What a Railroad Has Done
in the Bret Harte Country
IF COLONEL STARBOTTLE. Jack
Hamlin. Mr. Oakhurst or any of the
other romantic,devil-may-care heroes
of Bret Harte's stories of the. early
days in the mountainous California
gold regions could set out today on a
journey over the rugged trails from
Red Dog, Roaring Camp or Sandy Flat,
with what astonishment would they
look upon the transformation of half a
century among these scenes once so
familiar to them!
Take Jack Hamlin, the gambler, for
instance. "Singing afield upon hlr
gray" some fine morning, he might sud
denly find that trusty animal rearing
in fright at strange apparitions in those
mountain fMtaowe*. Tn the gulch
ahead, that was impassable in the early
fifties, h* would com« suddenly upon a
great stamp mill humming to the music
of innumerable hammers. Down the old
trail, now widened and smoothed into
an excellent mountain road, would
come rushing- toward him a speedy
automobile driven by ■ man in rough
clothe.- B ■ party of miners to
thpir work. Over the crest of the hill
Just beyond he would catch sight of a
flourishing little city spreading out into
all the arms of the canyon where for
merly straggled a little camp of half a
hundred inhabitants.
Most marvelous of all, however, to
thia pioneer of the gojd diggings would
be those double bands of steel criss
crossing the road at frequent intervals
and sending wandering branches far
out over easy grades along the neigh
boring hillsides. At a sudden turn of
the roadway there would come thunder
ing over these rails a modern dragon
:»merce, sending echoes of its
passage reverberating among the cliffs
and gullies. There, in the almost im
penetrable wilderness of the fifties, he
would be gazing today upon a modern
railroad train, finding himself face to
face with one of the wonders of
scientific development. On the comfort
able passenger coaches whizzing by he
would read the name of the railroad
the Sierra Railway of California. No
wonder Mr. Hamlin's horse rears and
plunges at a sight so strange amid the
old surroundings.
Bret Harte, with all his wonderful
Imagination, never could have dreamed
when he created Jack Hamlin and all
those other types of the Sierra country
that through so doing he was to be
come the press agent of a twentieth
century railroad, yet such a thing has
befallen. For what more glowing ad
vertising could any railroad demand
than to have the glamour and romance
of the country it traverses pictured
by the pen of such a writer? The
Sierra railway is, in truth, the new
highway of the Bret Harte country, and
only such a writer as Bret Harte could
adequately describe the region. It Is
a lucky railroad to have come Into
being with such a press agent at its
command and its literature already
written.
The Bret Harte country, lying in the
region that now comprises Tuolumne
*■-* <J*lcreras counties, has undergone
a marvelous development within the
last 60 years, but most significant of
the change and of its future has been
the building of the Sierra railway into
its very heart. From Oakdale in Stan
islaus county, the Sierra railway line
extends to Tuolumne at the lower edge
of the timber belt in Tuolumne county,
with 4■ branch Una _-.following",| the
Mother Lode from Jamestown to An
gels. Th« route it traverses and the
*«itloe itnin^litciy adjacent to its lines
comprise ail of the country In which
Bret Harte laid the scenes of his early
stories. 80 the railroad has adopted
for its pamphlets, folders and litera
ture the attractive headline, "The Bret
Harte Country." The famous story
teller has become a press agent.
The nomenclature of the mountain
region has changed with Its develop
ment. Many of the towns and moun
tains and landmarks have taken new
names. While it is true that in the
Bret Harte stories the identity of the
various mining camps and scenes of
interest were thinly disguised under
fictitious names, they were far from
being mythical localities. They really
existed, and it is undoubtedly true that
Bret Harte had in mind very definitely
a particular camp when he wrote of
"Slumg-uJllon," and that he was pictur
ing a scene on a real forest trail when
he told the tragedy of "The Outcasts
of Poker Flat.''
