Green Horn's Lake (or Lake Tahoe)
|
2) Transcription of the letter describing an early discovery of Lake Tahoe and naming it "Green Horn's Lake".
Rock Creek Valley, 14 July 1850 [Has 4 sealing wax spots where gold samples were attached. See P.S. at the end of the letter.] Dear Sis Yours of the 24th of April has just came to here. I assure you it was with much pleasure. Perused it several times before I folded it up. I have just returned from a trip to the mountains. We left here on the 13th day April. I thought we had a sure thing [at] the diggings that were said to be very rich. We were suppose to be near a lake on the west range of the Sierra Nevada, we had a hard trip of it in many places. We traveled over snow that was 20 & 30 feet deep. We found a lake between the two ranges of mountains which was about 40 miles long & 15 or 20 miles wide. It proved to be the head of the south fork of the Truckee River & as there was no mention of it in the guide books and not laid down on any of the map. Being so badly humbugged, we called it the Green Horn's Lake. Our company consisted of 260 men. Some of the men crossed the eastern range & struck the emigrants trail in Carson Valley. Others went North until they came to the emigrants trail on the Truckee route. But we found no gold and struck out for home. If you look out for the Peoria papers you will see a full account of our trip & how we fell trees for the mules to cross the streams. The snow was melting very fast. Water ran so fast that a mule was sure to drown if he slipped off. We made them walk a single login many places. We are now about 15 miles east of Culoma [old spelling for Coloma] but not doing much. I made $78 last week. Some of my mess are out prospecting. I expect them every day. If they do not find the diggings I think we should go to Trinity(?), & perhaps to Oregon, as there is rich mines there. 4 of us made $2000 in February. From the first of March till last week we had not made a dime but if I keep my health I will have my pile yet. The emigrants are arriving every day. They have had a fair trip of it though some are short of grub & had to kill horses to eat. They are disheartened to find that gold is harder to get than they expected. They heard of the fish stories & not the little ones. I would not advise anyone to come to California expecting to make a fortune in a short time. I would say every man that has a family let him stay with them, but a young man like Levi that has to work for a living, I think I would prefer this country to any other. Wages are yet from $8 to $16 per day if he does not meet with success in the mines. If he is determined he can make a raise here much sooner than he can in the states. Tell Jack Seargent this is no place for him, he had friend[s] to help him in business. I wrote to Bill Reid for him Abe & Geo. to come out. He writes that they are married. By and by tell Geo. he had better prepare to meet his god. He has destroyed my peace which makes me feel as savage as a rusty axe in a meat house. I received a letter from a young lady in Peoria, she talks largely about her beau that he is coming to this place. I will show him a thing or two if I cross him in the mountains. She says Lucy is true yet, well, one true heart is worth a dozen false ones don't you think so? I expect nothing else but to hear that Lydia has got some cosie bamboozeling about here. When you write let me know. I want you to keep an eye on her but if you find her disposed to give me the drop, see that she makes a choice of one that is somebody such as one as myself for instance. You may kiss her for me. I was always afraid to do it myself, but if she is single when I come back I will try it, if she" scratch both my eyes out". Little one I would like to know how you and your beaus are getting along. you did not inform me. I suppose you thought it best not to let hear too much at once for fear I could not bare it all at once. You must be more particular in your next. Delpha & Ruth I suppose young women & doing a smashing business with the boys hearts. I would like to see them very much & would make a big muss(?) with Ruth in two minutes. You must say to mother that I am a good boy. That I dig all the gold I can & keep it. I am coming back to see her as soon as I can & had I been as fortunate as some I would have been to see her before this time, but I am sure to come. Although some of my acquaintances take it upon themselves to say that I am not coming back. I like to know their reason for saying so, for I told all that asked me that I was, and as I never had a single friend that I could make a confident of (& I am sincerely glad of it) to talk to, had my intentions been otherwise. You must treat them with that contempt which they deserve. I consider them beneath the notice of a dog. When I speak of having no friends in your section. I do not include High & Sally. Tell the old woman that I have taken her advice and never taken a single "Buck a Monte. My respects to them. You say you have written 2 letters and directed them to Sacramento. I continue writing as a line from you will always be thankfully received. Levi might write or any of the family. Mother promised to write to me write long a letters and often. I could say a good deal more than I have written but I know there are some people in Illinois that has much curiosity.... I expect to return & speak for myself. But I cannot say precisely when having lost all the spring & no diggings now that are certain. I may not be home this fall, as I do not think it would be right for me to come without feeling myself independent of other means. My Best Respects to your Father, Mother & Family, Mrs Seargent & her family, High & the old lady XXX That's all. With much respect & esteem sincerely yours, R. P. Taylor P. S. I have enclosed 4 sample pieces of gold for mother she must get her to take to Mr. Widdensome in Peoria (Illinois) & have her a ring made of it & if she thinks anything of me she will wear it. Have some alloy mixed with it or it will be too soft. |
3 Notes on the Letter
First of all I would like to thank Paul Franklin who did the transcription. I just tweaked it a little. At first I found it hard to believe that their guide books and, especially their maps, had no name for the Lake. However, a check of maps in at the University of Nevada in the Special Collections Departments shows maps as late as 1848 with no name!!! Even if it did say ‘Mountain Lake.’ I understand why they said it had no name, as ‘Mountain Lake’ just isn't much of a name. (See below for portions of the maps I used are from the UNR Special Collections Department) They mention in the letter they may just head up to Oregon. This may seem funny when all of the gold - or nearly all of the gold - was found in California. However, at this time Oregonians were making their way down to the gold fields of California and found some of the best land. I can’t help but think they ran into some of these prospectors and were told the same ‘fish stories’ as the new arrivals were being told. Oregon did not have gold anywhere near what California did!
