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I was casting about the internet for loose if not free information through
the vast University of Texas site and discovered a Beckwourth site devoted
to the stories of James Beckwourth which includes a segment on the
Beckwourth Trail and some links of which only 1 is still alive:
According to the site's webmaster:
James Beckwourth discovered what is now known as Beckwourth Pass in the
spring of 1850, and immediately set about establishing a trail to
Marysville. He worked on the trail in the summer and fall of 1850 and the
spring of 1851, and in the late summer of that year led the first wagon
train of settlers along the trail into Marysville.
The Beckwourth Trail was used heavily until about 1855, when the railroad
supplanted the wagon train as the preferred method of travelling to California
[ I must admit that I am surprised to learn that the railroad supplanted
the wagon in 1855 for crossing the Sierra ;-) ]
Discovery of the Beckwourth Trail
Early in 1850, Jim Beckwourth was on a prospecting expedition in northern
California. He and his companions had travelled north from American Valley
(now Quincy) to the Pitt River. Nothing much came of the trip, except that
Beckwourth saw a pass through the mountains "far away to the southward that
seemed lower than any other." He kept quiet about it at the time, but
decided to return later.
After a short stay at American Valley, Beckwourth once again set out with a
few companions. "We proceeded in an easterly direction, and all busied
themselves in searching for gold; but my errand was of a different
character: I had come to discover what I suspected to be a pass." (p.515)
Beckwourth waxes poetic about the beautiful valley he found, and, a few
miles to the east, the low elevation pass through the rugged Sierra Nevada
mountains. He saw immediately that this "would afford the best wagon-road
into the American Valley approaching from the eastward..."
and then the links:
Living Large in the West: The
Beckwourth Trail = dead link
Excellent article from Sunset Magazine about the Beckwourth Trail and the
couple (Andrew and Joanne Hammond) who spent five years tracing and
remapping its route. The parent site,
http://www.over-land.com/contains a lot of other great
information about western expansion.
The The Beckwourth Trail
Plumas National Forest page describing the Beckwourth Trail and his ranch,
with some biographical information, credits OCTA with assistance.
Unfortunately, a link that promised much local information is dead. It
connected to a small-town newspaper that apparently carried a series of
historical articles.
Stafford
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