text:
Mount Shasta
This section pertains to the Wilkes Expedition of 1838-42, the Fr�mont Expeditions of 1843-44 and 1845-46, and the Pacific Railroad Surveys of the 1850s. The Wilkes Expedition of 1838- 1842, officially known as the United States Exploring Expedition, sailed around the world. At the Columbia River in 1841 commander Charles Wilkes ordered lieutenant George Foster Emmons to lead an overland expedition from Fort Vancouver southward to California. Though frequently written of in historical annals as the 1841 "Wilkes overland expedition," it should be kept in mind that Wilkes himself was not a member of the overland party. In this bibliography the name "Wilkes-Emmons overland expedition" has been adopted as a name for the overland expedition. At least six of the men on this 1841 Wilkes-Emmons overland expedition kept detailed day-to-day journals. These six journals still exist. Taken together, the journals have recorded in exceptional detail impressions and scientific observations of Mt. Shasta as it was in 1841.
It is noteworthy that this Wilkes-Emmons overland expedition may have been responsible for the transposition of the name "Mt. Shasty" from its prior use as a name for present Mt. McLoughlin to its present use as a name for today's Mt. Shasta. Also important historically is that the Indian vocabulary collected by the expedition at the base of Mt. Shasta in 1841 became the type vocabulary for all of philologist Horatio Hale's geographically extensive southern Oregon "Shastean" language family (see Hale Philology1848 in Section 14. The Name 'Shasta'). This vocabulary led to the name Shasta later being applied to all tribes speaking this language, although name "Shastean" might have originally been more appropriate for Indian languages in the Rogue and Umpqua areas of southern Oregon, had the overland expedition collected a vocabulary there. Beyond its importance in establishing names, however, the 1841 Wilkes-Emmons overland expedition was important in being the first group of American scientists and artists to visit Mt. Shasta. The four-year Wilkes Expedition itself was comprised of 600 sailors in several ships, who escorted nine hand-picked civilian scientists and artists around the world. The Smithsonian Institution was founded upon the scientific collections from those nine gentlemen. Five of those nine were on the Wilkes-Emmons overland expedition to Mt. Shasta in 1841.
In 1843-44 and again in 1845-46 John Charles Fr�mont led expeditions into the Mt. Shasta region. His published narratives about these expeditions were best sellers in their time, and Mt. Shasta is mentioned on occasion. Fr�mont's topographer, Charles Preuss, kept notebooks in 1843-44, which have not been published in full, but which show present Mt. McLoughlin named as "Sasty," and present Mt. Shasta named as "Pit." In 1848 a map published by Fr�mont and Preuss reversed these names (using the variant spellings "Tsashtl" and "Pitt"), following the new convention as established by the maps resulting from the Wilkes Expedition. Note that the maps of Wilkes in 1844 and Fr�mont in 1848 both retained the name 'Shaste' for the Rogue River.
The publications resulting from the Pacific Railroad Surveys of the 1850s have been called America's "first environmental impact statements." These volumes, 12 in all, often illustrated with color lithographs and detailed illustrations of the botany, geology, and anthropology of the routes, and which cost the government more than the surveys themselves, set a publishing standard unmatched by later government publications. Two of the Railroad Surveys passed near Mt. Shasta, and the artwork and descriptions of the Shasta region as found in the published reports are a major contribution to the legacy of Mt. Shasta arts and sciences.
The [MS number] indicates the Mount Shasta Special Collection accession numbers
used by the College of the Siskiyous Library.
[MS5].��������� Abbot, Henry Larcom 1831-1927.�
Report of Lieut. Henry L. Abbot Corps of Topographical Engineers upon Explorations
for a Railroad Route, from the Sacramento Valley to the Columbia River, Made
by Lieut. R.S. Williamson. In: Reports of Explorations and Surveys to
Ascertain the Most Practicable and Economical Route for a Railroad from the
Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean. Made under the Direction of the Secretary
of War, in 1854-55, According to Acts of Congress of March 3, 1853, May 31,
1854, and August 5, 1854. Volume VI. 33rd Congress. 2d Session. House Document
91.� Washington, D.C.: A.O.P. Nicholson, Printer, 1857. pp. 1-134.�� Abbot's
report is part of Volume 6 of the twelve volume Pacific Railroad Reports. Volume
6 of the PRR contains Abbot's report and several other scientific reports concerning
the natural history and geographical findings of this specific 1855 northern
California expedition. Abbot's report is often referred to as the 1855 "Williamson
Expedition" report. It was expedition leader Robert Stockton Williamson's
(1824-1882) responsibility to write the report but he was unable to do so due
to ill-health.
����� The 1855 Williamson Survey investigated the practicality of a� north-south railroad route through the mountains of northern California and southern Oregon. Beginning at Fort Reading east of present-day Redding, California, the group journied northeast through Fall River and the region east of Mount Shasta. At Lost River, near the California--Oregon border the party split in two, both groups from then on periodically rejoining. Both groups continued on a northward track east of the Oregon Cascades until the Columbia River. On the southward return trip the party surveyed the route west of the Oregon Cascades and came over the Siskiyou mountains as far south as Yreka, Calif. It appears that the party never explored the southern part of the Shasta Valley, having turned southwest to Scott Valley and continuing on to Shasta City near Redding.
����� Abbot's report consists in the main of day by day journal notes. On occasion quotes are taken from Williamson's field notes. Both Abbot and Williamson write about the Indians and settlers encountered along the way. Contains a four page index� (pp. 131-134).
����� Abbot's report contains original color lithographs and black and white engravings by expedition artist John Young. One lithograph, entitled "Shasta Bute and Shasta Valley from a Point near Camp 79A" (facing p.110) has been reproduced in many later books about Mt. Shasta. Contains twelve other full-page color lithographs of Cascade peaks, including "Lassen's Butte," and "Mt. Pitt."
����� Volume VI of the PRR contains four Parts plus six Appendices as follows (abbreviated titles):�� Part I (134pp.) - General Report of the expedition by H. L. Abbot. ;�� Part II (85pp.)- Geological Reports.� No. 1, Geology of Route by expedition geologist J. S. Newberry.� No. 2, Tertiary Fossils by T. A. Conrad.� No. 3, Hot Springs in Des Chutes Valley by Prof. E. N. Hornsford.� No.4,� Minerals and Fossils.� Part III (94pp.)- Botanical Reports.� No.1, Botany of the Route by John S. Newberry, M.D.� No. 2, Catalogue of the Plants collected on the Expedition.; Part IV (110pp.) - Zoological Reports.� No.1, Fishes collected on the Survey by Dr. C. Girard.� No. 2, Zoology of the Route by J.S. Newberry, M.D.�� Appendix A. Astronomical Observations.� Appendix B.� Comparison of Chronometers.� Appendix C. List of Camps.� Appendix D. Barometrical and Thermetrical Observations.� Appendix E. Barometric Column Oscillations.� Appendix F. Data for Profiles of Routes.
����� Note that this book also contains field notes (Part I, pp. 127-129) from Lieut. Williamson's earlier 1851 exploration of a trail from Yreka to Fort Reading via Sheep Rock and Fall River (see Williamson "Report of Lieut. R.S. Williamson of a trip in 1851" In: Reports of Explorations and Surveys ...Vol. 6. 1857).
����� The best summary of the split� group Williamson routes is to be found in Volume 11 of the PRR (see Warren "Memoir to Accompany the Map of the Territory of the United States..., 1859." The 1861 map of northern California accompanying Vol. 11 details the 1855 routes with a track line.���� 09. Early Exploration: American Government Expeditions, 1841-1860.� [MS5].
[MS15]. ���������Beckwith, Edward Griffen 1826-1909.� Report of Explorations for a Route for the Pacific Railroad on the Line of the Forty-First Parallel of North Latitude. By Lieut. E.G. Beckwith, Third Artillery. 1854. In: Reports of Explorations and Surveys to Ascertain the Most Practicable and Economical Route for a Railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean. Made under the Direction of the Secretary of War, in 1854-55, According to Acts of Congress of March 3, 1853, May 31, 1854, and August 5, 1854. Volume II. 33rd Congress. 2d Session. House Document 91.� Washington, D. C.: A.O.P. Nicholson, Printer, 1855. pp.1-132. (Pagination of the various reports contained in Volume II is not consecutive, each report begins with a new page 1.� Note that in this volume, page 1 of the 41st parallel Survey follows p.128 of the 38th Parallel Survey, also written by Beckwith.).�� The 41st. Parallel Survey Report contains details of the route traversed from Salt Lake City to Fort Reading, by way of Susanville, the Pitt River Valley, and Noble's Pass. Of local interest are the observations of Beckwith relative to "Madelin Pass" (from which the expedition's artist Baron von Egloffstein drew sketches of Mount Shasta), the "Emigrant Road-Lassen's," "McCloud's Fork," customs of the "Pitt River" Indians, the "Sacramento River" (another name at that time for the Pit River), "Noble's Pass," and "Fort Reading." The book contains an especially detailed report on the geology of the Pit River area, with many plates of fossils. There is also a report on the meteorological observations along the entire route. Not included in this report are the three engravings by Baron von Egloffstein which show Mount Shasta: these three plates, delayed in production, were later included in Volume XI of the Survey Reports.���� 09. Early Exploration: American Government Expeditions, 1841-1860.� [MS15].
[MS880].��������� Brackenridge, William Dunlop
1810-1893.� The Brackenridge Journal for the Oregon Country.� Seattle,
Wash.: University of Washington Press, 1931. Reprint from the Washington Historical
Quarterly, Vol. 21, pp. 218-229, 298-305; Vol. 22, pp. 42-58, 129-145, 216-227.����
Consists of the first half of the Brackenridge journal of the 1841 Wilkes-Emmons
overland expedition. For the remaining half of the journal see Maloney A Botanist
on the Road to Yerba Buena In California Historical Society Quarterly. Vol.
24, No. 4, 1945.
����� Brackenridge's Sept. 29th, 1841 entry states that "We are now at the base of the Shaste mountains, which are in general considered the boundary line between Oregon & California Territories, though densely covered with brush wood the ascent was very easy & we expected every step as we advanced, to have a Skirmish with the Indians, our exertions otherwise passed off easy....When on the summit we got a sight of a high Snowy mountain in form somewhat like Mt. St. Helens, & soon descended into an extensive valley where we encamped on the bank of a small stream for the night" (p. 64). Note that Brackenridge is here equating the "Shaste Mountains" with the present Siskiyous, whereas other members of the Wilkes-Emmons group called the Siskiyous the "Boundary Range" (see Dana Geology 1849). Note that examples of the naming problem begin on Sept. 25, when Brackenridge used the name Rogue River for present-day Rogue River, but Emmon's journal calls the Rogue River "the Shaste" (see Emmons manuscript journal 1841, and Wilkes' Letter of Sept. 1, 1841). Thus begins the confusion over the location of the Shastas: the Shaste River, The Shaste Mountains, and the Shaste Peak, a confusion which ultimately ended in the name of "Mt. Shasty" being taken from its old location as the name for what is now Mt. McLoughlin (see Mitchell map 1846). That there were different possible concepts of the "Shaste Mountains" is crucial to understanding why the group may have misnamed "Pit Mountain," i.e., the present Mt. Shasta, as "Mt. Shaste" (see Emmons 1841). Brackenridge possibly dissented in calling present Mt. Shasta 'Mt Shaste,' for he calls it on Oct. 10 'the Bute or snowy Mountain'--names also used by later emigrants--and indicates his displeasure in the route taken. He writes: '...the route which we took was to the west of the Bute or snowy Mountain, but it is my belief that had we kept to the eastward of it our route would have been shorter and easier.'
����� Brackenridge's accounts of the Mt. Shasta region country are very interesting. He says, for example, on Oct. 1st, that: "Moved from Camp Ground at 1/4 past 7 A.M. crossed the Chaste River soon after, breadth 80 yards: 18 in to 2 feet deep: bounded by low bushy banks. This river abounds in a species of Salmon of a whitish colour and not very delicate to the taste, passed over during the day a gravely sandy desert which continued 12 Miles, and bounded by conical low hills. Came again on the Shasty & camped by it. (distance 20 miles)....Weather very warm. No water for 15 Miles. Miserable Country, the Shaste Valley-" (p. 65). And on� Oct. 2nd� he says: "Had visit of Shaste Indians at Camp, who conducted themselves with great propriety. They sold us fish, Bows and Arrows, for Knives buttons, &c. These bows are made of Yew tree, their arrows of Tassle wood which they barb with volcanic glass, their Quivers are either of Seal skin, or wild Cat. These weapons are well made and they use them with great dexterity, particularly in shooting fish, and for my own part I would as soon at one hundred yards distance, have a musket discharged at me as an arrow from one of these Indian Bows-" (p. 66).�
����� William Dunlop Brackenridge was the Scottish horticulturalist who discovered what he and others considered the most significant plant discovery of the entire world-wide four-year United States Exploring Expedition. The plant was the insectiverous California Pitcher plant, Darlingtonia Californica, discovered at the base of Castle Crags. Brackenridge's journal consists in the main of plant observations. On Oct. 2nd, for example, there is are two annotated lists entitled "Fruits Indigenous to the Oregon Territory That are Eaten by the Natives" and "Roots of Indigenous Plants Eaten by the Oregon Indians" (pp. 66-67).���� 09. Early Exploration: American Government Expeditions, 1841-1860.� [MS880].
[MS1146].��������� Colvocoresses, George Musalas
1816-1872.� Four Years in a Government Exploring Expedition: to the Island
of Madeira�Cape Verde Islands�Brazil�Coast of Patagonia�Chili�Peru�Paumato Group�Society
Islands�Navigator Group�Australia�Antartic Continent�New Zealand�Friendly Islands�Fejee
Group�Sandwich Islands�Northwest Coast of America�Oregon�California�East Indies�St.
Helena, etc., etc.� New York: Cornish, Lamport and Co., Publishers, 1852.
'In One Volume By Lieut. Geo. M. Colvocoresses, U. S. Navy, An Officer of the
Expedition.'���� Author traveled with the Wilkes-Emmons overland expedition
of 1841. Book includes a chapter entitled "Chapter XXI: From Vancouver
to San Francisco" (pp. 273-308)� The entire book was popular in its time,
and went through five editions. Based on a rewriting of the author's own original
diary of the 1838-1842 Wilkes Expedition which sailed around the world. The
author throws some light on the 1838-1842 Wilkes Expedition's journal-keeping
requirement, a requirement which, incidentally, has enabled future generations
to read six different detailed first-person diary accounts of the Mt. Shasta
region as it was in 1841 (see also the published and unpublished Wilkes-Emmons
Expedition journals of Dana, Eld, Emmons, Peale, and Brackenridge). Colvocoresses
clarifies some of the process involved in keeping the journals current: "...compiled
from a Journal, or a Diary, which the author kept in obedience to a 'General
Order' from the Navy Department, and that the journal in question was frequently
submitted to Commander-in-Chief of the Expedition for his inspection and perusal"
(from the author's preface).
