Watcher from the Mountains

What a Watcher on the Mountain Might Have Seen

My new icon that you can see at the left of this page inspires me. It is a view of a graceful ocotillo bush in bloom with the Laguna Mountains looming behind it. It makes me think of all the history that a Kumeyaay Native American might have seen as he viewed the desert from a high rocky aerie on that mountain in the background.

The trail near the place where the pictured ocotillo now grows started at the California coast, and after dipping south into Mexico to avoid sand dunes, it proceeded to the Colorado River crossing at Yuma. Our watcher might have seen a heavily laden Indian trader on his way to do business with other Indians who lived in the Mohave Desert near the Colorado River. Abalone shells from Catalina Island have been found in New Mexico at the headwaters of the Rio Grande.

After the Spanish established a mission at San Diego in 1769, our watcher might have seen Lt. Pedro Fages chasing deserters on the land route to Sonora. But a sight to really amaze him would have been the second expedition of Juan Batista de Anza begun Oct. 23 1775. After a reconnaissance journey the year before, Anza led 240 people consisting of 51 officers and men, three Catholic priests and their servants, several interpreters, a number of cowboys and muleteers, and 155 women and children. There were 29 wives of soldiers, 136 other dependents of both sexes, and four other volunteer families going to settle a community in northern California that became San Francisco. There were also 165 pack mules, 240 saddle horses and 302 beef cattle. There were no wheeled vehicles and only enough horses for the soldiers to ride. Everyone else had to walk. Children were often taken up to ride behind the soldiers on their horses.

The expedition started in Tubac, Mexico, traveled through what is now Tucson Arizona, and followed the Gila River west to the crossing of the Colorado River at Yuma. They had no trouble with the natives, but it was a very uncommonly cold winter that caused the expedition to wade through snow in the area of our ocotillo bush. When the party reached what is now Borrego Springs, the first white baby born in California entered the world.

The expedition was a success, although there was much dissention between Anza and the leading priest, Father Garces. When Anza rewarded his tired people with a night of singing, dancing and some alcoholic spirits after a particularly hard trek, Father Garces was very displeased, and threatened Anza with consequences when they got back to Mexico.

In 1789 our watcher might have seen Lt. Fages and a small body of soldiers riding to the Yuma Crossing where Spanish soldiers and priests at the small mission had offended the Indians by riding their horses through the Indian's corn and melon fields. The Indians rose up and slaughtered them all, but did not hurt any women and children. Lt. Fages was able to rescue the survivors, but the Spanish overland trail to Sonora was avoided for many years after that.

The next interesting action our immortal watcher would have seen was the passing of General Stephen Kearney and his small army guided by Kit Carson right after the Mexican War of 1846. They were in bad straights when they rested at Vallecito and ate the last of their mules. They went on to Scissors Crossing and up the grade to John Warner's store and the small mission at Santa Isabella where they were able to replenish their stock with half-wild mules. These they were riding when they were forced to fight the Battle of San Pascual against Mexican Lancers a few days later. They lost the battle and some soldiers died, but it was all for nothing because Mexico had already ceded Alta California to the Yankees.

In 1849 came the greatest show of all when gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill near Sacramento. First came gold seekers from Mexico, followed by American 49ers from eastern United States, and other dreamers from all over the world. They came on foot and horseback, pushing wheelbarrows, sailing around the Horn of South America, sailing to Panama to climb the hill and ride a canoe down the stream on the other side where they had to wait to pick up a ship going north to San Francisco. They came in hordes however they could get here. Then the presence of all those miners required meat, and our ocotillo bush or its forerunner was probably smashed by thousands of beef cattle and tens of thousands of sheep being driven to a profitable market.

Traffic on the trail slowed down after 1855 except for activity of the Jackass Mail in 1856 and the Butterfield Mail stage from 1858 to 1861 when it had to be discontinued because the eastern termini were in Memphis Tennessee and St. Louis Missouri, both in the south. During the Civil War there was some movement of Union soldiers trying to keep California gold from reaching Confederate hands. At the end of the war there was a steady stream of southerners looking for a better life after losing their prospects at home during the war. But travel dwindled on this Great Emigrant Trail and almost ceased when the Union Pacific railroad across the United States was completed in 1869.

Then our watcher would have climbed back up his mountain and looked to the west for the influx of settlers that would cause his people to retreat into the rocks on reservations reluctantly ceded to them during the next 60 years. The fortunes of the Native Americans faded until after the end of World War II when some improvements in treatment by white people and the American government were made. These days, in the second millenium, their fortunes are booming with Indian Casinos in Southern California that are bringing wealth to a basically peaceful people who languished in poverty for all the years since white men first appeared on their shores. A new kind of buffalo has entered their lives with the jingle of money and the promise of an education and a good life for them all.