Approaching Carson Pass from the Nevada side there is a breath-taking shudder of daunting mountains decorated by a clear meandering stream, a few behemoth gnarled sierra juniper point the way as you climb and several snaking lines of aspens demand your attention. On your left, just before you reach the pass, is Red Lake, an Alpine fishing treasure at 8200 feet. Highway 88 is the secret way to Tahoe and the last feed-line to close at the peak of ski season. It follows a path originally carved by John Charles Fremont in 1844. He was a topographical engineer and a lieutenant in the Army Corp of Engineers. He hired Kit Carson as a guide to find a way through the impassable mountains to meet up with the Buena Ventura River (the old name for the Sacramento) that supposedly flowed to the sea. He is considered the first white man to cross Alpine county.
Sometimes it is the familiar that reveals the unknown. This weekend I was bumming around the Sierras, looking for (among other things) rumors of beaver above 1000 feet prior to 1940. I picked up a lovely book by June Wood Somerville about the history of the road that became 88, including carson pass, kirkwood, silver lake and beyond. June had clearly immersed himself in every possible history of the area, and gathered them together in a friendly unique book telling stories from the perspective of the road. Here’s what got my attention:
“It was winter and the Washo were hunting golden beaver, martin and snowshoe rabbits…One of their destinations was a frozen stream at the south shore of Red lake. there was always a beaver dam. It was a maze of cut aspen sticks and brush packed tightly with mud. It rose a foot above the icy water. Stumps stood nearby almost covered in snow. In the late summer and fall, the animals chewed at the trees until they fell, pushed them into the lake and floated them towards their dam sites. Beavers were only hunted in winter when their pelts were in-the-prime.”
June Wood Somerville: Legend of a Road
Beavers at 8200 feet in the 1800’s!!!!!!!!!!!! Of course prior to Fremont, the Washo Indians roamed the area, and made use of the land. Washo trapping beaver is a game over for beaver being native to Tahoe and the sierras. (Hear that Kings Beach?) I spent some time with the Amador County library and found an account of a father who trapped beaver as a boy in 1905 sutter creek. Also that the currency of the mountains were beaver pelts. A fellow beaver-storian is contacting the author today to pinpoint original sources. These photos were taken a few years back on one of my many October explorations of the area. Now it is almost a custom to drive through and wish we could bring some aspen back for our beavers. Enjoy the fall colors and marvel with me that the place I canoed and cross country skied a hundred times may turn out to hold the answers to our beaver historic prevalence dilemmas.
Update:
Conversation with June reveals the author “imagined” Washo trapping beaver there, no references for their historic presence. Sigh. The search continues….