���� Colvocoresses describes his entire journey from Fort Vancouver to San Francisco. He gives considerable attention to the Indians met along the route immediately before and after the Siskiyou Mountains, called by the author the "boundary range." He says: "On the 29th, we crossed the boundary range which separates Oregon from Upper California. The greatest elevation of the range was found to be 2,000 feet. The ascent was steep and tedious, and every moment we expected to be attacked by hostile Indians. The hunter named Tibbats, was one of a large party which was nearly destroyed by the savages three years before....fresh tracks were observable in every direction, and large trees felled across the path to prevent the party from advancing. On arriving at the summit of the range, we obtained a view which more than repaid us for our trouble. The Shaste Mountains with their snowy peaks, were to be seen some fifty miles to the southward, swelling and soaring to the skies..." (p. 292). Note that Colvocoresses uses the name "Shaste Mountains" to mean not only Mount Shasta, but the surrounding mountains as well. Later, he discusses the "Shaste Range" as leading down to the Sacramento Valley: "...being a succession of a range of high hills, separated from each other by narrow valleys, traversed by streams that are fed by the melting snows which cover the tops of the highest peaks" (p. 294).
����� Note also that earlier the author mentioned the "Shaste Mountains" when describing [John] Turner, an American trapper: "He has been to California several times, and in 1834 he formed one of a party of sixteen settlers, who set out to go there to purchase cattle, but they were attacked by the Indians during the night, near the base of the Shaste Mountains, and ten of the companions were massacred" (p. 276). Turner's place of attack was in the Rogue River Area, giving a different geographical context for the "base of the Shaste Mountains."
����� Contains a good deal of historical detail of the land and its inhabitants. The Big Horn Sheep of the Mt. Shasta region, for example, are described: "Oct. 2nd, 9 A. M. we bade adieu to Klamet River. Large herds of antelopes and mountain-sheep were seen; the latter are of a grayish color, have long spreading horns, and are larger than the ordinary sheep" (p. 293).���� 09. Early Exploration: American Government Expeditions, 1841-1860.� [MS1146].
[MS959].��������� Dana, James Dwight 1813-1895.�
[manuscript notebook, 1841, kept while serving as geologist on U. S. Exploring
Expedition overland from Oregon to California] .� 1841. Unpublished manuscript
notebook. Available on microfilm from the main Yale University Library, Dept.
of Manuscripts and Archives, under microfilm title HM 160.���� One of the major
documents recording the Wilkes-Emmons overland expedition of 1841. Portions
of the document were� rewritten and simplified for publication in 1849 (see
Dana "Notes ..." 1849). This important journal apparently has never
been fully transcribed.
����� Dana was one of the great geologists of the 19th century, and his observations are accordingly professional. Note that photocopies from the microfilm of the manuscript are very difficult to read, the difficulty being mostly due to Dana's compressed handwriting.
����� Of Mt. Shasta, Dana writes: "Wednesday Sept 29-off up Rogue Mt. by 5h45....View of Shasty Mt. from Summit of Mt. Rogue a lofty snowy peak rising far above the low mountain ridges around it- Summit appears to be a narrow ridge.- a shallow basin w. side of Summit - a second conical peak rises from part of this basin- The latter may have been the last cone, within the more ancient one, like Vesuvius within Mt. Somma.� Snow in uninterupted sheets. Black rocks exposed over large portions of the peak--The snowy peak continues in sight most of the way after descending Rogue Mt."
���� Dana includes a mention of the Tibbetts's party being attacked at a site on the south side of the present-day Siskiyou pass several years earlier (see also Eld 1841).
���� Dana was the first person to geologically describe the Shasta Valley hills, hills which have fascinated geologists for over 150 years. Dana writes what perhaps presages the 1980s discoveries of modern geologists (see Crandell et al 1984): "Sat. Oct 1..... The volcanic hills, stretch over the prairie towards the Shasty peak, and are probably connected in origin with the former eruptions of this extinct volcano-none of the hills had the form of craters, tho' this may have been the case with some- The sand around those we passed was generally of sandstone, in no instance did the basaltic soil extend 100 feet from the hill usually the sandstone soil rather encroached on the hills - proof that the country around has been levelled (plains formed) by floods (or when under the sea) spreading the detritis of the xxxxx sandstone hills" (see also Dana "Notes ..."1849).
��� Contains Dana's original drawings of present-day Pilot Rock (on "Rogue Mt"), Mt. Shasta (the "Shasty Peak" drawing, facing entry for Oct. 3, and not any of the redrawings found later in the journal, such as microfilm HM 160 007 0793. Also, do not confuse Dana's "Shasty Peak" with A. T. Agate's "Shasty Peak," also drawn in 1841 ), Castle Crags ("the Needles"), and Sutter Buttes ("the Prairie Bute" microfilm HM 160 007 0811). Note that Dana's original sketch of Mt. Shasta is more three dimensional than would be suspected from the 1849 published engraving (see Dana "The Shasty Peak" in Dana "Notes..."1849). The original sketch also contains annotations of snow fields and rock types.
���� The overland exploring expedition had been requested by philologist Horatio Hale (see Hale 1846) to use a standardized vocabulary list of about 100 English words and inquire for Indian language equivalents. Dana interviewed a group of Indians at the base of Mt. Shasta and collected the vocabulary from them. This vocabulary includes words like "itswat" for heart, and "harahara" for hawk (microfilm HM 160 006 586). Note that this list of "Shasty" Indian words is undoubtedly the first such written compilation of Shasta words; note also that this vocabulary became the basis of Hale's "Shastean" family of languages, though the vocabulary was perhaps not accurately representative of all the languages of Hale's "Shaste Country" of southern Oregon. Hale was the first person to describe the Shasta language family; had Dana taken down a vocabulary in the "Shaste Country" of the Rogue River as described in some of the Wilkes-Emmons overland journals, the name Shasta might be today applied to a different tribe (see Powell "Indian Linguistic Families of America North of Mexico" in Holder 1971).� It may well be that the Wilkes-Emmons overland expedition is responsible for not only mis-naming present Mt. Shasta, but as well for indirectly mis-naming the tribe now called the "Shasta."
���� Dana's manuscript notebook is remarkable in being an eyewitness account by the first professional geologist ever to see present-day Mt. Shasta. It is even more remarkable that the geologist in question, James Dwight Dana, was, as Smithsonian Institution historians have called him: "...the singlemost influential American geologist of the nineteenth century and [he] remains a towering figure in the history of geology" (see Viola and Margolis 1985, p. 89).���� 09. Early Exploration: American Government Expeditions, 1841-1860.� [MS959].
[MS314].��������� Dana, James Dwight 1813-1895.
Notes on Upper California: From Observations Made During the Cruise of the
United States Exploring Expedition, Under Capt. Charles Wilkes, U.S.N. In:
American Journal of Science and Arts. 1849. 2nd series, Vol. 7. pp. 247-264.
This article was published shortly after beginning of the gold rush to California.
Dana, the pre-eminent American geologist of the 19th century, was deluged with
requests for information about northern California gold mainly because Dana
had already been to California as a member of the Oregon-California 1841 Wilkes-Emmons
overland expedition. The article is mostly a rewrite of Dana's 1841 overland
manuscript notebook entries. These observations of Mount Shasta were the first
ever by a professional geologist. Dana estimates the height of the mountain
quite reasonably: he says "...the Shasty Peak, a volcanic cone, twelve
to fourteen thousand feet high, which had been in view from the mountains just
north of the Clammat" (p. 247).
����� Of the general appearance of Mount Shasta he accurately describes that: "Each summit had probably been a separate place of ejection; the smaller appeared as if it might bear the same relation to the larger, as Vesuvius to Somma. The sides were covered with loose fragments, without vegetation where in sight, and had the ashy color of the trachytic rocks passed on our route. The snow was in the banks or patches about the more sheltered parts of the top, and not in an unbroken coat, as about St. Helens. The declivities were in general but little broken; but the southwestern face, from the summit down three or four thousand feet, was intersected by projecting ridges of rock that stood out in points and walls and cast long shadows over the slopes; these shadows indicating a height of at least some hundreds of feet. They were evidently walls or dikes of volcanic rock filling former fissures in the crater, and now projecting owing to the removal of the rock material that enclosed them" (p. 250). This article is highly recommended reading for anyone interested in the history of scientific exploration of Mount Shasta. Dana's manuscript journal (see Dana Manuscript Journal... 1841) contains a wealth of additional material beyond what is printed in this article.
����� Note that in this article Dana mentions having talked with Hudson's Bay trapper Thomas McKay before the overland trip southward began. McKay told Dana that there were hot springs east of "Mount Shasty" : "...he [McKay] had boiled eggs in its waters" (p. 250). McKay's description as related by Dana more befits present-day Mount McLoughlin which was the original "Mount Shasty" for Peter Skene Ogden and the Hudson's Bay Company. Several comments in the journals of other Wilkes-Emmons overland explorers also lead one to the interpretation that in 1841 Dana and the rest of the official exploring group were misled by accompanying American civilians to name the wrong mountain as "Mount Shasty" (see Emmons Manuscript Journal 1841).
����� Illustrating the article is an engraving of a sketch by Dana, the second picture of Mount Shasta ever published, entitled "The Shasty Peak - bearing by compass N E b N" (facing p. 250). Dana also wrote a general geography of Oregon and Upper California published in the same journal and which clarifies the distinction among the "Shasty Peak," "Shasty Mountains," and "Shasty" district (see Dana, J. D. "Observations..." in: American Journal of Science and Arts, 1849, pp. 376-394). 09. Early Exploration: American Government Expeditions, 1841-1860.� [MS314].
[MS667].��������� Dana, James Dwight 1813-1895.�
United States Exploring Expedition. During the Years 1838, 1839, 1840, 1841,
1842. Vol. 10: Geology.� Philadelphia, Pa.: C. Sherman, 1849. Contains one
of the earliest and yet timeless statements about Mt. Shasta. The eminent 19th
century geologist James Dwight Dana's impression of Mt. Shasta:� " Mount
Shasty is another of these hoary summits. A heavy mist covered the region as
we approached it. Gazing up intently for the peak, visible in the earlier part
of the day, we barely discovered some lights and shades far above us, which
produced, through the indefiniteness of view, a vision of immensity such as
pertains to the vast universe rather than to our own planet" (p. 615).
����� Contains probably the very first detailed description of Black Butte: "In one view, from the West, the steep and even slopes of a black 'sugar loaf' rose from a deep valley below us; it was one object in the distant prospect from the prairie, the day before. The top of this volcanic cone was a little broken, and probably contained a crater, though none could be seen from the direction observed. We estimated the height at three thousand feet above its base, or four thousand feet five hundred feet above the sea. The sides were enveloped in pines or cedars, except about the summit, where only a few stinted trees made out to grow.'
����� Contains a clear statement that Dana, at least in 1849 but not necessarily in his original 1841 notebook, considered the Shasty River to be far separated from the Shasty Mountains. Here Dana means, as did Wilkes in the Wilkes Narratives, that the Shasty River was one and the same as the present Rogue River, and that the Shasty Mountains were one and the same as the present upper Sacramento River Canyon mountains. Dana states "...we crossed the Shasty River, and continued through an unproductive country to a range of hills about fifteen hundred feet in height. Crossing this ridge, (named by us the Boundary Range, as it was near latitude 42�,) we entered upon an undulating region abounding in gravel and little else, and thence passed to the plains of the Clammat. The Clammat is a fine river...leaving the Clammat region just south of 42�, we entered the Shasty Mountains, and were nearly a week ascending and descending steep and sharp ridges, from a few hundred to two thousand feet high: we at last opened on the plaine of the Sacramento, two hundred and fifty miles above its mouth" (pp. 622-623). Note that Mount Shasty was already mentioned (p. 615); thus Dana has used the terms Shasty River [=Rogue River], Mount Shasty [=Mount Shasta], and Shasty Mountains [=Sacramento River Canyon mountains] in a north to south description.���� 09. Early Exploration: American Government Expeditions, 1841-1860.� [MS667].
[MS810].��������� Dana, James Dwight 1813-1895.
Observations on Some Points in the Physical Geography of Oregon and Upper
California. In: American Journal of Science and Arts. May, 1849. 2nd Series,
Vol. 7. No. 21. pp. 376-394. This article, published in May, 1849, elaborates
on themes presented in a previously published article in the same journal in
the same year (see Dana, J. D. "Notes..." in: American Journal of
Science and Arts, 1849, pp. 247-264). James Dwight Dana was the geologist on
the Wilkes-Emmons Overland Expedition of 1841. This article contains a generalized
account of Pacific Coast geography, with specific mention of the "Shasty
Peak" and the "Shasty Mountains" as two distinct entities.
����� Dana states that "The Umpqua mountains, nearly at the same distance inland, were 2,000 to 2,500 feet in height- a steep and rugged collection of ridges. The Shasty mountains west of the Shasty Peak, were from 2,000 to 6,000 feet high and covered the country for a breadth of forty miles in latitude, forming thus a wide barrier between the Shasty and Sacramento regions. There is another smaller ridge between the Clammat and Shasty rivers, east of the junction of these streams, and situated near the parallel of 42�; as it lay along the southern boundary of Oregon, we called it the Boundary Range. It was about 1,200 feet high at our pass. and some of its peaks rose to 1,500 feet" (pp. 383-384).
����� Dana's definitions of the various applications of the term "Shasty" correspond to the various uses of the term in the Eld manuscript maps (see Eld 1841) and to the Wilkes Narratives (see Wilkes 1844). 09. Early Exploration: American Government Expeditions, 1841-1860.� [MS810].
[MS387].��������� Duflot de Mofras, Eugene 1810-1884.�
Exploration du Territoire de L'Oregon, Des Californie et de la Mer Vermeille,
Ex�cut� pendant les Ann�s 1840, 1841 et 1842.� Paris: Arthus Bertrand, 1844.
2 Volumes. Map.���� Text refers to Mount Shasta as "Mont Klamak,"
the Siskiyou Mountains as "Mont Sast�s," and Mt. McLoughlin as "Mont
Sast�." A map accompanying the book contradicts the above usage and labels
Mount Shasta as "Mont Sast�" and Mt. McLoughlin as "Mont Siscayou."
����� De Mofras writes in his 1844 book: "Ce lac [Lac Masqu�], comme l'indque son nom, est cach� au milieu de terrains bas et couverts de jone �pais; il est form� par les eaux provenant des Monts Sast�s, cha�non occidental de la Sierra Nevada, qui court vers la mer, entre les 41� et 42� degr�s de latitude, et semble former la division naturelle entre la California et le pays arros� par les affluents du Rio Colombia et du Ouallamet" (Vol. 1, p. 454).
����� "La rivi�re des Indiens Klamaks ....qui prend sa source dans le lac Klamak, au pied des Monts Sast�s, non loin de l'origine du Rio del Sacramento" (Vol. 2, p. 38).�
����� "A cette derni�re cha�ne appartiennent le Mont Saint �lias, la plus haute montagne jusqu`a pr�sent mesur�e dans L'Am�rique septentrionale, et dont la hauteur d�passe cinq mille quatre m�tres, la montagne du Beau Temps, les monts Baker, Olympe, Rainier, Saint H�l�ne, Hood, Van Couver, Umqua, Mac Loughlin, Sast� et Klamak. La Sierra Nevada de la Californie forme la continuation de cette cha�ne, qui, apr�s s'�tre r�unie aux Monts Californiens, vers l'embouchure du Rio Colorado, vient se terminer au cap San Lucas, � l'extr�mit� sud de la presqu'�le de la Vielle Californie' (Vol.2, p. 98).