Although the author of the letter, R. P. Taylor, writes to his sister that their expedition to the Eastern Sierras and "Green Horn’s Lake" will appear in the local papers, no mention has been found in a limited search of local Illinois papers (Genealogybank.com) or early California newspapers ( California Digital Newspaper Collection). [Paul Franklin] A closely related story titled: The Eastern Slope of the Sierra Nevada, was found in both the Sacramento Transcript June 22, 1850 and the Peoria Democratic Press August 28, 1850. It did not mention Green Horn Lake but focused on some reports of gold being found by Mormon prospectors finding gold in the streams that empty into the Truckee River. The article ended with, "Californians have enough to do in searching for the hidden treasures of their own side of the mountains, and can well afford to leave the other alone till the people of Deseret send us more definite accounts of their 'prospecting." (See bottom left of article.) This letter has much more of interest than just the naming of an unkown lake. I have underlined some excerpts in the transcript that are of historical interest. 4) The Tahoe Name Game Carol Van Etten has written an excellent article on the different names of what we currently call Lake Tahoe. Some come from explorers. Others are politically motivated. Some are just plan fanciful. Lake Green Horn falls into the later category, but before this letter surfaced, that name was never known historically! Perhaps no feature of the Sierra landscape has suffered under such a succession of names as the body of water we know today as Lake Tahoe. During the 140 years since John C. Fremont's first sighting of the lake on Valentine's Day, 1844, the big blue of this inland sea has been blessed popularly - if not officially - with seven different names, and as many more have been publicly suggested (same with editorial tongue firmly in cheek) as alternative appellations. The protocol of wilderness exploration dictates that discoverers have the right of naming their discoveries. In keeping with such etiquette, the lake is properly known as "Lake Bonpland", the name given to it by Fremont in honor of Aime Jacques Alexandre, the French botanist who accompanied the van Humboldt party on an earlier expedition west. In the decade which followed Fremont's discovery, the designation "Bonpland" was favored in publications appearing on the Continent. However, the map drawn by Charles Preuss, cartographer for Captain Fremont's party, notes it simply as "Mountain Lake". In those days, few found themselves in a postion to care. Those who did care found themselves further confused by Baker's 1855 "Map of the Mining Regions", which showed the lake as "Maheon". Bartlett's "Guide", another source of the day, referred to "Big Truckee Lake", with yet another casually-placed cognomen burdening the pristine alpine paradise. In March of 1853, California's Surveyor General, W.M. Eddy, had initiated the use of what would 17 years later become the "legal" name of the lake - "Bigler". Yet from the start this name was destined to meet with widespread disfavor, with its most active opponents suggesting that John Bigler, the former democratic governor of California for whom the lake had been named, was less than worthy of such an honor. Controversy over Bigler's merit as a namesake waxed hot when the outbreak of the Civil War led to charges that he entertained Confederate sympathies. Several substitute names were promptly offered up. The Unionist party mounted an unsuccessful lobbying effort in April of 1861 to rechristen the lake with the exotic "Tua Tulia". Fanning the foolishness the following year, the "Sacramento Union" suggested "Largo Bergler" as a more suitable name, "as it would stand as a punishing illusion to the bibulous habits of 'Honest John' Bigler when he was governor of the State" In February of 1862, public sentiment against Bigler found expression in the form of an Interior Department map brought out under the direction of William Henry Knight, the department's chief cartographer. Knight enlisted the linguistic skills of Dr. Henry DeGroot, a "Sacramento Union" correspondent whose efforts to communicate with Washoe Indians had familiarized him with the rudiments of their dialect. "Ta-hoe", according to Dr. DeGroot, was translated 'Big Water" or "Water in a high place". And so, in the name of superior aesthetics, the name by which the lake is known today was established in the white man's vocabulary. However, the controversy raged on, refusing to be silenced even by the passage of a bill in the California State Legislature on February 1 0, 1870, giving legal status to Eddy's original designation of "Bigler". Various vassals of the Fourth Estate continued to offer their suggestions as to a more suitable epithet, among them fledgling correspondent Mark Twain, then connected with Virginia City's "Territorial Enterprise". Twain found himself drawn irresistibly into the fray, occasioning to comment that "Ta-hoe", in the dialect of the Digger and "Pi-ute" (sic) tribes meant "grasshopper soup", which, he contended, was among their delicacies. In light of public sentiment and popular usage, it is amazing that the name "Bigler" continued as a legal geographical designation until July 18, 1945 when a bill was adopted in the California State Legislature officially changing the name to "Lake Tahoe". In addition to its impressive cavalcade of cognomens, this mile-high marvel has acquired several nicknames, including "Lake of the Sky" and "Jewel of the Sierras". But for all the variety of its names, running the gamut from complimentary to condescending, the native population's original appellative serves best, and seems most likely to endure. STORY: by Carol Van Etten |