Red mountain does not exist in the
geography of the country today, nor
does Smiths Pocket, which Bret Harte
located upon its g'opes in his story of
the rftmance of wild, ungovernable
little M'liss and her love for the young
schoolmaster. But Smiths Pocket was
located on a mountainside between Co
lumbia and the Stanislaus river, and
undoubtedly the Red mountain of the
story is a part of Table mountain, which
fits the description to a nicety.
According to the tale of "The Luck
of Roaring Camp" this mining commu
nity, which was regenerated by the ar
rival of its first native inhabitant, a
boy baby, waa 40 miles from Red Dog
on a creek running into the north fork
of the Stanislaus river. This would put
it about 15 miles northeast of Columbia,
possibly on Beaver or Griswold creek,
in the big tree region near Gardners.
Simpsons Bar was on Table mountain
near Tuttletown, through which the
Angels Camp branch line of the Sierra
railway passes and within a few miles
of its crossing of the Stanislaus river
at Helones.
The late Chauncey L. Canfleld of San
Francisco was considered one of the
best authorities on Bret Harte litera
ture and made a special study for years
of the Bret Harte country. H« gave
closer attention, possibly, to tha geo
graphical features of the stories than
any other person, and his word was ac
cepted a* final. According to him, Wing
Dam mentioned in "Brown of Calaveras"
and a number of other short stories is
the town of Murphya, about eight miles
from Angels Camp. He also located
Sandy Bar on the Stanislaus river and
Red Gulch on the old stage road be
tween Sonera and Robinsons Ferry. The
latter no longer takes its name from
the old ferry crossing, but is known as
Melones. and it Is there that the Stani
slaus is spanned by the modern steel
bridge of the Sierra railway.
Flat." according to Canfleld,
was located on |th« river about five
miles above Robinson's ferry, or Me
lones. Just east of Irvine, but many of
the old residents around Jamestown
differ with him in this, insisting that
"Poverty Flats" was between James
town and Quartz mountain, several
miles southeast of the river near the
present railroad town of Quarts. "Slum
grullion," probably, was Columbia, still a
small hamlet nestling in a beautiful val
ley, but once seriously looked upon as
the capital to be of California and still
noted for the old fashioned safes and
strong boxes in its adobe buildings, in
which were once stored fortunes in vir
gin gold taken from the nearby hills
and streams.
Bret Harte lived for about two year*
in Tuolumne county near Tuttletown,
teaching scljool, it is said, and it wa»
while there that he gathered much of
the history, tradition and romance
which he later wove into the series of
stories that remain today the most
typically Californian of anything In
western literature. The railway phrase,
' The Bret Harte Country," hea an al
luring sound, and while the region is
still rough and picturesque, it is bo
longer the wild, impassable country of
60 years agro, nor la it peopled with the
•airie class of Inhabitants which Bret
Harte described «o accurately. There
are soma old timers In whom might be
recognised some of the attributes of the
Bret Harte types, but for the most part
the people are a live, hustling, up to
date class of thoroughly modern cit
izens.
Picturesque the region certainly Is,
but It is picturesqueness combined with
% twentieth century activity gueh as
Bret Harte never dreamed of. 'Bra^rsed
by an up to date railroad, do-tted. with
itamp mills operating from 60 to 100
Stamps each, scarred by marble quarries
supplying the finest marble used in San
Francisco, with numerous lumber mills
tutting from 26,000,000 to 50,000,000 feet
ef lumber annually from the largest
living trees and the finest groves of
sugar pine in the world, with Innumer
able lime kilns sending their products
to every part of the state, with fruit
orchards raising apples that command
the highest prices in the cities about
San Francisco bay, with electric light
and power plants sending the currents
that operate San Francisco street cars
and liyht many portions of the metrop
olis, the country is one of marvelous
wealth, much of which still lies un
developed.
Hotels that attract tourists and af
ford every comfort are to be found in
the ttwna of the region and invite
levers of nature to the mountains
and valleys, while scores of camp
ing, swimming and summer resorts
appeaj to thousands every year.