����� The above quotations contain three references, two to the name 'Sast�s' and one to 'Sast�', which indicate that De Mofras is referring to the Siskiyou mountains in the plural, and in the singular to perhaps present-day Mt. Mcloughlin. The name mont 'Klamak' may have meant present-day Mt. Shasta (for an English translation see de Mofras. "Duflot de Mofras Travels on the Pacific Coast" Marguerite Eyer Wilbur translator and editor, 1937).
����� Note, however, that the 1844 map published by de Mofras is one of the first two maps (the other is Wilkes 1844 map) to put the name of 'Sast�' on present -day Mt. Shasta. Why the de Mofras map differs from the de Mofras text, as far as naming present-day Mount Shasta, is understandable if the text was committed to type before the engraving of the map, which could have been changed at the last minute as the new Wilkes maps became available in 1844.���� 09. Early Exploration: American Government Expeditions, 1841-1860.� [MS387].
[MS384].��������� Duflot de Mofras, Eugene 1810-1884.�
Duflot de Mofras' Travels on the Pacific Coast.� Santa Ana, Calif.: The
Fine Arts Press, 1937. Two Volumes. First French edition published in 1844.����
In 1841 the Frenchman Eugene Duflot de Mofras traveled widely in California
and Oregon. He became good friends with John Sutter at New Helvetia (now Sacramento),
though he does not appear to have traveled inland farther north than Sutter's
Fort. He went by sea to the Columbia River, where he met two important visitors
to Fort Vancouver, namely U. S. Exploring Expedition leader Charles Wilkes,
and the Hudson's Bay Company's Governor George Simpson. He also met Hudson's
Bay Company's resident chief factor John McLoughlin. Note that the majority
of Hudson's Bay trappers in the Oregon Territory were French-speaking French-Canadians
giving Duflot de Mofras perhaps more access to information from the trappers
themselves than would be possible for an English-speaking person.
����� In his book Duflot de Mofras mentions the name Shasta [Sast�, in the French version]. The first time he puts it in the plural, referring probably to present-day Siskiyous Mountains: "Lake Masqu�....The lake is formed by the waters descending from the Shasta Mountains [Monts Sast�s, in the original French], the western chain of the Sierra Nevada, which extend toward the sea between the forty-first and forty-second parallels, and appear to form the natural boundary between California and Willamette rivers" (Vol. 1, p. 242).
����� The second entry of the name Shasta [Sast�] refers to a snow-capped peak, probably present-day Mt. McLoughlin:� "...also the peaks Fairweather [la montagne du Beau Temps, in the original French], Baker, Olympus [Olympe], Rainier, St. H�l�ne, Hood, Vancouver, Umpqua [Umqua], McLoughlin [Mac Loughlin], Shasta [Sast�], and Klamath [Klamak]" (Vol. 2, p. 47). Note that the original French version read Umqua, and then Mac Loughlin, as given here; Wilbur's translation incorrectly placed McLoughlin north of Umpqua; de Mofras in all probability was equating "McLoughlin" with present-day Mt. Thielsen or another peak, "Shasta" [Sast�] with Mt. McLoughlin, and "Klamak" with Mt. Shasta. De Mofras had been to Sutter's Fort and could have looked north to Mount Shasta, and knew the Klamath river was just beyond. The name Klamath [Klamak] would have been a logical name for present-day Mt. Shasta, although it is possible that" Klamak" was his name for present Mt. Lassen.
����� An historical problem exists in explaining why the de Mofras map, which accompanied the French edition of the book, is one of the first two maps to ever show present-day Mount Shasta with a Shasta sounding name [Sast�]; this contradicts the place-name usage in his text (see De Mofras "General Map of the Pacific Coast" in Wilbur 1937)
����� Incidentally De Mofras' map may have been the first map ever to use the name "Siskiyou" in print. De Mofras named on his map present-day Mt. McLoughlin as "Mont Siscayou."���� 09. Early Exploration: American Government Expeditions, 1841-1860.� [MS384].
[MS385].��������� Duflot de Mofras, Eugene 1810-1884.�
General Map of the Pacific Coast [map]. In: Wilbur, Marguerite Eyer.�
Duflot de Mofras' Travels on the Pacific Coast.� Santa Ana, Calif.: The
Fine Arts Press, 1937. Map first published in 1844. Original title of the map
was Carte de la C�te de l'Am�rique sur L'oc�an Pacifique Septentrional comprenant
le Territoire de l'Or�gon, les Californies, la Mer Vermeille, Partie des Territoires
de la Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson, et de l'Am�rique Russe.���� This 1844 French
map was one of the first two maps, the other being Charles Wilkes's 1844 "Oregon
Territory" map, to ever show present-day Mount Shasta named "Shasta"
in any of the various "Shasta" spellings. De Mofras spelled Mt. Shasta
as "Mont Sast�" on his map, and Wilkes spelled it "Mount Shaste."
����� Historically, it appears that the members of the Wilkes-Emmons overland expedition of 1841 named the wrong mountain as 'Shasty' (see Eld "journal" 1841;" and Emmons "journal" 1841) and should have placed the name of 'Shasty' on present-day Mt. McLoughlin, as was done on several maps prior to and even after 1841 by other authorities. Wilkes adopted the names of his own explorers, and shifted the name 'Shaste' down to its present location, though leaving the name of "Shaste River" for the Rogue River.
����� Note that Duflot de Mofras probably followed the lead of Wilkes in naming present Mt. Shasta as Monte Sast�. Without going into detail, Duflot de Mofras met Wilkes in 1841 at Fort Vancouver and traveled with Wilkes's philologist Horatio Hale to both Monterey and Mexico later in 1841. Thus a connection between the Wilkes Expedition and Duflot de Mofras is established.
����� More importantly, almost all of the published accounts of the Wilkes Expedition, even the interim reports from 1839 to 1841, had been sent from Washington, D.C. to the Royal Geographic Society in Paris by French contacts working in the U.S. In the Bulletin of the Societ� Geographique Francaise in 1843, for example, there is a forty page extract in translation of a speech Wilkes gave on his return from the four-year voyage (see Societe Geographique Francaise 1843). Not only was de Mofras' 1844 book and map published by the Society, but also by 1846 de Mofras had become the secretary of the Society; thus it is certain that de Mofras had access to the maps and writings of Wilkes.
����� Because the Duflot de Mofras 1844 map names seem to contradict the place-names in his 1844 text, it may be that the map was printed sometime after the accompanying book had already been typeset. Perhaps shortly after the Wilkes' maps were published de Mofras obtained them and incorporated the name� "Mount Shaste" following Wilkes's new convention.
����� But Duflot de Mofras also used the name of "Rio Siscayou" for a part of the upper Rogue River and the name "Mont Siscayou" for present Mt. McLoughlin. The names "Rio Siscayou" and 'Mont Siscayou' may have come from Hudson's Bay Company officers. Duflot de Mofras credits the officers at Fort Vancouver with giving him many "notions interessants" about the Oregon Territory (see De Mofras 1844, p. 483). Of course, this raises the possibility that the name 'Mont Sast�' for present Mt. Shasta was given by the Hudson's Bay Company officers as well, though Duflot de Mofras's text names do not match his map names.���� 09. Early Exploration: American Government Expeditions, 1841-1860.� [MS385].
[MS811].��������� Edward Eberstadt and Sons.� Catalogue No. 119: The Northwest Coast: Personal Narratives of Discovery, Conquest and Exploration.� New York: Edward Eberstadt and Sons, 1941. pp. 88-115.�� The rare book firm of Edward Eberstadt and Sons came into possession of the 1841 Wilkes-Emmons overland expedition journals of both George Foster Emmons and Henry Eld. Portions of both journals are printed in this catalogue, including drawings by Eld. These excerpts have never been printed anywhere else, and Eberstadt and Sons Catalogue No. 119 is an acknowledged classic as a work of history. From Eberstadt the journals went to William R. Coe, who then donated them to the Beinecke Library at Yale University. The journals have never been fully transcribed or published, though they hold many clues to the naming of Mt. Shasta in 1841.���� 09. Early Exploration: American Government Expeditions, 1841-1860.� [MS811].
[MS844].��������� Elam, Charles H.� The Peale Family.� Detroit, Mich.: Detroit Institute of Arts, 1967. Contains biographical information about Titian Ramsay Peale, the artist-naturalist who visited Mount Shasta as a member of the Wilkes-Emmons overland expedition in 1841.���� 09. Early Exploration: American Government Expeditions, 1841-1860.� [MS844].
[MS673].��������� Eld, Henry 1814-1850.� [manuscript
journal, Sept. 6 to Oct. 29, 1841, kept on the Wilkes-Emmons overland expedition
from Oregon to California] .� 1841. Microfilm available from the Beinecke
Library. Original manuscript housed at the Beinecke Library, Yale University.
Portions have been printed in Eberstadt, Edward and Sons. Catalogue No. 119:
The Northwest Coast, Personal Narratives of Discovery, Conquest and Exploration
1941���� This journal by Henry Eld, cartographer of the Wilkes-Emmons overland
expedition of 1841, contains text as well as 43 full-page manuscript maps each
covering a portion of the route between Fort Vancouver and San Francisco. Several
of the maps, those dated from Oct. 3 to Oct. 5, name "Sasty Country"
[from the present town of Edgewood south], "Sasty River" [present
Shasta River], "Sasty Peak" [Mount Shasta], and "Sasty Mountains"
[mountains south of Mount Shasta as far as present-day Redding]. The extensive
textual portion of Elds's journal have never been published.
����� Note that these maps are probably the first manuscript or published maps which name present-day Mount Shasta as something other than "Mt. Simpson," "Pit Mountain," or "Mount Jackson." Prior to these Eld 1841 maps all other known maps relevant to the question use the name "Mt. Shasty" for present-day Mt. McLoughlin.
����� The Eld maps are perhaps the most important maps of Mt. Shasta ever drawn, for they begin the chain of events which led to the establishment of a new Mt. Shasta. Wilkes used these maps to make the first published maps with the new name (see Wilkes "map of Oregon territory" 1844 in Wheat 1958) and Wilkes states that he showed the results of these maps to J. C. Fr�mont, who also adopted the new location for the name (see Wilkes� "letter to Gales and Seton, June 12, 1848" and Preuss "map..." 1848).
����� The voluminous text accompanying the maps contains details of the Mt. Shasta region. There are three volumes of original drawings including Elds's drawings of the Umpqua River and the Sacramento Valley. (see Haskell 1968, #429, p. 131 for a complete description of the Eld journals.)���� 09. Early Exploration: American Government Expeditions, 1841-1860.� [MS673].
[MS672].��������� Emmons, George Foster 1811-1884.�
[manuscript journal, 1841, kept while on Wilkes-Emmons overland expedition
from Oregon to California] .� 1841. Microfilm available from the Beinecke
Library. Original manuscript housed at the Beinecke Library, Yale University.����
Contains George Foster Emmons's important statement on Sept. 29, 1841 that:
"2 miles farther arrived at 42� on the edge of this barrier which separates
the Rogue from the Klamet tribe of Indians. From this position I obtained the
first view of the Shasty or Pitt Mountain, bearing pr comp S.E. Dist. about
45 miles. The top rugged & covered with snow. small vapor clouds were forming
under its lee. rising until they reached the easterly current of wind that swept
over its summit when gradually disappeared to the west."
����� Note that by mentioning "Shasty or Pitt" Emmons has indicated his uncertainty as to the name of this mountain. This uncertainty unfortunately was concomitant with the subsequent mis-naming� of what should have been "Pitt" as Mt. Shasty. The Wilkes-Emmons misnaming has stuck through time, and all but erased the knowledge that at one time Mt. Shasty was the Hudson's� Bay Company's proper name for present Mt. McLoughlin. It is not clear whether Emmons thought that Mt. "Shasty" and Mt. "Pitt" were one and the same mountain, or whether he thought that they were two different mountains.
����� Note that: 1) a U.S. Gov. 1838 map, known to be in the possession of George Wilkes, who sent Emmons to lead the overland expedition, depicted present-day Mt. McLoughlin as "Mt. Shasty," and depicted present-day Mt. Shasta as "Pit Mountain" (see Hood "map..." 1838); 2) that Emmons's journal earlier indicated poor visibility at the top of the Umpqua mountains and Emmons did not see the proper Mt. "Shasty" (present Mt. McLoughlin); and 3) that Emmons and group had confused the definition of the plural name "Shasty Mountains" of Wilkes letter of route instructions dated Sept. 1, 1841 (see Wilkes letter Sept. 1; and George Simpson "letter to John McLoughlin Esq., Mar. 1, 1842," both mentioning the 'Shasty Mountains').
����� Apparently Emmons could not have seen present-day Mt. McLoughlin (which at that time was still named Mt. Shasty). For the entry of� Sept. 22, 1841, on the summit of the Umpqua mountains, he wrote: "I had hoped that the atmosphere would have been clear so as to have allowed a view of the surrounding country upon crossing these mountains -- but I was disappointed and as long as it contains in its present state I feel that I am groping my way along half blind folded."
����� The confusion of the two mountain names is possibly explained by noting that non-navy American settlers traveling along with Emmons thought that present-day Mt. Shasta was "Mt. Shasty," and that these settlers convinced Emmons and the rest of the overland expedition to adopt the name of "Mt. Shasty" (see Edwards. "Diary of a Cattle Drive..." In Watson 1932). A comparison of the personnel shows that the Americans Tibbetts and Wood were on both the 1837 Edwards' cattle drive and on the 1841 Wilkes-Emmons Overland expedition.
����� Note that Emmons's journal has never been transcribed; it contains much important historical material which could lead to a better understanding of the naming of Mt. Shasta. He mentions the importance of Thomas McKay to the mapping of the region: "And from all I can learn [McKay] has furnished the principal if not all the data from which the H. B. Co. have constructed their charts of the country laying between the Columbia River, Rocky Mountains, and the Sacramento."
����� The Emmons journal contains a wealth of purely descriptive material. He mentions "Mt. Shaste" on Oct. 3, 1841. He says: "Encamped early on the headwaters of destruction river, which takes its rise in the Shaste mountain and at this place is only a rivulet. The water being principally the melted snows from the mountain are here very clear and cool. Got a good view and sketch of the peak which logs from us NE B N fr camp (16� var 6�) and dist between 7 and 8 miles. From a detached base I made its alt above my position-- 10,000 feet. From this view it assumes a ragged appearance. Is partially covered by snow and evidently of basaltic rock."
����� Note that the above extracts were taken from the original journal at the Beinecke Library. A microfilm edition is available from that institution.���� 09. Early Exploration: American Government Expeditions, 1841-1860.� [MS672].
