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A
Brief History of The Cosumnes River
Near Elk Grove
by Tom Mahon
The Cosumnes River has been a unique and essential ecosystem for thousands of years. The river bottom forest supported diverse animal populations, bears, elk, and deer lived alongside of coyotes, mountain lions and bobcats.An abundance of waterfowl and small mammals proved irresistible to the first humans to come into the valley.
The nomadic family groups that came across this new Eden left very little impact. They no longer had to follow herds across the grasslands to survive.The river transformed their lives, it provided everything, it made it practical to build permanent camps. More then two thousand years before Christ walked the shores of Galilee, these groups had coalesced into a highly advanced civilization.The easy availability of food and moderate climate allowed members of the group to have leisure time to learn techniques of forming and polishing stone and bone into ornaments, weapons and tools. Modern archeologists call these people the "Windmiller culture."
Living on the scattered hardpan knolls along the river for protection from winter floods, it is hard to imagine the appearance of their villages. But we do know that the individuals were fantastic to see. Ear spools made of baked clay, polished steatite and jade were worn, starting small and expanding as the lobe stretched. These were very similar to the ones used by the Mayans in Central America. We know that they painted themselves with red paint from ground cinnabar from the coast ranges and white paint from fine clay.Clam shell and stone beads, pendulous charm stones and iridescent abalone shell pendants were worn. atl-atl or spear throwers, technology passed down from ice ages, were carried and wielded with medium weight stone tipped darts, for deep penetration in large animals. Carved bone daggers and stone headed maces on sinew wrapped wooden handles were defensive weapons.
These people were masters of their world, with an extensive trade network. After ruling this area for several thousand years this culture seemed to disappear. Perhaps there was a prolonged drought, or a devastating flood, maybe the tribe migrated somewhere else following an unknown great prophet of their own. Possibly some remained to mingle with the new people that came to fill the void, the direct ancestors of the Miwok people that already had lived here for many centuries before the first Europeans came.
The Miwoks were very clever at weaving baskets and braiding string and ropes for snares and nets. They used many different natural materials. They gathered acorns and seeds to be ground into flour for breads or mush. Cooking was done in baskets by dropping stones or baked clay that had been heated in a fire, directly into the food.
Hunting was done with very light bows and arrows with small stone tips. Camouflage and subterfuge was used effectively to get close to the game.The annual run of salmon was an easy, dependable source of food. Much of their hunting was done with snares and nets. In fact "Kossum: was the Miwok name for salmon and gave rise to the name Cosumnes.
Wild tobacco and red willow bark was smoked in straight soapstone and wood pipes.The Miwoks were a very spiritual people and sometimes used extracts of jimpson weed to expand their visions.The flicker and red headed woodpecker were important to them and the feathers, a highly prized commodity, were worn on special occasions. They also wore clam shell beads and abalone shell pendants obtained from trading with the coastal tribes.
The Miwoks controlled their environment with carefully timed burns.This was done under the oaks to make it easier to collect acorns, and in areas that were too overgrown or brushy to suit their needs. Dozens of generations of Miwoks lived their lives contentedly near the river. Until the strangers came. It probably started with rumors from traders. Tales of people with large sailing ships and loud cannons. Years went by, until some Spanish explorers came this way. Then came the fur traders, Hudson Bay men, American and Russian traders. They were lured by the promise of easy furs. The 1820ıs & 30ıs brought lots of trade between Miwoks and the newcomers. Unfortunately the Miwoks proved to be very susceptible to the diseases that came along with the traders. Whole villages were wiped out by European plagues like smallpox and cholera.
Capt. John Sutter pressed many of the survivors into working for him, this amounted to a thinly disguised form of slavery, as there were few rewards for the many hours of labor. It was an accepted practice at the time to use a different set of weights to trade with the natives. The Murphys, who settled on the Cosumnes River at present-day Hwy. 99 also hired the local Miwoks. They had a lot of land to farm and in the 1840ıs this required a lot of manpower. There is evidence that they treated their men much better then Capt.Sutter. In fact one of the Murphys was rumored to have been married to the chiefs daughter. At any rate, when gold was discovered, the Murphys headed to the hills to find their fortunes, the chief, his daughter and many local tribesmen went with them to help mine the gold. Of course the site of their gold discovery is now the town of Murphys.
The gold rush changed the Cosumnes River permanently. The few natives left along the river abandoned the villages to move to isolated areas in the foothills, where no one would bother them. Miners tore the sod holding the soil together to dig the precious placers. Winter floods carried huge amounts of sand and silt down from the foothills to choke the river's channels, and cover the flood plains with sand. Fine stemmed delicate native grasses that grew along the river in small meadows, had been a prized source of hay for the local farmers. Free for the cutting and easy to dry, it gave good nourishment and strength to well used horses. Mining debris covered almost all of it.
