page_title: Kings River (California)
section_title: Early history
hierarchical_section_title: Kings River (California) / Early history
caption_attribution_description: Kings Canyon National Park - Kings Canyon from near Junction View
context_page_description: The Kings River is a 132.9-mile river draining the Sierra Nevada mountain range in central California in the United States. Its headwaters originate along the Sierra Crest in and around Kings Canyon National Park and form the eponymous Kings Canyon, one of the deepest river gorges in North America. The river is impounded in Pine Flat Lake before flowing into the San Joaquin Valley southeast of Fresno. With its upper and middle course in Fresno County, the Kings River diverges into multiple branches in Kings County, with some water flowing south to the old Tulare Lake bed and the rest flowing north to the San Joaquin River. However, most of the water is consumed for irrigation well upstream of either point.
  Inhabited for thousands of years by the Yokuts and other native groups, the Kings River basin once fed a vast network of seasonal wetlands around Tulare Lake that supported millions of waterfowl, fish, and game animals, in turn providing sustenance for indigenous peoples. Tulare Lake was once the largest freshwater lake in the western U.S., at the middle of an endorheic basin also fed by the Kaweah, Tule and Kern Rivers.
context_section_description: At the time of first European contact, at least 5,000, but possibly as many as 15,000–20,000 Native Americans lived along the lower Kings River and its many branches in the Central Valley. The Kings River watershed is traditional Yokuts territory; the Kings River dialects of the Yokutsan language were divided among the Choynimni, who lived along about 10 miles (16 km) of the Kings River between present-day Piedra and Sanger; the Chukaymina along the Mill Creek tributary, and the Michahay further south. At least two other dialects, the Aiticha and the Toyhicha, were spoken further downstream on the Kings, but these groups have not been well documented.
  The Yokuts mainly lived along the Kings River below the foothills and along the marshy fringes of Tulare Lake. The extensive oak forests in the Kings River riparian zone provided acorns, their main source of food. Wetlands provided them with abundant fish, waterfowl, fur-bearing animals including beaver and river otter, and edible roots. Tule rushes provided material for roofing their pit houses and building rafts and canoes, the main form of transport in the often flooded low country. The Yokuts traded with Paiute peoples (the Mono) in the Great Basin to the east, via various trails across the Sierra Nevada, one of which may have been via Kearsarge Pass at the eastern end of Kings Canyon. About 500 years ago, some of the Mono migrated west, settling in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada above Yokuts territory, where they eventually formed a distinct subgroup known as the Western Mono.
  The first recorded Spanish explorers to see the Kings River were the members of Gabriel Moraga's expedition, which camped along the river on January 6, 1806, the day of the Epiphany. Thus, they named the river El Rio de los Santos Reyes ("River of the Holy Kings"), later shortened to Rio Reyes, Rio de los Reyes or other variations thereof. Father Pedro Muñoz, a member of the 1806 expedition, wrote: "All the meadows are well covered with oak, alder, cottonwood and willow. The river abounds with beaver and fish. It is a location suitable for a mission, although there would also have to be a presidio." Extending the California mission system inland was a major goal of the Spanish Empire in the 1800s. However, no missions were ever established along the Kings River or elsewhere in the Central Valley.
  Jedediah Smith was the first American explorer to see the Kings River, encountering it during a fur trapping expedition in 1827. John C. Fremont's expedition in 1844 attempted to find a route over the Sierra Nevada via the Kings River, but were forced to turn back by deep snows and difficult terrain. Fourteen years later a party led by J.H. Johnson successfully crossed Kearsarge Pass – the route Fremont had failed to find – becoming the first known non-Native Americans to do so. Early maps from this era label the Kings River under a variety of names. Smith recorded the river as the Kimmel-che or Wimmel-che after "Indians of that name who reside on it", likely a Yokuts clan or village along the lower part of the river. Fremont called it River of the Lake or Lake Fork, as it was the largest stream flowing into Tulare Lake. Some older maps label it King's River, translated from the original Spanish name. By 1852, the name Kings River was in common use.
  After California became a U.S. state in 1850, the upper Kings River watershed was used intermittently by stockmen, prospectors and loggers, and the lower watershed was used mainly for cattle and sheep ranching. Scottsburg, one of the first American towns on the Kings River, was founded in 1854. Destroyed twice by flooding, it was reestablished as today's Centerville in 1867. Smith's Ferry, established by James Smith in 1855, was one of several ferries established on the Kings River for travelers on the Stockton-Los Angeles Road and since it was the only one accessible during high water, remained the most important crossing of the Kings River for almost twenty years. After the Kern River gold rush of 1853,  settlers arrived in large numbers to Tulare Count
caption: View of the Middle and South Fork confluence from Junction View
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