[MS334].��������� Emmons, George Foster 1811-1884.�
Replies to Inquiries Respecting the Indian Tribes of Oregon and California
. In: Schoolcraft, Henry R. 1793-1864.� Historical and Statistical Information,
Respecting the History, Condition and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the
United States. Collected and Prepared under the Direction of the Bureau of Indian
Affairs...� Vol. 5, 1853.� Philadelphia, Pa.: Lippincott, Grambo and Co,
1853. pp. 200-225.�� Schoolcraft incorrectly names Emmons as 'George Falconer
Emmons.'���� George Foster Emmons was the leader of the 1841 Wilkes-Emmons overland
expedition from Oregon to California. Of the group of about 40 persons, half
were military and scientific personnel and the other half were Oregon residents
moving to California.� About ten years after the expedition Emmons sent a reply
to a complicated ethnographic questionnaire circulated by famed ethnographer
Henry Schoolcraft. Emmons's reply seems to be the only published information
from him concerning the 1841 overland expedition. Emmons did keep a journal
of the 1841 overland journey; the unpublished journal is now housed at the Beinecke
Library at Yale University.
����� Emmons answered only a few of the several hundred questions asked by Schoolcraft, and most of Emmons's answers are related to the region around the Columbia River. But there are two significant answers concerning the Shasta region. The first has to do with a wind storm in the Shast� mountains. Note that the "Shast� mountains" was Emmons's term for the mountains between present-day Mount Shasta and Redding. He says: "Had but little reason to suppose that this country was subject to frequent storms, tempests, or tornadoes; during the summer and fall months only experienced one, and this unattended with rain, thunder, or lightening; it happened in the month of October, while we were encamped near the Shast� mountains, and prostrated some giant trees" (p. 205).
���� This storm damage may be the reason why the 1841 Eld manuscript maps of the Wilkes-Emmons overland expedition (see Eld 1841) and the 1844 Wilkes map of Upper California (see Wilkes Map of Upper California 1844) both name the upper Sacramento River canyon as the "Destruction River." Note however that an Oakland tribune article states that the "Destruction River" was an early Hudson Bay Company name for the McCloud River where A. R. McLeod lost 300 horses in 1830 (see Jones, David Rhys., in "The Knave" column in the Oakland Tribune March 5, 1944).
����� The second Shasta-related answer by Emmons is about Indians. He says: "The introduction of the small-pox they attribute to the Hudson Bay Companies: the disease was very fatal to them in the year 1839. The ague and fever, which also proves fatal to many every year, they say was never known among them until the year 1830, when an American captain, by the name of Dominis, arrived at Astoria, in a vessel, from the Sandwhich islands; for these, and sundry other bodily complaints of modern date that they are subject to, they attribute altogether to the whites, whom, they appear to believe, have the power of withholding or communicating these diseases to them. Hence one cause of their avowed hostility to the whites, and particularly to my party's passing through their country; to prevent which I received warnings by runners from the Shast� nation, long before I reached the Umpqua river, with threats of annihilation if I attempted it" (p. 202).���� 09. Early Exploration: American Government Expeditions, 1841-1860.� [MS334].
[MS328].��������� Fremont, John Charles 1813-1890.�
Memoirs of My Life by John Charles Fremont: Including in the Narrative of
Five Journeys of Western Exploration, During the Years 1842, 1843-4, 1845-6,
1848-9, 1853-4. Together with a Sketch of the Life of Senator Benton, in Connection
with Western Expansion by Jessie Benton Fremont. A Retrospect of Fifty Years
Covering the Most Eventful Periods of Modern American History. Superbly Illustrated
by Original Portraits, Descriptive Plates, and, from the Mississippi River to
the Pacific, by a Series of Sketches and Daguerreotypes Made During the Journeys.�
Chicago, Ill.: 1887. Only Vol. 1 was ever published. The original book contained
several maps which have not been seen for review.���� Fremont states that on
April 6, 1846, "The snowy peak of Shastl bore directly north, showing out
high above the other mountains. Temperature at sunset 57� with a west wind and
sky partly clouded" (p. 474). This spelling of "Shastl" is the
same spelling that he used in his Geographical Memoir of 1848. The name "Shastl"
appears several other places in this section of the memoirs. Because this book
was written in 1887 its names may not necessarily reflect 1846 usage. But most
likely the names as given are those he used in 1846.
����� On April 7 Fremont says "We travelled toward the Shastl peak, the mountain ranges on both sides of the valleys being high and rugged, and snow covered. Some remarkable peaks in the Sierra, to the eastward are called the Sisters, and, nearly opposite, the Coast Range shows a prominent peak, to which in remembrance of my friend Senator Linn, I gave the name MOUNT LINN,....These giant monuments, rising above the country and seen from afar, keep alive and present with the people the memory of patriotic men and so continue their good services after death. Mount Linn and Mount Shastl keep open to the passing glance each an interesting page of the country's history - the one recording a successful struggle for the ocean boundary which it overlooks, the other the story of a strange people passed away. And so, too, these natural towers call attention from the detail of daily occupation to the larger duties which should influence the lives of men" (p. 475).
����� Note that these "Sisters" as mentioned eastward of the valley, above may be Mt. Lassen, and may offer a clue to the meaning of the "Twins" of the 1821 Arguello expedition (see Arg�ello 1992).
����� One of the illustrations in this book is of Mt. Shasta, shown improbably square on top.� Most likely it is a view from the east looking west. Titled "Forest Camp Shastl Peak" (p. 377) it is unattributed but upon detailed comparison it is unmistakably the work of Edward Kern, the artist who was with Fremont in 1845-1846.���� 09. Early Exploration: American Government Expeditions, 1841-1860.� [MS328].
[MS327].��������� Fremont, John Charles 1813-1890.�
A Report of the Exploring Expedition to Oregon and Northern California in
the Years 1843-'44. In: Jackson, Donald and Spence, Mary Lee.� The Expeditions
of John Charles Fr�mont: Volume 1, Travels from 1838 to 1844.� Urbana, Ill.:
University of Illinois Press, 1970. pp. 426-806.�� First published in 1845 in
Fr�mont's Report of the Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains in the Year
1843, and to Oregon and Northern California in the Years 1843-'44.� Washington,
D.C.: 1845.���� Reprint of the complete text, plus appendices, of the 1845 original,
with annotations by the editors. Mount Shasta is not referred to either by name
or description. The Fr�mont map issued with the report of 1845 showed no mountain
where Mount Shasta is today.
����� This report of the 1843-44 expedition, originally issued in book form bound along with the report of the Rocky Mountain expedition of 1842, became one of the all-time best sellers of exploration books. By the end of 1845 the book had been reprinted a dozen times and had made Fr�mont a national hero. The account was of the journey from the Columbia River south to Nevada and into California. It was in the middle of winter and the story of the crossing of Sierras through 8 foot high snow drifts made for exciting and shocking reading. They ate their horses on occasion to keep from starving and finally were reduced to killing their pet dog "Tlamath" for food. It was a sad and miserable journey for the group.
����� The name of 'Tlamath' is significant. Fr�mont explains that in November of 1843: "The camp was now occupied in making the necessary preparations for our homeward journey, which, though homeward, contemplated a new route, and a great circuit to the south and southeast, and the exploration of the Great Basin between the Rocky mountains and the Sierra Nevada. Three principle objects [Klamath Lake, Mary's Lake, and Buenaventura River] were indicated, by report or by maps, as being on this route; the character or existence of which I wished to ascertain, and which I assumed as landmarks, or leading points, on the projected line of return. The first of these points was the Tlamath� lake, on the table land between the head of Fall river, which comes to the Columbia, and the Sacramento, which goes to the Bay of San Francisco; and from which lake a river of the same name makes its way westwardly direct to the ocean. This lake and river are often called Klamet, but I have chosen to write its name according to the Indian pronunciation" (pp. 573-574).
����� An 1848 Fr�mont map uses the spelling of 'Tsashtl' for Mount Shasta, perhaps adding the initial 't' for the same reason of pronunciation, but the spelling of "Tsashtl" is anomalous because Fr�mont exclusively used the name "Shastl" in his texts (see Fremont Geographical Memoir... 1848, and Fr�mont Memoirs ... 1887).���� 09. Early Exploration: American Government Expeditions, 1841-1860.� [MS327].
[MS324].��������� Fremont, John Charles 1813-1890.�
Geographical Memoir upon Upper California, in Illustration of his Map of
Oregon and California. Senate Misc. Doc. 148, 30th Cong., 1st Session, Washington,
D.C., 1848, Serial 511. In: Spence, Mary Lee.� The Expeditions of John
Charles Fremont. Volume 3: Travels from 1848 to 1854.� Urbana, Ill.: University
of Illinois Press, 1984. pp. 495-570.�� First published in 1848. Complete reprint
of the 1848 Geographical Memoir,� not to be confused with Fr�mont's 1887 Memoirs
of My Life...������ The Geographical Memoir ... is concerned entirely with Fr�mont's
1845-46 second expedition to California and Oregon. His expedition passed east
of Mt. Shasta on a northward trek to the Klamath Lake region. Mt. Shasta is
mentioned several times as "Mt. Shastl." The accompanying map to the
report, a map by Charles Preuss, names Mt. Shasta as "Mt. Tsashtl"
(see Preuss map...1848). Note that the spelling of "Tsashtl" is quite
different from "Shastl."
����� Note that this 1848 Geographical Memoir does not concern itself with Fr�mont's 1843-1844 first expedition to Oregon and northern California; an 1845 report of that first expedition does not mention Mt. Shasta,� nor does its accompanying map depict Mt. Shasta (see Fremont Report...1843-44 , In: Jackson and Spence 1970).
����� In 1887 Fr�mont published his Memoirs of My Life... in which he also discusses his 1846 trip past "Mt. Shastl" (see Fremont 1887).���� 09. Early Exploration: American Government Expeditions, 1841-1860.� [MS324].
[MS326].��������� Fremont, John Charles 1813-1890.�
[letter to John Torrey, Sept. 3, 1848]. In : Spence, Mary Lee.� The
Expeditions of John Charles Fremont. Volume 3: Travels from 1848 to 1854.�
Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 1984. p. 48.�� Letter is dated Washington,
Sept. 3, 1848.���� Contains a mention of "Mt. Shastl," thus again
showing that in all of his known writings Fr�mont used the name of "Shastl,"
and not "Tsashtl." "Tsashtl" was first used on the Preuss-Fr�mont
map of 1848 but was not necessarily Fr�mont's choice of names.
����� Fr�mont says to Torrey: "I hope to reach California early in December. I shall send you plants such as the season shall afford by the first or second steamer (February or March) and you may rely on my exploring the country about Mt Shast� (Shastl) early in the next spring" (p. 48).
����� Fr�mont probably wrote the two spellings of Mt. Shast� and the parenthetical "(Shastl)" to clarify that both he and Torrey were referring to the same mountain.
����� Note that the date is September 1848 and that Fr�mont intended to visit Mt. Shasta the next spring. As far as is known an 1849 visit by Fr�mont to Mt. Shasta is not recorded in the literature. It is possible he attempted to climb the mountain at that time (see "Story of Fr�mont's Ascent of Shasta..." In Mount Shasta Herald., Apr. 18, 1929. A copy of this article has not been located for review).���� 09. Early Exploration: American Government Expeditions, 1841-1860.� [MS326].
[MS671].��������� Haskell, Daniel Carl 1883.� The
United States Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842 and Its Publications, 1844-1874.�
New York: Greenwood Press, Publishers, 1968. Reprint of the 1942 second edition.
First published in 1940 by the New York Public Library.���� This comprehensive
annotated bibliography contains entries for over 500 books, manuscripts, and
articles by and about the United States Exploring Expedition led by Charles
Wilkes. The most detailed entries are those for the official reports which were
issued by the government. Many of these reports contain information gathered
in Oregon and California. The titles of the reports give an excellent overview
of the aims and accomplishments of the 'U.S. Ex. Ex.' Of the following authors,
James Dwight Dana, Titian Ramsay Peale, and William Dunlop Brackenridge visited
Mt. Shasta as part of the 1841 Wilkes-Emmons overland expedition. The official
reports took decades of work to complete.
Vol. I to V-Narrative-Wilkes-1844/
Vol. I to V-Narrative-Wilkes-Atlas-1844/
Vol. VI-Ethnography and Philology-Hale-1846/
Vol. VII-Zoophytes-Dana-1846/
Vol. VII-Zoophytes-Dana-Atlas-1849/
Vol. VII-A-Mammalia and Ornithology-Peale-1848/
Vol. VII-B-Mammalogy and Ornithology-Cassin-1858/
Vol. VII-B-Mammalogy and Ornithology-Cassin-Atlas-1858/
Vol. IX-Races of Man-Pickering-1848/
Vol. X-Geology-Dana-1849/
Vol. X-Geology-Dana-Atlas-1849/
Vol. XI-Meteorology-Wilkes-1851/
Vol. XII-Mollusca and Shells-Gould-1852/
Vol. XII-Mollusca and Shells-Gould-Atlas-1856/
Vol. XII to XIV-Crustacea-Dana-1852/
Vol. XII to XIV-Crustacea-Dana-Atlas-1855/
Vol. XV-Botany-Phanerogamia-Gray-1854/
Vol. XV-Botany-Phanerogamia-Gray-Atlas-1854/
Vol. XVI-Botany-Cryptogamia-Filices-Brackenridge-1854/
Vol. XVI-Botany-Cryptogamia-Filices-Brackenridge-Atlas-1855/
Vol. XVII-Botany-Cryptogamia-Various Authors and Phanerogamia of Pacific North America-Torrey-1874/
Vol. XVII-Botany-Cryptogamia-Various Authors and Phanerogamia of Pacific North America-Torrey-Atlas-1862/
Vol. XVII-Botany-Phanerogamia-Part II-Gray-never printed/
Vol. XIX-The Geographical Distribution of Animals and Plants-Pickering-1854/
Vol. XX-Herpetology-Girard-1858/
Vol. XX-Herpetology-Girard-Atlas-1858/
Vol. XXI to XXII-Ichthyology-Agassiz-never printed/
Vol. XXIII-Hydrography-Wilkes-1861/
Vol. XXIII-Hydrography-Wilkes-Atlas of Charts-Vol. I-1850/
Vol. XXIII-Hydrography-Wilkes-Atlas of Charts-Vol. II-1858/
Vol. XXIV-Physics-Wilkes-never printed in full-1857/���� 09. Early Exploration: American Government Expeditions, 1841-1860.� [MS671].
[MS849].��������� Henry, John Frazier.� Early Maritime Artists of the Pacific Northwest Coast 1741-1841.� Seattle, Wash.: University of Washington Press, 1984. Contains biographies of Charles Wilkes, James Dwight Dana, Henry Eld, George Foster Emmons, and Alfred T. Agate. Especially interesting is a reproduction from a page of Dana's field notebook depicting Castle Crags and showing Dana's notes for Oct. 6, 1841.���� 09. Early Exploration: American Government Expeditions, 1841-1860.� [MS849].
[MS1181].��������� Jones, David Rhys 1873. [Story
of the Destruction River] in 'The Knave' (column). In: Oakland Tribune.
Oakland, Calif.: Mar. 8, 1944. Presented in the column of the "Knave"
which quotes "David Rays Jones" for this� unusual account of the naming
of the "Destruction River."� According to Jones, the "Destruction
River" is the earliest name of the present McCloud River. The author thinks
the McLeod, later named the McCloud, river was first named the Destruction River
by the Hudson's Bay Company because it was the river on which Alexander Roderick
McLeod lost 300 horses and 2400 furs in the winter of 1829-1830. That is, the
disaster or destruction took place on this river.
