Emigrant Trail

[kpeter]

I've noticed many references to the old Emigrant trail that ran through its namesake wilderness--a trail that would be 170 years old by now. Sierra North, for example, mentions that the trail along Summit Creek is part of the old trail. I presume the old trail went over Brown Bear Pass and into Emigrant Meadow, then presumably it is what is labeled the "Emigrant Pass Trail" that goes down the West Fork of the Walker River all the way to Leavitt Meadows. But this is conjecture on my part, nor do I have even conjecture as to where it went west from Summit Creek.

Are there any good maps that show precisely where this historic trail went? I would love to know what I am looking at while I amble around the region beginning later this week. The wilderness seems aptly named, but I'd like to appreciate its history while I am there.

[kpeter]

I found this 1991 MA thesis from San Jose State which is quite interesting, free for download on Scholarworks. I was surprised to see I know one of its supervisors:

The development of the Sonora and Mono Wagon Road
David Harmon Johnson
San Jose State University

Just Google the title and you can download the pdf. It has wonderful descriptions but the maps leave much to be desired. The route came from Leavitt Meadows to Fremont Lake before heading up and over. To get around Fremont lake, they had to dig a ditch and drain it a few feet.

The Emigrant Pass Trail was first used 1852 as an alternative to the Carson Pass Trail.

Also found this that clarifies much:

http://www.sonorapassvacations.com/acti ... html#trail

The trail comes down Burst Rock and then Dodge Ridge into what is today Pinecrest, then called Strawberry Camp Ranch.

Relief Valley was a prominent stop on the route, named for a relief expedition.

The approximate route seems to be (from East to West)
1. Leavitt Meadow
2. Fremont Lake
3. Walker Meadows
4. W Fork Walker River

5. Emigrant Pass (BUT NOTE Johnson's thesis: "The Emigrant Pass indicated on the Tower Peak Quadrangle of the US Geological Survey Map is incorrect. The emigrants crossed the summit one mile further north, a half mile northeast of High Emigrant Lake." )

6. Emigrant Meadow Lake
7. Brown Bear Pass
8. Summit Creek: (The Summit Creek gorge was the main reason they decided to abandon the route and build the road over today's Sonora Pass.)
9. Relief Creek/Relief Valley
10. Burst Rock
11. Gianelli Cabin (not named this at the time--the cabin was from the early 1900s)
12. Dodge Ridge. The route followed ridges since they were less forested.
13. Strawberry Camp Ranch (Pinecrest)

From Pinecrest there was an established route to Sonora called the Ice Road. It does not follow the present highway but split the difference between the South Fork of the Stanislaus and the North Fork of the Tuolumne.

Not sure if any of the present hiking trails follow the exact wagon trail or not. Would be interesting to know.

2,375 emigrants used this route in 1853, many with cattle. However, better routes with lesser grades were soon established and by 1854 this route was not much used again. It was basically a 2-year thing for emigrants. Mule trains continued over this route for years to supply miners on the eastern slopes. The main competition was a Placerville--Carson route through the Tahoe area. Eventually the county's main route was built where 108 currently goes--and it was never very successful. The route was finished just as gold mining collapsed.

The emigrants regarded the stretch from Fremont Lake to Relief Camp to be the most difficult part of the journey--and this is the heart of today's wilderness!

[Harlen]

Great research project Peter. I read through the link you provided, and see that hiking past Kennedy Lake should put us in view of one of the nice looking log cabins-- the "Kennedy Lake Cabin." Do you intend to create a map of the Old Emigrant Trail? Where is "Summit Creek?" My vision of these areas is still foggy after the Leavitt Meadow to Emigrant Meadow Lake section. Thanks a lot for this interesting piece of Sierra history, Ian.

[Harlen]

Okay, now I see the prospective route. I got on our own HST map, and found Summit Cr. on the west side of Brown Bear Pass. Do suppose it then traveled down the Stanislaus Canyon to Pinecrest? Hard to imagine loaded wagons in that country- I'll bet it was a struggle.

