Raptors are well represented at all elevations in the Klamath Mountains. Many species of hawks course the ridges in search of prey, and golden eagles nest in a few locations. Even bald eagles have been seen in recent years. A few ospreys nest along the rivers, and owls can often be heard at night as high as the red-fir forest.
Literally hundreds of avian species are represented in the Klamath Mountains. If you want to add to your list, pack along a copy of Peterson Field Guide to Western Birds by Roger Tory Peterson, along with a pair of binoculars. You’re sure to find something new with each trip.
Cold-Blooded Animals
Reptiles and amphibians are common in all of the communities, except alpine zones. Various snakes, such as rubber boas, garter snakes, gopher snakes, king snakes, and various water snakes are fairly common in all zones up to the subalpine.
An area with as much water as the Klamath Mountains is bound to be home to a high number of water-loving amphibians. Red-legged and yellow-legged frogs thrive in the wet meadows and ponds in the mixed-conifer forest community. Higher up, you may find tiny tree frogs. An amazing number of salamanders live in damp forest areas up to the subalpine level.
The amphibians that receive the most attention are the newts and salamanders that live in many of the middle- and lower-elevation lakes. Some of them are 8–10 inches long and bright red, quite startling as they come up to the surface to breathe when you’re expecting trout.
A bee inspects an angelica blossom.
Insects
Insects inhabit the Klamath Mountains in numbers similar to all other earthly paradises. Only a few of these numerous species of insects are problematic for humans, and of course many of them can be quite interesting, if not beautiful, creatures. Mosquitoes can be a considerable annoyance in many areas right after snowmelt. Repellents can be quite helpful during the day, and a screened tent can be a godsend at night.
Horseflies and deerflies are irritating later in the summer, but at least they go away at nightfall. During and immediately after the wet spring season, ticks can be a particular nuisance at the lower elevations, especially since they can carry Lyme disease or infections. Repellents sprayed on collars, cuffs, and pant legs should help, but the best way to deal with ticks is by inspecting your entire body daily. If discovered soon after it has attached, a tick can be removed by grabbing the body with a pair of tweezers and applying gentle traction until the pest is pulled out of your flesh. Once removed, thoroughly wash the affected area and watch for signs of infection or rash around the wound. If any unusual symptoms develop after a few days, seek medical attention.
Human History
Three natural resources have profoundly affected the human history of the Klamath Mountains, almost to the exclusion of any other factors. They are, in chronological order, gold, timber, and water.
THE WINTU INDIANS
Gold meant very little to the Wintu Indians, who lived very well along the Trinity River and its tributaries for hundreds, possibly thousands, of years without any awareness that gold was even present. The Wintu had no use for gold, and they certainly had plenty of timber and water for their needs. As a matter of fact, they had just about everything else they needed. Deer and elk were plentiful, providing both food and clothing. Each autumn brought the return of salmon and steelhead up the river for harvest, and in most years, a bountiful crop of acorns. In the summer, berries and seeds were plentiful, along with small animals that they could snare. They built roofs for their homes of bark and rushes, and sedges and willows provided the materials for beautifully woven baskets.
Winters were bearable along the river, and the Wintu had little reason to travel very high into the mountains, except to pass through on trading expeditions to the coast or Central Valley. What need had a Wintu for gold? Would gold keep a grizzly from attacking? (Grizzlies were still here in those days.) In the end, of course, gold destroyed the Wintu completely, as the people who came to the area in the 19th century wanted the gold and the Wintu were in the way.
FROM TRAPPERS AND GOLD DIGGERS TO HOMESTEADERS AND LOGGERS
Although Jedediah Smith, and possibly other trappers before him, may have visited the area, Major Pierson B. Reading received the credit for naming the Trinity River in 1845. Actually, the river was named by mistake, as Reading thought the river emptied into the Pacific Ocean at Trinidad Bay, naming the river Trinity (the English translation of the Spanish Trinidad). Four years later, two miners who were searching for a way to the ocean discovered that the river flowed into the Klamath River, not the ocean.
Going for the Gold
There is some conjecture that Major Reading discovered gold at the same time he discovered the Trinity River. However, that would have been three years prior to John Marshall’s discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill. If Reading discovered gold on his first trip to the Trinity River, he was really good at keeping a secret. The big gold rush to the Trinity River didn’t begin until late 1849 or early 1850.
By the end of 1850, the gold rush on the Trinity River and its tributaries was in full swing. Weaverville had almost as many people living there as it does now. In contrast, Trinity Centre (original spelling) had many more people than it does today. Even in 1850, many of those people were Chinese immigrants. By 1853, close to 2,000 Chinese immigrants lived and worked in the Weaverville area alone. Their labor was a boon to the local economy: They worked cheaply, and if they mined their own claims, renegade whites promptly robbed them. Most important, they paid $4 a head per month to the government for the privilege of digging, which went a long way toward supporting the public sector during the 1850s. Contrastingly, the whites paid nothing, despite the fact that they too were immigrants.
Steam engines at Dorleska Mine (see Trip 19)
Photo: Luther Linkhart
In 1854, tensions between two tongs, or Chinese gangs—one from Canton and another from Hong Kong—erupted in a skirmish instigated and egged on by whites. (So-called tong wars were commonplace in California in the 19th and early 20th centuries.) The American and European gold-seekers didn’t allow the Chinese to use guns—stray bullets might hit white bystanders—so the “Hong Kongs” and “Cantons” fought with knives, spears, and hatchets in a field near Weaverville. “Military advisers” for both sides cheered them on and bet on the outcome, with the Cantons eventually triumphing. However, many Chinese on both sides were losers, with numerous deaths (estimates from different historical sources range from 4 to 26) and many injuries. Surprisingly, there were no casualties among the “advisers.”
More people swarmed over the area in the 1850s than have been there at any time since. In less than a decade, most of the available placer gold had been mined, and the Chinese moved on to help build a section of the Transcontinental Railroad over the Sierra Nevada. Only the Weaverville Joss House, the museum, some artifacts, and miles of carefully stacked boulders