����� Note that the upper Sacramento River is named the "Destruction River" on the 1841 manuscript maps of Henry Eld (see Eld 1841), and on the 1844 published maps of the Wilkes Narratives. Nowhere, as far as is known, does the Destruction River appear as a name for the present McCloud River. Nor does the "Destruction River' name appear on any map earlier than 1841.
����� Nonetheless Jones erroneously states that the Wilkes-Emmons expedition went down the McCloud river. Note that the intriguing possibility is brought to mind that perhaps the 1841 Wilkes-Emmons expedition thought that it was going down the 1830 Destruction River of McLeod, and in the light of certain remarks made in the Wilkes-Emmons expedition journals of Dana and Brackenridge, and in the route instructions by Wilkes to Emmons, this is a distinct possibility. Wilkes's instructions in particular suggest that the Wilkes-Emmons expedition was to pass south and west of Mt. McLoughlin (then named Mt. Shasty) which would have put the group on the trail leading to the Destruction (present McCloud) River. If the Wilkes-Emmons Expedition was mistaken as to the identity of present Mt. Shasta, thinking it to be present Mt. McLoughlin, then they could have mis-named the upper Sacramento as the "Destruction River.
����� Of course, all of this theory may be moot if indeed the Destruction River of the 1841 Eld map was named for some other reason, say, perhaps, the great wind storm in the river canyon near Castle Crags mentioned in the 1841 Brackenridge journal.���� 09. Early Exploration: American Government Expeditions, 1841-1860.� MS1181].
[MS1033].��������� Maloney, Alice Bay. A Botanist
on the Road to Yerba Buena. In: California Historical Society Quarterly.
Dec., 1945. Vol. 24. No. 4. pp. 321-336. Accompanies a companion article: Alice
Eastwood. 'An Account and List of the Plants in the Brackenridge Journal' CHSQ
Vol. 4, No. 4, Dec. 1945, pp. 337-342.���� W. D. Brackenridge was the horticulturalist
for the four-year around the world United States Exploring Expedition of 1838-1842.
He was assigned to accompany the Wilkes-Emmons overland expedition of 1841.
The article consists of an introduction by Alice Bay Maloney and of the California
entries in William Dunlop Brackenridge's journal from Oct. 1, 1841 to Oct. 28,
1841. The Oregon and far-northern California portions of the journal have been
printed elsewhere (see Brackenridge 1931).
����� Maloney's introduction verifies one of the legends encountered in the lore of the Mt. Shasta region. The story is simply that the discovery of the California Pitcher plant, Darlingtonia Californica, took place during an Indian attack. Maloney writes: "A story of Brackenridge's narrow escape from Indians was related verbally for at least two generations before it saw print. The tale is linked with one of his botanical discoveries, a plant hitherto unknown. '...while Brackenridge,' so the story goes, 'was on his way to San Francisco an alarm from Indians caused the explorers to run. Brackenridge saw a strange looking plant, grabbed a clump and carried it to camp. This was the Darlingtonia Californica.' Miss Eastwood had heard this tradition and challenged the writer to find its source. In pursuit of sidelights on the overland expedition, the above version turned up unexpectedly in the Life of James Dwight Dana, by Daniel Coit Gilman, one time president of the University of California. Dana was a member of the party and undoubtedly he told the story to his biographer, as it has the sound of an eyewitness account" (p. 323).
����� Brackenridge's entry for Oct. 3rd contains a reference to Oct. 10, thus indicating that the journal was probably in part written retroactively for the entry dates. Brackenridge's account is full of spelling errors. He writes: "Oct. 3rd� We had now to ascend and cross the California range of Mountains which according to our guides opinion was to take us at least seven days, but as neither our horses & many of the party being in the best condition we did not reach the head of the valley of the Sacramento till the afternoon of the 10th, the route which we took was to the west of the Bute or snowy Mountain, but its my belief that had we kept to the eastward of it our route would have been shorter and easier. The general tendency of the range is north and South, but the whole is one continued series of valleys -- hills & ridges standing in all positions towards each other, these ridges are in general clothed with vegetation, for the exception of a number of rugged precipitous bluffs -- near to the it's soil is found in abundance on them all. Pines & Oaks are the principal timber trees of theese mountains. On the afternoon of the first day upon them to the west of the Bute we came upon the headwaters of the Sacramento -- a small stream about three yards broad, we were told by our guide that this was the principal branch & off and on we kept to this river till we reached the valley on the opposite side. of fine flowers and shrubs in the proper season there must be a great abundance & had we still I think the good luck to find some plants that have not yet been known to Botanists, and in the following list theese will be found"(p. 327). A list follows, each plant described by some identifying characteristics. On Oct. 11th Brackenridge wrote: "Our route over these mountains was too late in the season to have an opportunity of seeing much of the annual vegetation, but if we are to judge of the dried fragments of such as we observed, that this set of plants must be beautiful and varied.
����� "On theese mountains we passed an extensive Soda spring the effervescence of whoos [sic] waters were as agreeable as any manufactured in our large cities -- and to be in possession of such a fountain in the U. States would be the having of a fortune" (p. 329).
����� Most of the journal concerns the Sacramento Valley proper. Plants are noted for each date, and a wealth of detail about the people and conditions of the Spanish and other peoples encounter along the way. Includes many details about Captain Sutter's Nova Helvetia. 09. Early Exploration: American Government Expeditions, 1841-1860.� [MS1033].
[MS598].��������� [Mount Shasta Herald]. Story of Fremont's Ascent of Shasta To Be Published Soon. In: Mount Shasta Herald. Mt. Shasta, Calif.: April 18, 1929. Article begins: "Charles Stewart of San Francisco, who with Edward Stuhl is now working on a complete work of Mt. Shasta, in which they will deal with Shasta's formation, plant and animal life, is now writing a special story on 'Fremont's Ascent of Mt. Shasta." The names of H. B. Ream and R. E. Cavanaugh are mentioned as sources of early day information about Mt. Shasta history. The later article on Fr�mont's ascent has not been located.���� 09. Early Exploration: American Government Expeditions, 1841-1860.� MS598].
[MS70].��������� Nevins, Alan 1890-1971.� Fremont: The West's Greatest Adventurer, Being a Biography from Certain Hitherto Unpublished Sources.� New York and London: Harper and Brothers Publishers, 1928. Two Volumes.���� Contains an inference that Fremont, in December of 1843, saw Mount Shasta in the distance: 'Their march carried them through a district of lakes and streams, the drainage of the great Sierra Range, dominated by Mount Shasta, which rose to their right' (Vol.I, p. 166). The book as a whole contains relatively little material relevant to Fremont's two explorations which passed close to the Shasta Region.���� 09. Early Exploration: American Government Expeditions, 1841-1860.� [MS70].
[MS136].��������� Peale, Titian Ramsay 1799-1885.�
Diary of Titian Ramsay Peale.� Los Angeles, Calif.: Glen Dawson, 1957.
Only 300 copies of this book were printed. Introduction and bibliography by
Carl S. Dentzel.���� This is Titian Ramsay Peale's own diary of participation
as an artist-naturalist with the Wilkes-Emmons overland expedition of 1841.
The group was the first scientific party to visit Mount Shasta. Contains only
a portion of Titian Ramsay Peale's overland journal: from September 22, 1841,
Umpqua Mountains to Nov. 1, 1841, San Francisco. Peale calls Mount Shasta "Mount
Chasty (Tschasty?)" (p. 48). He also calls the mountains between Mount
Shasta and Redding the "Tchasty Mts" (p. 48). The journals of other
members of the expedition, specifically those of James Dwight Dana, George Foster
Emmons, and Henry Eld, also call the mountains along the upper Sacramento river
the "Sasty" or "Tchasty" mountains, as well as calling the
main mountain "Sasty."�
����� Note that Peale's use of both a singular and a plural application of the term "Tchasty" helps confirm the point that at various times in the early exploration of the region the general name "Shasta," in many differing spellings, has been applied to four different objects, namely present-day Mt. McLoughlin, present-day Mt. Shasta, present-day Siskiyou mountains, and present-day upper Sacramento River Canyon mountains. Knowing that four different uses of the name exist can help clarify the reading of these early documents.
����� The book also includes a letter, dated Oct. 30th, 1841, written by Peale to his brother, and describing Peale's adventures through the California- Oregon border region.
����� The introduction to the book contains a biography of Peale. Also contains expedition artist Alfred Agate's engraving of "Shasty Peak" (p. 49). Contains the '1841' map of Upper California first published in Wilkes's 1844 Narratives� (endpapers).���� 09. Early Exploration: American Government Expeditions, 1841-1860.� [MS136].
[MS84].��������� Peale, Titian Ramsay 1799-1885.�
Titian Ramsay Peale 1799-1885 And His Journals of the Wilkes Expedition.�
Philadelphia, Pa.: The American Philosophical Society, 1961. pp. 190-198.��
This book contains the complete 1841 journal entries for the Mt. Shasta region
by artist-naturalist Titian Ramsay Peale. Peale was a member of the Oregon to
California overland party which in turn was a part of the four year around the
world Wilkes U.S. Exploring Expedition of 1838-1842. Peale's account of the
Mount Shasta region begins with the statement "Passed the dreaded 'Bloody
pass' [Siskiyou summit] without difficulty and without seeing an Indian, only
a few of their tracks, and after surmounting a high mountain ridge, a view of
Singular grandeur was spread before us. On the right the mnts were burning,
and sent up immence masses of smoke. On our left was the snowy summits of Mount
Chasty (Tchasty?)-extensive plaines were in front of us" (p. 192).
����� The spellings of "Chasty" and "Tchasty?" are significantly similar to Ogden's 1827 tribal name of 'Sastise or (Castise)"( LaLande 1987, p.60) and "Chasta" (see Edwards, P. L. "Diary of an 1837 Cattle Drive...." in Watson 1932).
����� Peale's account joins the similar journal accounts of fellow 1841 Wilkes-Emmons overland explorers to form an unusually multifaceted record of Mount Shasta as it was in 1841.� Journals were kept by Brackenridge, Colvocoressess, Dana, Emmons, Eld, and Peale, plus maps by Eld, and drawings by Agate. Peale's journal is supplemented by his accounts of the Shasta region which can be found in his suppressed (but now reprinted) Volume VIII, Mammalogy and Ornithology, of the U.S.� Exploring Expedition Reports.
����� Contains a bibliography (pp. 204-207).���� 09. Early Exploration: American Government Expeditions, 1841-1860.� [MS84].
[MS970].��������� Peale, Titian Ramsay 1799-1885.�
Mammalia and Ornithology.� New York: Arno Press, 1978. Reprint. First
published in 1848 by C. Sherman in Philadelphia, Penn. Vol. 8 in the original
series of reports resulting from the Wilkes Expedition.���� Contains many references
to the animals and the conditions along the California-Oregon trail during September
and October of 1841. For example, of the 'Grisly' Bear, Peale writes: "It
is curious that this animal should not be found on the Columbia River, near
its mouth. In our journey south through Oregon, the first were seen on the Umpqua
River; from whence, as we continued on, they seemed to increase in numbers,
until we arrived in California; six were killed in one day by our hunters as
we descended the Sacramento River, although the meat was not wanted. This destruction
arose from a dislike to the animal..." (p. 29).
����� For the porcupine, Peale writes: "The quills of this species of porcupine were obtained from some Indians whom we met while crossing the Shasty Mountains, lying between Oregon and California. There can be little doubt of the animal's inhabiting that part of this continent near the Pacific Ocean, about the forty-second degree of latitude, although unknown to be there by the traders and trappers of fur bearing animals, who occasionally cross that tract of country in search of beavers in Upper California. The Indians from whom we obtained the quills, are generally hostile to white people, and all the surrounding tribes of their own colour; and we believe could not have obtained the Porcupine quills in trade, because they are not used by the Indians in the south of Oregon for embroidery, as they are to the north" (pp. 46-47).
����� Although this book was suppressed by Charles Wilkes from distribution on the grounds that it was scientifically inadequate, a few copies of the original are nonetheless available in research libraries, including the California State Library. A different Vol. 8, Mammalia and Ornithology, was written by John Cassin, and issued in 1858, along with an atlas of bird and mammal artwork plates, of which at least some of the plates are Peale's (see Haskell pp. 54-63 for a full description of the publishing dispute and mutual dislike between Peale and Wilkes).���� 09. Early Exploration: American Government Expeditions, 1841-1860.� [MS970].
[MS999].��������� Preuss, Carl 1803-1854.� Diary
of Carl Preuss, May 30, 1843 to July 15, 1844, No. 2. In: Preuss, Carl 1803-1854.�
Diaries, 1842-49 .� 1843. Microfilm edition, Library of Congress Manuscript
Department. Catalog entry reads 'Diaries, 1842-49. 7 items. Includes transcripts
(typewritten). Surveyor, cartographer, and explorer. Diaries (1842 June-Oct.;
1843 May-1844 July; 1844 Dec.-1849 Feb.) relating to Preuss' service with John
C. Fr�mont's first, second, and fourth expeditions to the West. The diaries,
which are in German, include marginalia by Preuss' wife, Gertrude. Figures mentioned
prominently include Kit Carson and William Shereley ('old Bill) Williams.����
Contains unpublished maps drawn by Preuss from the Klamath Marsh region. Several
of these maps serve to underscore that, for Fr�mont and Preuss, "Sasty"
was in Oregon and "Pit' was in California. Only later, in 1848, following
Wilkes's new naming standard, were the names reversed. In particular, the microfilm
frame 115, drawn while Preuss was at the camp of Dec. 2-3, 1843, contains an
inset, later crossed out but only lightly so, showing a southern divide with
'Sasty' to the north and� 'Pitt' to the south (Preuss uses both 'Pit' and 'Pitt,'
plus 'Sasty' and 'Shasty,' in his notebook maps). Exact compass angles of measurement
are given. Microfilm frame 114 is a smaller scale map for which frame 115 is
a detail. Frame 114 contains the following annotation which must be interpreted
using Preuss's measurements to determine which mountain he was measuring as
"S 59 W;" Preuss writes: "Mt. Shasty. Pitt. i.e. what we took
for Mt. Pitt before. it belongs as well as what we called Mt. Shasty to the
branch turning off East in which the three snow peaks are." The "three
snow peaks" are small mountains forming the southern divide and each was
measured and drawn by Preuss. The Preuss annotation and notebook maps clearly
show that Preuss, sometime after the expedition, felt his 1843 'Pitt' in California
and 'Sasty' in Oregon, were not right.
������ It was not until 1844 that the Wilkes published maps appeared in print showing the new Mt. Shasta in California, though an unpublished letter from Wilkes states that a manuscript map of the entire Sacramento river was shown to Fremont shortly after Fremont's expedition (see Wilkes Letter to Gales and Seton).���� 09. Early Exploration: American Government Expeditions, 1841-1860.� [MS999].
[MS322].��������� Preuss, Carl 1803-1854.� Map
of Oregon and Upper California From the Surveys of John Charles Fremont and
other Authorities [map]. In: Fremont, John Charles 1813-1890.� Geographical
Memoir upon Upper California, in Illustration of his Map of Oregon and California.'