[kpeter]

Okay, now I see the prospective route. I got on our own HST map, and found Summit Cr. on the west side of Brown Bear Pass. Do suppose it then traveled down the Stanislaus Canyon to Pinecrest? Hard to imagine loaded wagons in that country- I'll bet it was a struggle.

The Summit Creek gorge was apparently one of the worst sections and a reason they looked for an alternate route. The grades were too steep and the corners too narrow for the wagons. From the descriptions, the wagons continued down Summit Creek until they got to the confluence with Relief Creek, then up Relief Creek and then over to Burst Rock. I can't find much about the route from Relief Valley to Burst Rock--but they did not go down the river. These early trails preferred unforested ridges to brushy and forested river valleys until after settlement cleared the valleys.

One difficult section was getting the wagons down from Saucer Meadow, where they describe a 500 foot rope line. Wagons were frequently unloaded and lowered on ropes when the grades got too steep. One of the reasons they traveled in "trains" was so they could pool resources like rope, block and tackle, and multiple teams of animals in order to negotiate these rough spots. A single wagon could never do it on its own.

In order to avoid Brown Bear Pass and the whole Summit Creek route, one surveyor proposed going from Emigrant Meadow Lake to the shores of Emigrant Lake and then west, but I am not sure where they would have gone after leaving the lake there. The route was rejected.

Apparently the most notorious stretch was just getting up to Fremont Lake. It does not look too bad on the map compared with other places--it is an 1100 foot climb from Leavitt Meadows over about 3 miles. But as the first major uphill stretch on the trail, that is where dozens of wagons were abandoned--the debris left behind and bones from dead stock were visible in this area for many years. Archaologists probably could still have a "field day" there.

The whole route was bypassed when the new road--following existing highway 108--was opened after the Civil War. But that route was not profitable since the mines in the eastern Sierra started to dry up about the time they finished the road, and there were times when it was nearly abandoned or reduced to a single track. It was only when the State of California took over the road in 1901 and they geared up to build Relief Reservoir in 1910 that the road was repaired, improved, and began to take on its modern qualities.

[balzaccom]

What great info here! We've hiked and camped in this area extensively, and have a cabin near Twain Harte--not far from one of those old mining ditches. And we've tracked the trails of some of these old routes not only from out car, but also out on the trail. Summit Creek would be an imposing gorge for someone with a wagon, although i have to believe that they might have found an easier route up to Fremont Lake than the current trail.

And while I have heard the stories over and over about Burst Rock and Birth Rock, once I saw the rock, I am convinced that it's original name was Bust Rock. Yes, there was at least one birth there. But here's a photo of the rock:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/L71oaAU71zh23JxY9

Meanwhile, we'll check out some of the other points along this way. We've hiked up the West Walker River to Dorothy Pass, and up Summit Creek from Kennedy Meadows, and from Whitesides Meadow to "Burst" Rock...and the ditches for a few miles in various directions.

By the way, you can see an old mining ditch that still carries water on the way up to Yosemite along 108/120--directly across the river from the turnoff to Knight's Ferry.

(I don't know how I missed this thread--except that it appeared when I was in Alaksa and had very little access to wifi...)

[kpeter]

Thanks, balzacom. Since posting this I completed a large loop trip out of Kennedy Meadows in which I hiked the trails on Summit Creek, Brown Bear Pass, and coming back via the Relief Valleys. At every point I was trying to imagine where the wagons would have gone and how the heck they got them through the terrain I was hiking, and in most instances it was unimaginable. Having hiked over that ground I cannot for the life of me picture how they did what they did.

One thing that probably helped them was that the terrain was much less forested and more regularly burned, so neither trees nor brush would have been nearly the trouble they would be today. But how they got the wagons from Sheep Camp down to Saucer Meadow down Summit Creek to the confluence with Relief Creek and then up the very steep rise to Relief Valley is still a total mystery to me.