The San Francisco Sunday Call
Water companies have reached Into the
region and developed the supply, stor
ing huge volumes of water to supply
the needs of cities and of farming
communities.
The Modesto and Turlock Irrigation
districts, among the first great engi
neering projects to be Incorporated
within the state, looked to this region
for the source of their supply, with the
result that there was erected at La
Grange on the Tuolumne river about
six and a half miles from Cooperstown
a great dam 90 feet high. From this
dam two large irrigation ditches carry
the watrr down either side of the
diver into the floor of the San Joaquln
valley, furnishing the water which has
developed that broad interior plain into
a wonderful garden spot with thou
sands of acres of the richest farming
land in the world.
Chinese Camp was the center of a
large district studded in the early days
with claim After claim where mining
was carried on by the old process of
the sluice box and the "long torn,"
the gravel being shoveled in and
washed. These claims were worked
over, abandoned and reworked and
finally worked again, slowly and care
fully, by a number <tf Chinese who fol
lowed the white men into the diggings.
It was then that the lecality received
its baptism as Chinese Camp, which
name It still retains today, though it
Is now the thriving trading center for
the entire surrounding mining district,
and though John Chinaman is chiefly
conspicuous by reason of his absence.
In the immediate vicinity the Eagle-
Bhawmut mine, with tta 1,600 foot shaft
and 100 stamp mill and ehlorinatlon
plant, the Republican mine, the Taran
tula, the Clio and others have taken
the place of the surface scratching- of
early days.
The old stage road to Ynsemite valley
passes through Chinese Camp, climbing
Priest's hill, passing through Big Oak
flat, Qroveland and Crockers, but the
Concord stages that traveled this route
In the Bret Harte days are no longer
to be seen. The automobile has come
to take their place.
Montezuma Flat, Campo Seco, Whisky
Hill and trie country around James
town were covered in the early days of
which Bret Harte tells with small sur
face claims worked by probably 15,000
men. Today this style of mining has
given away entirely before the advance
of modern methods, and where these
claims were located there is today the
Harvard mine operating 60 stamps, the
App miae with 60 more, tho Dutch with
40, and the Jumper, Chrystalline and
others with shafts sunk from 1,000 to
2,000 feet into the earth and working
thousands of tons of ore a day.
Old Bonora is a modern, bustling
town, alive and booming with business.
It Is well laid out with macadamised
streets, handsome residences, large
stores wtth plate glass show windows
and every modern equipment and con
venience. At night It biases with elec
trlo lights which, In the days of the
Bret Harte heroes, were not to be found
even in San Francisco, and In Its shops
are displayed goods In more lavish
quantity and complete assortment than
could have been" found in any city of
the west in the pioneer days.
At Sonora a lumber company has
located its sash and door factory, with
other buildings incidental to its busi
ness, and carries on from there an ex
tensive trade. Just outside the town
limits the Pacific lime and plaster com
pany has lime kilns with a capacity
that would have more than furnished
all" the lime that could be used In the
whole state of California in those early
days.
In the Bret Harte times the country
around Columbia had a population of
several thousand wen -working: the long
torn and the sluice boxes and following
the old methods of surface mining, but
now it, ttfo, has its mines and Its stamp
mills, its deep shafts and electric light*
ed underground workings. Two or three
miles beyond Columbia there are the
large marble Quarries from which Is
taken the marble that embellishes the
corridors of thousands of California
buildings and that is shipped in large
quantities to the eastern market.
Such is the Bret Harte country to
day—alive, thriving-.progressive. Tapped
by the Sierra railway, it 1« In dlrant
touch with the great distributing cen
ters of the state, and its products are
sent out to be scattered to all parts of
the world. The romance of the mining
camps exists no longer, but the spirit
of that romance lives in the stories that
were written by Bret Harte. Even that
most modern of business and commer
cial entitles—the railroad—has bowed
to the charm ot the romance. Andcßret
Harte h*s become the press agent of
the Sierra railway company of Califor*
Dla.