By the late 1870's the big rush of mining had slowed down and nature had healed many of the river's scars. People were starting to clear small areas in the bottom lands to plant their own crops. In those days the river was very different from the river we know today. First of all the river was very small, being perhaps 1/ 3 as wide and less than 1/ 2 as deep. A man could dig a good well in less than a day. A hole ten feet deep would yield good clean water. Clearing river bottom forest for the purpose of farming was very labor intensive. Many times trees were removed by digging and chopping around the roots,and allowing the weight of the tree to topple itself before sawing it into pieces. Woody brush presents its own unique problems. Willows, poison oak and elderberry bushes could be hacked with a mattock and burned, but they came right back from their roots next season. The only way to stop this regrowth was to laboriously dig out each root. Most of the hard field labor in the 70's and 80's was done by some of the many Chinese immigrants that had come to California to find a better life. Farmers along the Cosumnes had only to drive a wagon to Second or Third streets in Sacramento to get a load of men eager to work.
One of the first really successful crops grown in the river bottom was hops. The American River was where this crop first became popular in California, but it soon became apparent that the soil of the Cosumnes was also ideal for the pungent buds. As the change in America was going from a more rural society to an urban industrialized country, the demand for beer was increasing at a phenomenal rate. It became very popular for Americans in the big cities to go to taverns and bars after a hard days work.
Hop plants were spaced about six to eight feet apart in rows. Once the roots were planted they were there to stay. Hop plants are male or female. Itıs the buds from the female plants that are the valuable commodity used to flavor beer. In the spring the roots would send forth new vines that would be started by hand, up strings that were attached to the ground, and to an overhead trellis at the other end. All summer the vines would grow, in the late summer the plants would start to lose their vigor. When it was time to harvest the buds a large force of Chinese workmen was assembled for the big job. These men would pull down the vines and pluck off every precious bud. The buds were then taken to a hop house, which is like a kiln, for drying. Hop houses were two story buildings. The room on top had a slatted floor that was covered with burlap. On this floor the buds would be poured out and raked around to create an even depth. The bottom floor, which was the ground, is where the heating unit was contained. This heating unit was often made from the boiler of an old steam engine that was no longer deemed safe to hold high pressure. These were obtained from old steamships used on the Sacramento or San Joaquin Rivers, or from stationary engines.The boilers were modified to be used as wood burning heaters, by drilling a series of holes with a breast drill and then chiseling between the holes, to break out square pieces to feed the fire and vent the smoke. Pans of sulfur were set near the boilers and the fires were stoked by someone experienced enough to keep the heat just right. Day and night the boilers were fed cord wood and the hot sulfur released its noxious fumes to retard the growth of mold and mildew and act as a preservative while the hops dryed. When the hops were judged to be dry they were moved to a press. The press was a stout box with a plunger. Two long pieces of burlap were laid into the hop press at right angles forming a loose cross shape. The hops were poured in and a horse in harness pulled on lines attached to a great, geared hoist to compress them into a bale. When the bale was formed for size and weight, two men with needles sewed the four sides and top closed. The bales would then be loaded on wagons and hauled to Sheldon, where they would be stored in the building that is now Sheldon Feed store. From Sheldon the bales would go by train to Sacramento.
Around the turn of the century the labor scene was changing. Many of the Chinese immigrants that had formerly worked in the fields were living and working in the city .There were many new immigrants from Japan and they were highly sought after as masters of agriculture. During this period the railroads also let the Paiutes, that lived in Nevada, ride for free in between the cars on their way to California to seek employment. The corruption of Mexican politics was causing many of itıs citizens to search for a better life up north. The hop fields became a melting pot for people of diverse ethnic backgrounds, that were not always able to learn and respect each others ways.
By 1917 so many hops had been planted in California, Washington state, Oregon and also Idaho that prices were plummeting. 1918 was the last year for hops along the river. The war in Europe had some influence, bad prices, womenıs temperance leagues and the growing strength of the prohibition party were all influencing factors.
By the 1920ıs the hop trellises had been removed, beans and corn grew in the clearings of the bottom lands of the Cosumnes River. Alfalfa for hay was being planted, itıs deep roots were well suited to the thick sandy loam.
At this point I should mention the fact that the last of the tule elk had been wiped out for food sometime before 1880. The deer population around here had also been hunted to near extinction by the early 1900ıs. People from town would get together and hunt for subsistence pretty much any time they felt like it.
Certain times of the year the deer population was very vulnerable to hunting.The formation of the Fish and Game and passage of laws regulating hunting changed this situation. The river was still teeming with salmon during the fall run and the game wardens made sure it stayed that way.
There were a lot of Japanese tenant farmers managing small plots in the bottom lands from the mid 20ıs to the early 40ıs. They raised beans, strawberries and chickens for sale, and they had large garden plots for their own use. The most important crop that they raised however, was children. The extended families of the Taraıs and Kanaiıs included grandma, grandpa, mother, father and children. Everybody worked together in the fields, this created a special kind of closeness, that is very difficult to imagine these days. When family members depend on each other to get a job done it fosters a deep sense of pride and respect. The children went to San Joaquin School with the rest of the boys and girls that lived on Grant Line Rd.
