340 



Sierra Club Bulletin 



Over Kearsarge Pass in 1864 



[Note: On October 12, 1917, at Independence, Cal., Guy C. Earl, W. H. Spauld- 

 ing and Chaffee E, Kail spent the evening with Thomas Keough, a boyhood friend 

 of Mr. Earl in Owen's Valley. Mr. Keough has lived in Owen's Valley since 1863, 

 and gave us some very interesting accounts of the early history of the valley, in- 

 cluding the following story of a prospecting tour through the Southern High Sierras.] 



On July 4, 1864, eleven of us started from Independence on a prospect- 

 ing trip through the Sierras. Our first task was to build a trail up Little 

 Pine Creek on the east cliff of the mountains. I have sometimes heard 

 it said that the trail over what is now called "Kearsarge Pass" is an old 

 Indian trail. The fact is, however, that our party built this trail in order 

 to get our animals up over the top of the Sierras. It might have been 

 possible for a man to work his way on foot up over this pass, but there 

 was no sign even of a foot-path until we built the trail in the summer of 

 1864 when we started on this prospecting tour. We called the pass 

 "Little Pine Pass," after Little Pine Creek, which heads near the pass. 

 It was a rough trail we built, but it sufficed for our purposes and we 

 got our animals up over it. In the party were John Bubbs, Tom Car- 

 roll, John Beveridge, Tom Hill, Henry Kettleston, Sullivan, Pugh and 

 myself, with three others whose names I cannot recall. When we got 

 up over the pass five decided to return, leaving six of us to go on. 



We went westerly down the South Fork of the King's River until the 

 cafion became impassable. In the cafion we met a number of scientists 

 headed by Professor Brewer. They named Mt. Brewer after him. Prof. 

 Brewer was trying to find a way across the mountains, and we told him 

 how to get into Owen's Valley over the pass by the trail we had just 

 built. 



We kept in the canon of the King's River to a point far west from 

 where a large tributary flows in from the south. This tributary is called 

 "Bubbs Creek." It was named for John Bubbs, who was one of our 

 party. He was a cattle man and, afterwards, made his home in Visalia. 



When the canon of the King's River became impassable, we crossed 

 the river and struck up the south wall of the caiion into the meadows, 

 where we came across those mammoth trees — now called the Sequoias. 

 I have no doubt those are the trees in what is now called the General 

 Grant Park. We went around the trees and examined them, but made 

 no marks on them. I have read an account of how these trees were 

 "discovered" later and how one of them was called "General Grant,"* 

 but this discovery occurred a number of years after our journey. From 

 the plateau where we found these trees we traveled west until we came 

 down into the valley where we found some placer miners. They were 



[Note: In Prof. Brewer's party was Clarence King, whose "Ascent of Mt. Tyn- 

 dall" described in thrilling fashion some of the experiences of the Brewer party on 

 their explorations during this summer of 1864. Prof. Brewer in his account of the 

 trip says: "A day and a half was required to make the distance of twelve miles 

 which lay between Camp 179, in the south fork canon, and the summit of the Sierra; 

 although the labor of crossing was much facilitated by the fact that a party of pros- 

 pectors had crossed here not long before and had done a good deal toward making 

 a passable trail." California Geological Survey. Vol. I. Geology, p. 394-] 



* These trees were not, however, discovered by Mr. Keough's party. They were 

 known some years before this date. — J. N. Le C. 



