STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 253 



ALPINE COUNTY. 



S. A. Hawkins County Assessor. 



I. N. HoAG, Esq., 



Secretary State Board of Agriculture : 



Sir: — Annexed please find a certified copy of my assessment roll for 

 eighteen hundred and sixty-five, containing the statistics of Alpine County 

 as requested by the Board. 



I regret that the report is so incomplete, but it should be borne in mind 

 that this is almost exclusively a mining count}', and that it is only two 

 years since its independent organization. The recent date of the mineral 

 discoveries within the limits of the county, and the very limited amount 

 of agricultural development Mdiich has followed, leaves me destitute of 

 any data, authentic or otherwise, for comparison, thus adding to the diffi- 

 culty of furnishing you with a report as reliable as 1 could wish. 



Thus far the agriculture of the county may justly be termed almost 

 pni-ely experimental, except the production of hay and potatoes, both of 

 which are crops of ascertained certainty and value. The "J^uccessful cul- 

 tivation of the small grains remains as yet problematical to some degree, 

 but the result of the experimental culture of the year will probably induce 

 largely extended effort in the coming season, and enable my successor to 

 inform you with greater certainty of the adajitation of the level portion 

 of the county to such pursuits. The small number of acres reported as 

 under cultivation, will show you that only surmise can, for tlie j^i'esent, 

 be indulged. 



The territory embraced within the limits of the county lies almost 

 entirely in close proximity to the summit of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, 

 at an average elevation of seven thousand feet above the level of the sea. 

 Silver Mountain Peak, eleven thousand feet high, finds itself eclipsed by 

 Mount Whitney, some five miles south, which is tliirtcen thousand feet 

 high. In addition to the two mentioned, there are a number of ])eaks 

 reaching an altitude of from eight thousand to ten thousand feet, and 

 with a rare appreciation of fitness, the county on its organization received 

 the name of "Alpine." 



Within its limits are found the sources of the Stanislaus and Mokelumne, 

 flowing westward, and of the Carson and Walker liivers, flowing east- 

 ward. A number of small but beautiful lakes are interspersed among 

 the mountains, and almost every range afiPords a iieavy belt of timber, 

 large, and of good quality, the principal varieties being ])itch pine and 

 hackmatack. After the melting of the snows, excellent pasturage abounds 

 on the mountain sides, and in the small valleys and flats along the ditfer- 

 ont streams. 



Traversing the county from north to south are two distinct series of 

 silver-bearing quartz lodes, and a number of copper lodes. The first 

 discovery of these lodes was made by a ]>arty passing through the pres- 

 ent site of the Town of Silver Mountain, late in the fall of eighteen hun- 

 dred and sixty; but the first location for mining purposes was made in 

 the spring of eighteen hundred and sixty-one. The assays made from 

 the cro|)pings of several of the ledges showed so favorably as to induce 

 continued pi'ospecting. During the three following years a large num- 

 ber of ledges were located, and the area com]Drising the present county 

 was divided, in the progress of discovery, into ten districts, as follows: 