Senate Misc. Doc. 148, 30th Cong., 1st session Washington, D.C., 1848, Serial
511.� Washington, D.C.: 1848. Map reprinted in: Jackson, Donald and Mary
Lee Spence, editors. The Expeditions of John Charles Fr�mont: Map Portfolio.
Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 1970. Unbound folding sheet.
Map 5. Also reprinted in Wheat Mapping the Transmississippi West Vol. 2.����
This famous 1848 Fr�mont-Preuss map was in its time the best map of the American
West, and was the first printed document, maps or books included, to print the
name "Tsashtl" as a name for Mt. Shasta..
����� Fr�mont's topographer, Charles Preuss, had been on Fr�mont's first California expedition in 1843-1844, but the 1845 map resulting from that expedition did not name Mt. Shasta. Preuss was not on the second Fr�mont California expedition, and used many sources in compiling the 1848 map.
���� Note that the Fr�mont-Preuss 1848 map is the first map to use the name of "Mt. Pitt" for present-day Mt. McLoughlin. Note that had Preuss gone by his notebook field maps of 1843, he would have named present Mt. McLoughlin as "Sasty," and named present Mt. Shasta as "Pitt" (see Preuss diary...(manuscript) 1843).
����� Charles Preuss drew a notebook map with compass readings from the expedition camp of December 3, 1843 to Mount "Sasty." This particular notebook map, unfortunately never published nor mentioned (not mentioned, for example, in Gudde and Gudde Charles Preuss: Exploring with Fr�mont 1958), and another map in the notebook (published in Wheat Mapping the Transmississippi West, Vol. 2, p. 196) indicate that his Mount "Sasty" was present-day Mount McLoughlin. His notebook's Mount "Pit" was present-day Mount Shasta. These assignments of Sasty and Pit were the proper names according to available maps, including the U.S. Army map by created in 1838 by Washington Hood (see LaLande 1987, pp. 124-128).
����� Preuss himself later wrote a note on one of his notebook manuscript maps to the effect that the names "Pit" and "Sasty" should be switched. Why exactly did Preuss and Fr�mont in 1848 reverse these historically correct names? The probable answer is that they did the reversal in order to be in accord with the incorrect maps of Wilkes (see Wilkes 1844) and Mitchell (see Mitchell 1846) which by 1846 had become established as the standard maps of the West.
����� Another question arises as to why the extra "t" was added to "Pit" to make Mount 'Pitt"? Preuss was already in 1843 using both names in his notebook maps.� But note that the both names of "Pit" and "Pitt" were already used in a transcription of the 1827-1827 Peter Skene Ogden journal as a river name.
����� It is on the Fr�mont-Preuss map of 1848 that the name "Tsashtl" first appeared in print. This spelling probably stems from Fremont's stated insistence to add a "t" to the spelling of some place names (see Fremont Report...1843-44, 1845). Note that one cannot assume that "Tsashtl" was a name entirely coined by Fr�mont because some of the geographical information on his 1848 map was added from other sources. In fact all mentions of Mt. Shasta in� Fr�mont's published writings use the spelling of "Shastl"; thus "S-h-a-s-t-l" is Fr�mont's own preferred spelling over "T-s-a-s-h-t-l."
����� Note that the name of "Tsashtl" was later adapted by other map-makers and writers. At some point the theory developed that this word "Tsashtl," or also "Shastl," spelled by Harry Wells in 1881 as 'Tshastal,' is quite similar to a Russian word meaning "white" (see Wells 1881) though there is no indication that Fr�mont or Preuss knowingly adopted a Russian word. The historian Betty Hall has stated that the name "Shasta" came from the Russian word "Tsisti" meaning white (see Lloyd 1988), and A. F. Eichorn also has presented evidence of a Russian origin to "Shasta" (see Eichorn 1957). There may never be a complete resolution to the Russian origin, short of discovering original documents from Russian settlers or explorers stating that they named the mountain sometime before Ogden in 1827.���� 09. Early Exploration: American Government Expeditions, 1841-1860.� [MS322].
[MS819].��������� Preuss, Carl 1803-1854.� Charles Preuss: Exploring with Fremont, The Private Diaries of Charles Preuss, Cartographer for John C. Fremont on His First, Second, and Fourth Expeditions to the Far West.� Norman, Okla.: University of Oklahoma Press, 1958. The Charles Preuss diaries contain entries for the December 1843 to January 1844 time period when the Fr�mont expedition was in the region of Klamath Lake. The editors unfortunately have not included in this book the diaries' very important small manuscript maps of the region which show Mount "Sasty" at about 43� latitude and Mount "Pit" at about 41 and 1/2� latitude (see Preuss "Untitled map showing...Clammut River." In Wheat. Vol. 2, 1958. Map 499). In 1848 Preuss and Fr�mont published a large map of the Oregon Territory on which these names were reversed. The diaries published by Gudde and Gudde nonetheless have geographical references which help interpret the maps. Note that other unpublished manuscript maps in the Preuss diaries have later annotations, probably by Preuss himself, which indicate that he thought that the reversal of mountain names would be necessary (see Preuss "Diary May 30, 1843 to July 15, 1844, No. 2" microfilm, frame 115, Library of Congress, Manuscript Dept.). Preuss was correct in 1843-1844, by earlier Hudson's Bay standards, of naming present-day Mt. McLoughlin as "Mount Sasty." (see LaLande 1987).���� 09. Early Exploration: American Government Expeditions, 1841-1860.� [MS819].
[MS1098].��������� Ramage, Helen. The Wilkes Exploring Expedition on the Pacific Slope. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California, 1916 (Thesis, Master's). Source of Citation: Stewart 1929 #43.�� ��09. Early Exploration: American Government Expeditions, 1841-1860/40. Find List.� [MS1098].
[MS80].��������� Rolle, Andrew.� John Charles
Fremont: Character as Destiny.� Norman, Okla.: University of Oaklahoma Press,
1991. Contains a chapter, "Battling Captain Wilkes" (pp. 108-110),
concerning the controversy between John Charles Fr�mont and Charles Wilkes over
whose cartography of the West was more accurate. This brief chapter does not
give many details about this argument over coastal geography between the two
great explorers, other than the fact that Fr�mont states that "The truth
is that Capt. Wilkes led me into error" (p. 109).
����� Note that in Yale University's Beinecke Library there is an unpublished letter from Wilkes to his publisher, Gales and Seton, stating that Fr�mont took information from Wilkes, and that Wilkes had shown Fr�mont a manuscript 27 foot long map of the Sacramento River. This connection may explain why Fr�mont adopted the apparently mistaken placement of the name for Mount Shasta which first shows up on Wilkes's maps (1844) and then on Fr�mont's map (1848) of the Oregon Territory.���� 09. Early Exploration: American Government Expeditions, 1841-1860.� [MS80].
[MS863].��������� Scanlon, Hugh F. Through the
Sacramento River Canyon in 1841. In: The Siskiyou Pioneer in Folklore, Fact
and Fiction and Yearbook. Siskiyou County Historical Society. 1968. Vol. 4.
No. 1. An account of the United States Exploring Expedition's 1841 overland
route through the Sacramento Canyon. Contains a full-page reproduction of the
important Oct. 4, 1841 "Enter Sasty or Cascade Mountains" map by Henry
Eld, one of the maps drawn daily by Eld in his capacity as the official map
maker of the journey. This map shows Mt. Shasta as "Sasty Peak" at
the top, and Castle Crags as "3 Granite Peaks we called the Needles"
at the bottom. The article is illustrated with pictures of Titian Ramsay Peale,
James Dwight Dana, and Henry Eld. Contains a selected bibliography.
����� The author mentions that his search for information about the old Hudson's Bay Company trail led him to the Eld maps and journals in the Coe collection at Yale University's Beinecke Library. There is no mention made of either the Emmons journals also in the Beinecke or the Dana journal in the main Yale library.� These other journals give more insights into the 1841 expedition. The Dana journal, for example, makes the above mentioned Eld map more comprehensible by clearly defining the "Sasty Mountains" as the mountains between "Sasty Peak" and the Sacramento Valley. 09. Early Exploration: American Government Expeditions, 1841-1860.� [MS863].
[MS1001].��������� Shiveley, J. M.� [letter
to Charles Wilkes, dated Dec. 1, 1849, from Astoria, at the mouth of the Columbia
River].� 1849. 3 pages. From the collection of the Manuscript Division,
Library of Congress. Page 3, without the interesting pp. 1 and 2, is reproduced
in Viola and Margolis Magnificent Voyagers 1985, p. 182.���� This 1849 letter
by J. M. Shiveley, author of an 1846 book entitled Route and Distances to Oregon...,
is significant in that it pertains to the "Shaste" River of Charles
Wilkes's 1844 map. Wilkes requested from the geographer the location of the
Rogue River.
����� Shiveley's letter begins: "Before I left Washington I think you requested of me to learn what facts I could as to the source and confluence of Rogue's River which is not laid down on your map. Rogue River must be the same that you lay down as Shaste river-- What I know about it--you may learn from this fact..." (p.1 of manuscript). Shiveley goes on to describe a shipwreck at the mouth of the Rogue River which forced him to ascend the river, and he includes a small map as part of the third page of the letter (see Viola and Margolis 1985, p. 182).
����� Wilkes's maps of 1844 (though dated 1841) named the present-day Rogue River as the "Shaste River."
����� Many other maps before Wilkes's 1844 map had shown "Shaste" and "Shasty" as the name for the present-day Rogue River, and this was perhaps the correct name for that river as originally intended by the Hudson's Bay Company. But, unlike earlier maps, Wilkes's 1844 maps no longer used the name of "Mt. Shasty" for present-day Mt. McLoughlin, which dominates the Rogue river valley. The Shaste river naturally was associated with the original Shasty mountain. But Wilkes had in 1844 moved the name of "Mt. Shasty" down to the next southerly mountain, leaving the old Shaste River without a headwater mountain of the same name. Wilkes published a revised map in 1858 (though it was still dated as 1841 with no indication of revision) in which the "Shaste" River was renamed the "Rogue."���� 09. Early Exploration: American Government Expeditions, 1841-1860.� [MS1001].
[MS386].��������� Societe Geographique Francaise.
[report, by Charles Wilkes, 1842, of a recent speech delivered by Charles
Wilkes in Philadelphia (French translation)]. In: Bulletin de la Societ�
Geographique Francaise. 1843. pp. 37-79. This report helps explain how Duflot
de Mofras (see Duflot de Mofras 1844) and his map of 1844 could have contained
the same error of Wilkes's 1844 maps; both maps qualify as the first published
maps to transfer the name of Mt. Shasty from present-day Mt. McLoughlin down
to present-day Mt. Shasta. The French Royal Society of Geography was keenly
interested in the Wilkes Expedition primarily because of the race between the
Frenchman Dumont D'Urville and the American Wilkes. D'Urville was only a few
days late in discovering that the Antarctic was a continent, Wilkes having been
there first. The 1843 publication of the Wilkes speech was one of many Wilkes-related
reports published in French translation, and DuFlot de Mofras, whose book and
map were published by the Society, certainly had access to Wilkes's material.
Duflot DeMofras, it should be noted, met Wilkes in the Pacific Northwest in
����� The article contains nearly forty pages of translation of a speech by Wilkes, including the statement, apparently from Wilkes: "Un nombreux d�tachement fut exp�di� du fort Vancouver vers la Californie, en passant par la Vall� de Willamette, le pays d'Umqua et de Shasty, et en suivant le Sacramento depuis sa partie sup�rieure jusqu'� son embouchure dans le port San Francisco, o� le detachement rejoignit l'exp�dition � la fin d'octobre" (p. 52). The 1842 speech by Wilkes was a report given in Philadelphia on the findings of the entire United States Exploring Expedition of 1838-1842. The 'Shasty' refers either to the Rogue River region and the Siskiyou mountains or to the Sacramento River Canyon mountains, because Wilkes himself, in his 1844 "Narratives," inconsistently used the term "Shaste mountains" for both regions, reserving the singular form of Shasty Peak for present-day Mount Shasta. In any event, the French publication of Wilkes's speech indirectly and only in a general way indicates how Duflot de Mofras in France could have received Wilkes's reports and maps. 09. Early Exploration: American Government Expeditions, 1841-1860.� [MS386].
[MS330].��������� Spence, Mary Lee and Jackson,
Donald.� The Expeditions of John Charles Fr�mont: Volumes 1, 2, 3, and Map
Portfolio.� Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 1970-1984. Volume
3 was edited by Spence only. A supplement to Volume 2 on the 'Court Martial
Proceedings' was also published.���� Each of the three volumes contains letters
and other documents relating to Fr�mont, many of them published for the first
time. This is an essential set of books for those who wish to do research about
Fr�mont. All of the material is expertly footnoted by the editors, and each
volume has its own bibliography. Volume 1 is subtitled 'Travels from 1838 to
1844.' Mount Shasta related material includes a complete reprint of Fremont's
'A Report of the Exploring Expedition to Oregon and North California in the
Years 1843-44.'
����� Volume 2 is subtitled 'The Bear Flag Revolt and the Court Martial.' Mount Shasta related material includes excerpts from the Fremont 'Memoirs' of 1887 which recount the� California expedition of 1845-6.
����� Volume 3 is subtitled 'Travels from 1848 to 1854.'� Mount Shasta related material includes a complete reprint of Fremont's 1848 'Geographical Memoir upon Upper California, in Illustration of his Map of Oregon and California.'; Mount Shasta related material includes accounts of the California expedition of 1845-6.
����� Each of the three volumes contains letters and other documents relating to Fremont, many of them published here for the first time. This is an essential set of books for those who wish to do research on Fremont. All of the material is expertly footnoted by the editors, and each volume has its own bibliography.
����� The map portfolio contains the following maps:The map portfolio contains an introductory pamphlet by Donald Jackson.
The maps in the portfolio are:
����� Map 1: 'Hydrographical Basin of the Upper Mississippi River... by J. N. Nicollet...'
����� Map 2 is 'Map to Illustrate an Exploration of the Country between the Missouri River and the Rocky Mountains...'
����� Map 3 is the 'Map of an Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains in the year 1842 and to Oregon & Northern California in the Years 1843-44 ...'
����� Map 4 is (in seven sections) the 'Topographical Map of the Road from Missouri to Oregon...'
����� Map 5 is the 'Map of Oregon and Upper California From the Surveys of John Charles Fr�mont and other Authorities drawn by Charles Preuss Under the Order of the Senate of the United States Washington City 1848.' Note that Map 5 from 1848 shows Mount Shasta as Mount "Tsashtl".���� 09. Early Exploration: American Government Expeditions, 1841-1860.� [MS330].
[MS83].��������� Stanton, William Ragan.� The Great United States Exploring Expedition of 1838-1842.� Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 1975. pp. 247-266.�� Contains a few pages of description about the Wilkes Expedition's overland party which passed by the foot of Mount Shasta. Does not contain much detail about the first American scientists to visit the region.���� 09. Early Exploration: American Government Expeditions, 1841-1860.� [MS83].
