trapping expeditions of the ear
ly years of the century, and their her
SJ1nh I n,,1 ~, l.
Nrsin, Kit Carson, "old man" Bridger
and the Ashleys They belong to au
older and greater group of frontiers
men than the Buffalo Bills.
Here are some brief chapters of ear
ly exploration. About 1920 California
was first reached by wandering trap.
pers. In 1923 the Ashleys, with their
comrades, hunted on the Merced Sta
nlslaus and Tuolumne. In 1925 Je
dediah Smith, with forty trappers, ex
plOred the whole San Joaquin and Sa
cramento region. In 1880 the Ewing
Young party trapped in the same dis
tricts and over much of the Northern
California coast. In 1882 Michael La
Framboise, with a number of Hudson
Bay trappers, spent year IN Northern
California; that company for ten years
or more kept about fifty trappers at
work within the present limits of the
state. Many of the early trappers,
entering California from the south,
settled down in the Spanish settle
ments, married well and became large
land owners. The Northern trainers
gave their names to rivers and noun
talns aud gradually sought shelter in
the widest part of the Coast Range.
They rarely or never went to the
miney," settled in the rich valleys or
helped to found cities. Some of them
married Indian wives; others found
helpmates among the early Missourian
immigrants to California. Those of
them that still remain live in rugged
old age on small mountain ranches"
miles removed from the towns, in what
is still the heart of the wilderness, and
mnst SO remain for many years to
come.
Only few wears ago Stephen Hall
Meek was still living on Scott Creek,
north of Humboldt, in the Siskiyou
country, but within the same timbered
and wild district. Meek was with a
party OF trappers that first visited Ca
fornia in 1888 and wintered On Tulare
Lake.
| think that Meek is still alive, one
of the oldest of the whole group of
trapper5. He was born in 1907 in
Washington county. Virginia, and was
l believe, cousin Of President Polk.
He was with Captain Bonneville and
joined the Walker expedition that dis
covered Truckee, Carson and Walker
rivers. His whole career is full of
the free picturesque elements; he and
his rifle belong together in the front
with wild nature. Like Bridger, he
only once or twice visited a city, and
highly disapproved of civilization and
them deep city canons" in which he
invariably managed to get lost
The horseback trail west from June
ton City on the Trinity river leads
presently into the wild country that
the old trappers love. l say the
horseback trail, for there is no wagon
road for thirty miles or more, and
when You again reach settlements the
roads are barely passable until YOU
come to the rich valleys end farm
lands or to the logging camps. which
ueed good highways for hauling their
supplies. But in the region of horse
back trails you will occasionally come
across an old man with his pack mule
and rifle. slowly climbing some steep
pine covered ridge. You can see at a
glance that he is no prospector nor
cattle man nor even sheep herder
moving TO another district. All these
have pots and pans, weighty luggage
and various impedimenta. The old
trapper has only blankets, match box.
pipe and rifle. He will I've in the
woods for months, and go back to his
cabin with a mule load of dried veni
son. He never needlessly destroys
game; the instincts of true sports
man are his, and if he saw city dude
aiming at doe with fawns he would
probably break the dudes gun across
a pine stump and order him to .'git
back to San Francisco" Though he
is all hunter now, he is somethig more
besides; the long years of his trappe1
training have given him close and
accurate knowledge of the ways of ma
ny birds and beasts that ordinary hun
ters think beneath their notice. Fol-
this reason, If no other, the best DOS
sible guide over the vast Mendocino
Humboldt, Trinity and Siskiyou noun
tain land is an old trapper. His bea
yer traps that were set in the Snak,
and Shoshone in the midst of savage
foes in days of old now lie rusting. for.
gotten in the gulch by his cabin, but
that perfect training of every sense
that came from those years of out
door life still remain the marvel O
young men.
hardly know how to describe tn,
fullness and variety of nature know
ledge that one finds in these trappers
Let a simple illustration suffice. 4
friend of NINE once collected butter