In the 20ıs the Japanese Salvation Army sponsored a camp for children from the age of about eight to their late teens. The children would come up from San Francisco to spend a couple of weeks or so camping out. There would be several adults to supervise, and the children would spend their time swimming, fishing, hiking and just having a good time (and of course getting a dose of poison oak). In the late afternoon, some of the shy older teenage girls would walk the quarter mile or so from the creek (Deer Creek), to the barn to see if they could borrow a pitcher of fresh milk from the dairy barn for the younger children. It must have been a heartwarming scene to see the VERY shy landownerıs teenage son that milked the cows, dispensing the milk to the pretty young girls.
Sometimes the Taraıs and Kanaiıs would have picnics for their relatives and friends from the Elk Grove and Florin areas. The landowners and their children would also be invited to share in the festivities. There were many exotic and unusual foods to try and it was fun to see and experience the different cultural practices. One time a very dignified older gentleman shared the fact that he had been in the cavalry as a young man in Japan. He asked to borrow one of the kidıs horses to demonstrate how they had ridden . A horse was brought up, and to the astonishment of all, he leaped into the saddle and rode back and forth, ramrod straight , while he put the horse through a series of maneuvers. The old man smiled as he dismounted, pleased that he was able to exhibit some of the skills that he had learned as a youth.
As the 1930ıs wore on there were a lot of changes. The depression was hard on everyone including farmers. With the end of prohibition in 1932, some farmers along the river started planting hops again. Suddenly roots that had been left to grow wild in the bottom lands were valuable again. Many cash strapped landowners and their children, turned to digging hop roots to sell to replant new fields. Grapes from the vineyard were picked and sold for $10.00 a ton, to Italian and Slavonian immigrants in Sacramento to make home made wines. Beef cows were bringing in one and a half cents per pound, an all time low. This translated to $ 15.00 for a 1,000 lb. cow. American people from all walks of life were on the road. A lot of people would work for room and board and a little extra. There were many sad stories about lost jobs and broken families, men who had hit the road to find work, so they could send money home to their families.
Once again the hop fields were employing people.This time things were different. The pickers were men and women. Local men, women and teenage kids were supplemented by fruit tramps, refugees from the mid west, driven out by the dust bowl and following the western fruit picking cycles from Washington south to Southern California. There was a lot of camaraderie among the pickers, there was an excitement about the harvest. A lot of local people fondly remember the hop harvest as a time to get something done and enjoy working with their friends. Although the war in Europe was on everyoneıs minds in 1940, the financial aspect of farming on the river was very much improved. Prices for farm products were better than they had been for years. Farm loans taken out during the great depression were being paid off. Then in 1942 everything changed. Pearl Harbor devastated everybody. Suddenly our Japanese-American friends and neighbors were targeted. They were accused of being dangerous and subversive. In reality, they were patriotic Americans just like us. Even after they were torn from their farms and sent to the camps, the young men still volunteered to join the army and fight in Europe, distinguishing themselves for bravery. I wonder how many Americans today would have the courage to go fight, while their relatives and friends were locked up in cold, dingy camps just because of their ethnic background?
One by one, the other farms and ranches along the river felt the touch of the war. The young men were either drafted or volunteered to go fight. The men that stayed here had to work twice as hard to get all the work done. Neighbors helped each other to plant and harvest crops. The young men of the relativly sheltered environments of the strip ranches that went to war, saw and did things that were almost beyond comprehesion. Charlie didnıt come back, a whole life that never was, because of a sniperıs bullet. The men that did make it back were changed forever.
After the war, there was a certain technological leap in farming along the river. Guys had gone from mowing hay with teams of horses to flying in heavy bombers. Exposure to large machinery of all types used in the war effort made farmers rethink a lot of traditional practices. Larger, higher horsepowered, caterpillar type tractors were able to pull larger disks and plows, vastly increasing the amount of work that one man could do in a day. Inexpensive manufactured commercial fertilizer increased crop yields. Higher yielding corn varieties needed more water to reach their potential. Fortunately the farms along the river were blessed with a constantly recharging water supply. The water flowing in the river is one source, but the best thing about it is the percolation into the water strata. All year, when the water is flowing, the pressure forces river water to seep down through natural fissures in the strata, through fine particles of sand and clay that trap impurities, down to replenish the aquifers . The effect is still seen, but diminishes the farther you get from the river.
In order to achieve an efficient irrigation the fields have to be leveled. In the 50ıs the fields were leveled with a "Cat and Can," which was a nickname for a D8 or D7 Caterpiller tractor and a cable controlled scraper, that was towed behind the cat . Before any dirt was moved, the field was staked. Lathes were driven into the ground in a grid pattern. After the field was staked it was time to shoot it.
To
Be Continued
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