[MS869].��������� Stenzel, Franz and Stenzel, Mrs. Franz.� Art of the Oregon Territory: Paintings from the Collection of Dr. and Mrs. Franz Stenzel.� Portland, Ore.: Portland Art Museum, 1959. Exhibition Catalog���� Contains a reproduction of an 1841 sketch by Alfred T. Agate (1812-1846) depicting the Wilkes-Emmons Overland Expedition crossing the Yamhill River in Oregon. This is a sketch not known to have been reproduced in any other book. During the expedition Agate sketched what became the first published picture of Mt. Shasta.���� 09. Early Exploration: American Government Expeditions, 1841-1860.� [MS869].
[MS81].��������� Tyler, David B. 1899.� The Wilkes Expedition: The First United States Exploring Expedition .� Philadelphia, Pa.: The American Philosophical Society, 1968. pp. 309-329.�� Contains a general account of the Wilkes-Emmons overland expedition to California, led by Lieutenant Emmons. Tyler quotes from Titian Ramsay Peale's journal: 'On our left was the snowy summits of Mount Chasty (Tchasty?) ' (p. 321). Tyler also mentions that the group '...saw mountain sheep on Mount Shasta..' (p. 322).���� 09. Early Exploration: American Government Expeditions, 1841-1860.� [MS81].
[MS1204].��������� Pacific Railroad Surveys: Landscape Sketches. Case 85. Manuscript Sketches to Illustrate 'Report of Explorations for a Route for the Pacific Railroad, on the line of the Forty-First Parallel of North Latitude by Lieut. E. G. Beckwith, Third Artillery, 1854'. In: United States National Archives.� Geographical Exploration and Topographic Mapping by the United States Government.� Washington, D.C.: National Archives, National Archives and Records Service, General Services Administration, 1952. p. 44.�� Exhibition catalog for a display in the Exhibition Hall of the National Archives, July 27 through Sept., 1952. Sketches are noted as: 'From the general records of the Department of the Interior, in NA.'���� Catalog entry gives archive locations for artist sketches from the 1854 Beckwith Survey of the 41 Parallel.� Only three sketches are described, though many others are probably available. Note that the sketches described in were drawn by Survey expedition artist Baron von Egloffstein. One of the sketches depicts Mt. Shasta: 'West End of Madelin Pass' 10 1/4 inches by 15 inches. Manuscript (in ink) on paper" (p. 44).���� 09. Early Exploration: American Government Expeditions, 1841-1860.� [MS1204].
[MS75].��������� Viola, Herman J. and Margolis,
Carolyn.� Magnificent Voyagers : The U.S. Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842.�
Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1985. A large team of Smithsonian
scholars describes in words and pictures the circumstances and background of
the United States Exploring Expedition lead by Lieutenant Charles Wilkes. The
around-the-world sailing expedition marked the United States' entry into the
ranks of international science in part by their discovery that the Antarctic
was a continent. The need to house the expedition's massive scientific specimen
collections from the four year trip led to the formation of the Smithsonian
����� In September and October of 1841 a group of the expedition's civilian scientists and artists along with a naval escort led by Lieutenants George Emmons and Henry Eld, traveled overland from Oregon to California. They passed over the western base of Mount Shasta on their way. They were the first scientists and artists ever to see Mt. Shasta, and their findings, along with the hand-drawn maps by Eld, lead expedition leader Charles Wilkes to publish in 1844 the first published maps ever to place the name "Mt. Shasty" on the mountain now called Mt. Shasta. Up until 1844 the name "Mt. Shasty" was a name reserved for present-day Mt. McLoughlin.
����� Although little detail about the Oregon to California overland expedition is given in this book, there is nonetheless considerable biographical material on each of the scientists and artists who came to Mount Shasta in 1841: James Dwight Dana, geologist; Titian Ramsay Peale, artist-naturalist; William Brackenridge, botanist; William Rich, botanist; Alfred Agate, artist; as well as biographies of Lieutenants Emmons and Eld. Material directly relevant to far northern California can be found on pp. 142-143, 163, 182-185, and 220-224 . Contains a valuable bibliography on pp. 271-285. Magnificent Voyagers was published to coincide with an exhibition of the same name organized by the Smithsonian Institution in 1985.���� 09. Early Exploration: American Government Expeditions, 1841-1860.� [MS75].
[MS681].��������� Walker, Joel P. 1797-1879.� A
Pioneer of Pioneers: Narrative of Adventures Thro' Alabama, Florida, New Mexico,
Oregon, California, etc.� Los Angeles, Calif.: Glen Dawson, 1953. Original
manuscript was titled: 'Joel P. Walker. A Soldier under Jackson in the Florida
war, a pioneer to Oregon, a pioneer to California, a member of the Constitutional
Convention to California in 1849, and the first Assessor of Napa County. Now,
March 28th 1878, Resident of Sonoma County, aged 81. This narrative was dictated
by Mr. Walker to R.A. Thompson of Santa Rosa.' According to the title page:
'The original manuscript was placed in the Bancroft Library in 1878 and is here
transcribed, without editing, and printed with the permission of the Director
of the Bancroft Library, George Hammond, 1953.'�� ��Joel Walker was the older
brother of the noted trapper and explorer Joseph Reddeford Walker. Joel Walker
and his family traveled with the 1841 Wilkes-Emmons overland expedition from
Oregon to California. Only a few short paragraphs relate to the Wilkes-Emmons
party and it is evident from the text that this was Walker's first trip over
the California-Oregon trail.
����� Notice Walker's phonetic spellings of expedition personnel Peale, Dana, and Emmons: "In July or August 1841 the Peacock, one of Wilkes's squadron, was lost at the mouth of the Columbia River, while in charge of Capt. Hudson. The men were all saved and came up to Fort Vancouver. On the 20th day of September 1841 Robert Peel and twenty five men, left the Willamette Valley to go by land and I joined them with my family. We arrived at Sutter's on the 22d of October 1841. My family consisted of my wife and five children. My wife was the first white woman in Sacramento. My daughter Louisa was born in Oregon January 14th 1841, the first white child born in Oregon of American parents. At Sutter's I met Commodore Wilkes, and with him a mineralogist named Denny who told me as we came down the Sacramento river, 'this is golden Country.' He said he saw every indication of gold but showed me none. This is all I ever heard about gold at Sutter's fort, previous to its discovery there. In the part from Oregon was the present Admiral Semmes, then a midshipman. He was a splendid fellow. Peel was also at the fort. I was engaged by Sutter at a salary of Five Hundred Dollars a year as superintendent of his farm" (pp. 13-14).����� 09. Early Exploration: American Government Expeditions, 1841-1860.� [MS681].
[MS352].��������� [Walker, Joel P. 1797-1879.�
[biographical information about Joel P. Walker]. In: Palmer, Joel 1810-1881.�
Journal of Travels over the Rocky Mountains.� Fairfield, Wash.: Ye Galleon
Press, 1983. p. 176.�� This is a biographical footnote about Joel Walker, first
published in Vol. XXX of Thwaites, Ruben Gold Early Western Travels, Cleveland:
Arthur Clark Co., 1906.���� Joel Walker was an American civilian settler in
the Oregon Territory who attached himself and his family to the Wilkes-Emmons
overland expedition of 1841. All the American civilian members of the Wilkes-Emmons
overland expedition are of interest to the history of the naming of Mt. Shasta.
It cannot be ruled out that it was the accompanying American civilians, Tibbetts
and Wood, having previously been on the same route with Young and Edwards in
1837, who influenced Emmons et al in 1841 to name the wrong mountain as Mt.
Shasta (see Edwards 1932).
����� Information about Joel Walker is scarce. The footnote biographical comment by Thwaites tells us that Walker was the brother of famous Sierra Nevada explorer Joseph R. Walker, and was one of the first non-missionary independent settlers in the Oregon Territory. Thwaites explains that Joel Walker worked for Sutter in 1841, went back to Oregon, and in 1848 returned to California where he died sometime after 1878. In later life Walker wrote a memoir entitled A Pioneer of Pioneers (see Walker 1953).���� 09. Early Exploration: American Government Expeditions, 1841-1860.� [MS352].
[MS14].��������� Warren, K.� Memoir to Accompany
the Map of the Territory of the United States from the Mississippi River to
the Pacific Ocean, Giving a Brief Account of Each of the Exploring Expeditions
since A.D. 1800, with a Detailed Description of the Method Adopted in Compiling
the General Map. In: Reports of Explorations and Surveys to Ascertain
the Most Practicable and Economical Route for a Railroad from the Mississippi
River to the Pacific Ocean. Made under the Direction of the Secretary of War,
in 1854-55, According to Acts of Congress of March 3, 1853, May 31, 1854, and
August 5, 1854. Volume XI. 36rd Congress .� Washington, D. C.: George W.
Bowman, Printer, 1861. 115 pp. plus approximately 25 large folding maps and
15 steel engravings.���� Contains an important large folding map (originally
meant to accompany Volume VI: Abbot-Williamson Report) of northern California;
this map shows more details of the Mount Shasta region than any previous published
map.� On pp. 77-78 of the numbered pages can be found an excellent review of
the route taken by the 1854 Abbot-Williamson Survey in northern California and
southern Oregon.
����� As a whole, Volume XI of the Railroad Reports contains the maps for all previous Volumes of the Reports. The scholarly introduction by Warren is actually a comprehensive review of the history of exploration and map-making of the western United States. This volume also contains three steel engravings by Baron von Egloffstein each showing Mount Shasta in the distance. The engravings were originally meant to accompany Volume II: Beckwith Report but were delayed in production.���� 09. Early Exploration: American Government Expeditions, 1841-1860.� [MS14].
[MS663].��������� Wilkes, Charles 1798-1877.� [letter
of route instructions, June 15, 1841, to Lieut. Emmons concerning Mt. Shasta,
manuscript]. bound in with: Emmons, George Foster 1811-1884.� [manuscript
journal, 1841, containing his daily record of the Wilkes-Emmons overland expedition
from Oregon to California] .� 1841. This manuscript Wilkes letter is in
the collection of Yale University's Beinecke Library, physically 'bound-in'
with G. F. Emmons journal at the June 15, 1841 entry. The letter was published,
in part, in the early editions of Wilkes' Narratives� (see for example: Wilkes
Narratives... Philadelphia, Penn.: Lea and Blanchard, 1845, Vol. 5, p. 517),
but the manuscript letter contains a significant unpublished 'crossed-out' section
of route instructions.���� A letter of overland route instructions sent by Wilkes
to Emmons relevant to the location of Mt. Shasta. The letter, in its published
version, contains the statement: "The route to be pursued by the party,
is up the Willamette Valley in a southerly direction, crossing the Umpqua River
and mountains, thence south and west of the Shaste Mountains to latitude 42
N." (p. 517).
����� The Wilkes manuscript letter of June 15, 1841 instructions, bound in Emmons journal, in the collection of Yale University's Beinecke Library, has crossed out instructions.� When Emmons received the new itinerary in the form of the Wilkes letter dated Sept, 1, 1841 (see Wilkes letter Sept 1, 1841), he then then crossed out the original instructions which called for a northerly return route. Wilkes originally, in the June 15, 1841 letter, wrote: "Thence East to Clamet Lake and as far as the head of Pitt River, thence North to 45� Lat and __� by the foot of Mt. Hood into the Willamette settlement...."
����� If one combines the deleted portion with the undeleted, one is given the true June 15, 1841 Wilkes to Emmons instructions: "south and west of the Shaste Mountains to latitude 42 N. Thence East to Clamet Lake and as far as the head of Pitt River, thence North to 45� Lat..."
����� Note that the above June 15, 1841 route instruction offers a clue to the why members of the Wilkes-Emmons overland expedition were the very first explorers to move the name of Mt. Shasty from its 1830s usage as a name for present Mt. McLoughlin to its present use as a name for what we call Mt. Shasta. For one thing, to go south and west of present Mt. Shasta, and then east to Klamath Lake on makes sense if the Shasty Mountains are the present Siskiyous, including present Mt. McLoughlin.
����� The key is knowing what is meant by the "Shasty Mountains." To the British Hudson's Bay Company, the "Shaste Mountains" were the present Siskiyou Mountains. Wilkes's instructions also indicate that the Shaste Mountains are to be found north of the 42� parallel. But to the Wilkes-Emmons overland expedition members, as evidenced in their journals, the "Shaste Mountains" were the present upper Sacramento River Canyon mountains. This was a serious discrepancy for the future name of "Pit Mountain."
����� A prominent Cascade peak is found northwest of each range, that is, present Mt. McLoughlin northwest of the Siskiyous, and present Mt. Shasta northwest of the upper Sacramento River Canyon mountains. When the Wilkes-Emmons expedition members were on the summit of the present Siskiyous looking at Mt. Shasta for the first time, they did not know that they were on the summit of the "Shaste Mountains" as defined by the British. They thought that they were on the "Rogue Mts," "the Boundary range," etc. They 'mistakenly' named the peak they saw as Mt. Shasta because they assumed the mountains still to the south were the "Shaste Mountains."
����� There are clues in the early fur trade literature that the Oregon territory civilian American trappers and explorers traveling with the Wilkes-Emmons expedition, Tibbetts and Wood in particular, had a different conception of the "Shaste Mountains" and even of Mt. Shasty, and were the deciding factor in convincing Emmons to call the mountain Shaste (see Edwards "Diary of a Cattledrive...1837" in Watson 1932; and Spaulding 1843). Note that Emmons expressed some doubt about what to call the mountain. Upon seeing the mountain for the first time on Sept. 29, 1841 he called it "Shasty or Pitt."���
����� Although Emmons, upon seeing Mt. Shasta for the first time called it "Mt. Shasty or Pitt," from Sept. 29, 1841 on, Emmons and his expedition members called it "Sasty," "Tchasty," and "Shaste," and never again "Pit" or "Pitt."
������ One incidental curiosity about the crossed-out portion of the June 15th Wilkes letter is that it indicates that the Emmons journal in the possession of the Beinecke library is probably a copy of the original journal entries.� The original June 15th letter with crossed-out portion is bound-in neatly opposite the Emmons journal entry of June 15th. But the June 15th entry in the Emmons journal consists of the letter of instructions rewritten on the journal page but omitting entirely the crossed-out portion obvious on Wilkes' accompanying bound-in letter. The crossing-out would not have taken place until Sept. 1, when Emmons received the instructions to change the itinerary. Thus Emmons did not copy the June 15 entry in the extant journal until after Sept. 1st. Emmons probably copied his field notes into the large bound book at some time after completing the overland expedition.���� 09. Early Exploration: American Government Expeditions, 1841-1860.� [MS663].
[MS808].��������� Wilkes, Charles 1798-1877.� Synopsis
of the cruise of the United States Exploring Expedition, During the Years 1838,
'39, '40, '41, and '42; Delivered Before the National Institute, by Its Commander,
Charles Wilkes, Esq., on the 20th of June, 1842. To Which is Added a List of
Officers and Scientific Corps Attached to the Expedition.� Washington, D.C.:
Printed by Peter Force, 1842. 56pp. One folding map.���� Consists of the text
of a lecture presented by Charles Wilkes, commander of the United States Exploring
Expedition, to the National Institute shortly after the expedition's return.
This is the first published report upon the completion of the United States
Exploring Expedition of 1838-1842.
