110 



YOSEMITE NATURE NOTES 



the nuggets had become scarce and the 

 white men moved on but the patient 

 Chinese came in, some to make fortunes 

 in gold dust. By 1880 the finds were 

 over but the town was established. 



GENERAL BOX COMPANY SAW- 

 MILL — As you enter Oakhurst you will 

 see the sawmill owned and operated by 

 the General Box Company, a subsidiary 

 of the American Box and Lumber 

 Company. Here is produced lumber from 

 trees taken within a 30-mile radius. The 

 better lumber is dried and sold as build- 

 ing lumber while the poor part of the 

 tree is made into "shook," the material 

 used for making fruit boxes. This saw- 

 mill produces about 12 million board 

 feet of lumber annually. 



(7.5 miles from Coarsegold) 



OAKHURST— This little community 

 in the mountains near the head of the 

 Fresno River was originally known as 

 Fresno Flats. In 1882 it was reported 

 to be a thriving camp with farming, 

 mining, lumbering and stock raising as 

 principal industries. At that time discov- 

 ery of a quartz mine seemed to give 

 promise of local prosperity. Apparently 

 little came of it and an undesirable ele- 

 ment moved gradually into Fresno Flats 

 and brought it ill-repute. Wishing to do 

 away with this unfavorable past, citi- 

 zens about 1914 changed the name to 

 Oakhurst. 



OLD LUMBER OPERATIONS —In 



1874 the California Lumber Company 

 operated in the Oakhurst area. Railroads 

 were built to get logs to the sawmill but 

 the problem of getting the lumber from 

 the mill to the San Joaquin Valley was 

 great. As a result the 6 5 -mile Madera 

 flume was built and the City of Madera 

 was founded at the flume terminal in 

 the San Joaquin Valley. The Madera 

 Sugar Pine Company purchased the op- 

 eration in 1900 and continued in busi- 

 ness until 1932 when the low price of 

 lumber made it necessary to abandon 

 the project. 



(5.4 miles) 



SIERRA NATIONAL FOREST — 



Read description on page 106. 



(5.7 miles) 



WESTFALL RANGER STATION— 



Westfall Ranger Station in Sierra Na- 

 tional Forest is operated by the Forest 

 Service of the U. S. Department of Ag- 

 riculture. Its main purpose is fire and 

 insect control and timber improvement. 

 A laboratory of the U. S. Bureau of En- 

 tomology and Plant Quarantine is also 

 located here to study effects and con- 

 trol of forest insects. The suppression 

 of forest fires in this area of well over 

 one million acres is a cooperative project 

 between the State of California, the U. 

 S. Forest Service, and the National Park 

 Service. The station was originally Mi- 

 ami Ranger Station but was changed 

 about 1940 to Westfall in honor of one 

 of the first forest ranger in this area. 



(4.2 miles) 



YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK — 



From this point follow the guide for the 

 Wawona Road (in reverse) on page 82, 

 or, turning to the right at the Entrance 

 Station (0.8 miles from park bound- 

 ary) , use the guide for Mariposa Grove 

 of Giant Sequoias on page 83. 



California Wildcat 