����� Of the Wilkes-Emmons overland expedition of 1841, Wilkes says: "A large party was despatched from Vancouver to California, passing through the Willamette Valley, the Umpqua and Shasty country, and striking the headwaters of the Sacramento at its source, and down its valley to St. Francisco, where it joined the squadron the latter part of October" (p. 37). No other mention of the name "Shasty" is given. Wilkes also says that: "On leaving the Columbia River orders were given to the Flying Fish to further explore the coast to the southward, whilst the two brigs made the best of their way to the harbor of St. Francisco, where we arrived on the 20th, and found there the Vincennes, all well; and that they had nearly completed the work. The Sacramento had been surveyed 170 miles from its mouth. The overland had not yet arrived, and the launch was despatched up the river to meet them. On the 28th they returned,..."(p. 37). A chart included with the book shows no interior details of the area between the Columbia River and San Francisco.���� 09. Early Exploration: American Government Expeditions, 1841-1860.� [MS808].
[MS665].��������� Wilkes, Charles 1798-1877.� [letter
of route instructions, Aug. 7, 1841, to Lieut. Ringgold concerning Mt. Shasta].
In: Wilkes, Charles 1798-1877.� �Narrative of the United States Exploring
Expedition. During the Years 1838, 1839, 1840, 1841, 1842. ��Philadelphia,
Pa.: Lea and Blanchard, 1845. pp. 520-521.�� This letter was sent to Lieut Ringgold,
who was sent by ship south to San Francisco Bay and then to: "examine the
Sacramento and its branches. This you will do by running to its head waters,
or as far as it is practicable to pursue the river with a boat, and then bring
the survey down from the extreme point arrived at, where your latitude and longitude
must be carefully determined. This is believed will be on the head waters, called
on the map 'Pitt River.' From this position and others you will get a view of
the different mountains, particularly the Shaste Peak, the most southern one
in the Territory of Oregon" (pp. 520-521).
����� In this letter Wilkes states that the "Shaste Peak" was in Oregon. Note that on Oct. 31st, 1841, shortly before leaving San Francisco Bay, Wilkes sent to the Secretary of the Navy an annotated copy of the Washington Hood 1838 map. The Hood map showed "Mt. Shasty" as the name of present Mt. McLoughlin. Therefore, since it is known that Wilkes had in his possession the Washington Hood map of 1838, it seems likely that Wilkes in 1841 thought the Shaste Peak was one and the same as present-day Mt. McLoughlin, as shown on the Hood map. It was later, following the journals and maps of Eld, Emmons, and the other members of the Wilkes-Emmons overland expedition that Wilkes named a different mountain as "Shasty Peak."���� 09. Early Exploration: American Government Expeditions, 1841-1860.� [MS665].
[MS664].��������� Wilkes, Charles 1798-1877.� [letter
of route instructions, Sept. 1, 1841, to Lieut. Emmons concerning Mt. Shasta].
In: Wilkes, Charles 1798-1877.� Narrative of the United States Exploring
Expedition. During the Years 1838, 1839, 1840, 1841, 1842 .� Philadelphia,
Pa.: Lea and Blanchard, 1845. pp. 518.�� This letter to Emmons, dated Sept.
1, 1841, instructs Emmons to change the itinerary, and instead of returning
northward, to go "south towards California, and if possible west of the
Shaste Mountains, thence to strike the waters of the Sacramento, passing over
the head waters of various streams that empty into the ocean, viz., the Umpqua,
Klamet, and their branches....If you should fall upon the Sacramento, taking
a more easterly route, you will, if you find it difficult to proceed with your
horses, abandon them, and proceed in canoes down the river (p. 518).
����� The above reference to the Umpqua, Klamet, and their branches is explained by looking at the Washington Hood map of 1838 (see Hood "Map" 1838 In Wheat 1958), a map which Wilkes had in his possession. That map shows a headwaters branch of the Umpqua River extending south and west of Mt. Shasty, and branches of the Klamath on the same map nearly encircle Mt. Shasty. Keep in mind that Wilkes was probably using the Hood map as his major guide, for he sent an annotated copy of the Hood map from San Francisco to Washington on Oct. 31, 1841. "Mt. Shasty" on that map was another name for present-day Mt. McLoughlin. The "west of the "Shaste Mountains" mentioned in the Sept. 1, 1841 instructions might have meant the mountains which were part of the curved range of which Mt. Shasty was the main peak. Thus the instructions could have meant to pass west of the Shaste Mountains, but still pass east of present Mt. Shasta.
������ The reference to a more easterly route, if the group fell in upon the "Sacramento," is clarified by the letter Wilkes sent to Ringgold (see Wilkes "letter.. Aug. 7, 1841"), wherein Wilkes explains that the upper Sacramento is called "Pitt River."
����� Thus one could interpret the actual route which the Wilkes-Emmons overland expedition took to be different than the route ordered by Wilkes in this Sept, 1, 1841 letter, and it may well be that even the overland expedition members were not aware of the discrepency. Statements in the jounals of Dana and Brackenridge corroborate this interpretation. The group probably should have been passing east of present Mt. Shasta, not west of it, as they did.���� 09. Early Exploration: American Government Expeditions, 1841-1860.� [MS664].
[MS821].��������� Wilkes, Charles 1798-1877.� [letter,
from Charles Wilkes, to Gales and Seton, June 12, 1848, concerning the fact
that J. C. Fremont was shown circa 1844 a manuscript 27-foot-long map of the
entire Sacramento River].� June 12, 1848. Unpublished letter in the collection
of the Beinecke Library at Yale University; cataloged as WA MSS S732 and W652.����
Letter can account for Fr�mont adopting the 1844 Wilkes location for "Mt.
Shaste." This is an unpublished letter Wilkes sent to his publishers, in
which he states that he showed to Fr�mont a twenty-seven foot long map of the
Sacramento River. The long map was undoubtedly constructed from the manuscript
maps of Henry Eld and from the survey work of Ringgold (see Eld 1841).
������� Wilkes's letter reads in part: "The original chart of the River [Sacramento] was plotted during the progress of the Survey, on a large scale, and is 27 feet in length, this I had the pleasure of showing to Col. Benton, Capt. Fr�mont (just after his return from his second trip) and two or three other gentlemen who called at my house to see it: this chart has been reduced and is now engraved on a sufficiently large scale to show all the windings of the River. In Feby 1845 Capt. Fremont wrote me a letter requesting I would give him the positions I had assigned Fort Vancouver and Capt Sutter's fort, this letter forwarded to me at Philadelphia, where I was thus engaged reading the proofs of my Narratives" (p. 3).
����� This letter is important because it underscores the importance of the Eld manuscript maps in influencing both Wilkes and Fr�mont in taking the name of "Mt. Shasty" from its place as the name of today's Mt. McLoughlin and transferring the name to present-day Mount Shasta. Wilkes's published maps of 1844, the Fr�mont-Preuss map of 1848, and the Mitchell map of 1846, were the three most influential maps of the time, and they helped establish the new location for the name "Shasty." Wilkes's map spelled the name as "Shaste," Mitchell's map spelled the name as "Shaste," and Fremont-Preuss' map spelled the name as "Tshastl." All three maps retained some variant of the "Shaste" name for the Rogue River in Oregon, an� geographical incongruity that was rectified by later geographers.
����� This letter was part of the ongoing public argument between Fr�mont and Wilkes, each defending his own geographical mapping abilities. In the present letter Wilkes adds: "An inference may be drawn from a part of the remarks of Col. Fr�mont that the Exploring Expedition had depended for its results upon others, I have to inform him, as well as others (to make use of a common expression) the Expedition, wherever it did go, went on its own hook" (p. 4).���� 09. Early Exploration: American Government Expeditions, 1841-1860.� [MS821].
[MS669].��������� Wilkes, Charles 1798-1877.� Western
America Including California and Oregon.� Philadelphia, Pa.: Lea and Blanchard,
1849. Mentions the "Shaste Mountains," as a general term meaning the
mountains between present Ashland, Oregon, and Redding, Calif, encompassing
both the Siskiyous mountains and the present unnamed mountains between Mt. Shasta
and Redding.
����� This is a guide book to the West, written in response to demand for information about the gold rush. The southern Oregon and northern California portions of this book are mostly a repetition of remarks taken from Wilkes's earlier 1844 Narratives. Wilkes says: "The Klamet Valley is far inferior to any portion of the country north of it, and in comparison may be deemed barren, it is twenty miles in width, gradually rising towards the mountains. The Shaste Mountains, which separate the valley from California, have already been described in speaking of that country" (p. 57).���� 09. Early Exploration: American Government Expeditions, 1841-1860/40. Find List.� [MS669].
[MS809].��������� Wilkes, Charles 1798-1877. Report
on the Territory of Oregon. In: Oregon Historical Society Quarterly. 1911.
Vol. 12. pp. 269-299. 'The text of the document was taken from the Congressional
Record of July 15, 1911' (p. 268).� The report was sent by Wilkes to the Navy
in June, 1842, shortly after his return to this country. According to Haskell
the report was first printed in the Congressional Record, Vol. 47, part 3, pp.
2977-2983 (see Haskell 1968).���� Charles Wilkes mentions the name "Shasty"
only once. He says: "The only Indians of the country south of 49� who are
disposed to make war upon the whites are the Klamets, residing on the southern
borders of the territory along Rogue and Klamet Rivers and in the passes of
the Shasty Mountains. The show of a small force would, I am sure, have a good
tendency in preventing their depredations on the whites who pass through the
country, their hostility to whom, in a great measure, is to be ascribed to the
conduct of the whites themselves, who leave no opportunity unimproved of molesting
them. Cases have frequently occurred of white men shooting a poor, defenseless
Indian without any provocation whatever. A friendly disposition, with sufficient
force to prevent any attack, could not fail to bring about the desired disposition
on their parts" (pp. 296-297).
���� At the very beginning of this 1842 report Wilkes states that the southern boundary of the Oregon Territory was the "Klamet Range running on the parallel of 42� and dividing it from upper California" (p. 271). Thus the "Shasty mountains" as the term is used here probably were not the present-day Siskiyou mountains or "Klamet Range." The "Shasty Mountains" probably refers to the mountains between Mt. Shasta and Redding (see Dana "Notes ..." 1849 for a concise explanation of the difference between the "Shasty Peak" and the "Shasty Mountains"). 09. Early Exploration: American Government Expeditions, 1841-1860.� [MS809].
[MS666].��������� Wilkes, Charles 1798-1877.� [Charles
Wilkes's handwritten annotations upon an 1838 map. Map sent Oct. 31, 1841, by
Wilkes from San Francisco to Washington, D. C.]. In: United States National
Archives.� United States Scientific Geographical Exploration of the Pacific
Basin, 1783-1899.� Washington D. C.: National Archives, National Archives
and Records Service, General Services Administration, 1961. Exhibition catalog
for a meeting of the 10th Pacific Science Congress, Aug. 21 to Sept. 6, 1961,�
p. 11.���� The exhibition catalog states: "Exploration of Oregon, 1841.
Panel 27.-� Wilkes was particularly directed to survey the coast of Oregon Territory
and as much of the interior as possible. In his letter of Oct. 31, 1841, to
the Secretary of the Navy he included a copy of Washington Hood's 'Map of the
United States Territory of Oregon,' on which he said: '...The portion colored
red has been nearly all carefully explored and its waters particularly surveyed,
and of the portion in blue authentic information has been received from intelligent
persons who have examined particular parts of the Country.'....Letters Received
Relating to the Pacific Exploring Expedition under the command of Lt. Charles
Wilkes, vol. 2, Naval Records Collection of the Office of Naval Records and
Library, in NA" (p. 11).
����� Note that the annotated map discussed above helps establish that Wilkes had a copy of this map in his possession. It allows one to interpret the Wilkes route instruction letter of June 15, 1841, which states in so many words that "Mt. Shasty" was north of the 42� parallel. That Wilkes was under the assumption in 1841 that "Mt. Shasty" was in Oregon is confirmed in the wording of Wilkes' route instructions to Emmons and to Ringold (see Wilkes "letter...June 1st, 1841"; "letter...Aug. 7th 1841"; and "letter...Sept. 1, 1841).
����� If Wilkes had this map, which depicts "Mt. Shasty" in Oregon and "Pit Mountain" in California, then why did his men, i.e, Eld, Emmons, Dana, etc., name "Pit Mountain" as "Shasty Peak?" The journals of Dana, Emmons and Brackenridge all contain clues that Emmons and his group were mistaken in naming Pit Mountain as Mt. Shasty; for example, on seeing Mt. Shasta for the first time Emmons wrote "Shasty or Pitt" (see Emmons 1841).���� 09. Early Exploration: American Government Expeditions, 1841-1860.� [MS666].
[MS325].��������� Wilkes, Charles 1798-1877.� [letter(s),
from Charles Wilkes, to the National Intelligencer, 1848, concerning a serious
public rue with John C. Fremont about the mapping of the West Coast]. In
: Spence, Mary Lee.� The Expeditions of John Charles Fr�mont. Volume 3: Travels
from 1848 to 1854.� Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 1984. pp.
16-41.�� Also contains rebuttal letters by John Charles Fremont (1813-1890).����
A series of letters outlining claims and counter claims by both Wilkes and Fr�mont.
The question concerning them both was who led whom into errors of longitude
and latitude for the Sacramento River and various points on their respective
maps of the coast of California and Oregon. The sinking of a commercial ship
off the coast in consequence of a mutual error on the charts of both men touched
off this heated debate. James Alden, an officer with Wilkes during the 1838-1842
Wilkes Expedition, publicly sided with Fr�mont in this controversy.
����� Note that there is also an unpublished Wilkes's letter, not found in the Spence book, to Gales and Seton, in the collection of Yale University's Beinecke Library, in which Wilkes states that he did show to Fr�mont a twenty-seven foot long map of the Sacramento River. This long map undoubtedly was constructed from the manuscript maps of Henry Eld (see Wilkes letter to Gales and Seton� June 12, 1848 ). Eld's maps depicted "Sasty Peak" at the headwaters of the present Sacramento. All of these published and unpublished letters are important in following the course of the new name for California's present Mt. Shasta, a name which up to the 1841 was never "Mt. Shasta" in any spelling whatsoever, but which was variously "Pit mountain" or "Mt. Jackson" or "Mt. Simpson." Fr�mont in all likelihood adopted Wilkes's 'mistake.'���� 09. Early Exploration: American Government Expeditions, 1841-1860.� [MS325].
[MS746].��������� Williamson, Robert Stocken 1824-1882.� [report, 1851, of Lieut. R. S. Williamson of a trip from Yreka to Fort Reading via Sheep Rock]. In: Reports of Explorations and Surveys to Ascertain the Most Practicable and Economical Route for a Railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean. Made under the Direction of the Secretary of War, in 1854-55, According to Acts of Congress of March 3, 1853, May 31, 1854, and August 5, 1854. Volume VI. 33rd Congress. 2d Session. House Document 91.� Washington, D.C.: A.O.P. Nicholson, Printer, 1857. Part I,� pp. 127-129.�� This report contains field notes from Lieut. Williamson's 1851 exploration of a trail from Yreka to Sheep Rock thence east of Mount Shasta to Fall River and on by way of Cow Creek to Fort Reading. In 1854 Williamson became one of two leaders of a Pacific Railroad Survey of northern California and southern Oregon (see Abbot 1857).���� 09. Early Exploration: American Government Expeditions, 1841-1860.� [MS746].
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