History
Nisenan-Maidu People
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Rich in Native
American, pioneer and gold rush history, the American River
has always been the focus of human activity. For over 6,000
years, various Native American people inhabited the canyons.
The most recent, the Nisenan-Maidu people, hunted and gathered
food in the canyons, living in harmony with the natural world.
Salmon, deer and acorns were the staples of their diet. Villages
were located up and down the river. The larger villages had
a ceremonial dance house called the K'um at its center. The
K'um was the social center of the village. Dancing was very
popular and dances marked the seasons and important food cycles
such as the acorn harvest or the catch of the first salmon.
Today, scattered grinding holes in the rocks along the river
are silent reminders of the first inhabitants of the American
River canyons. |
Gold Rush History
Pioneers forged wagon
routes along the ridges to make new homes in the Great Sacramento
Valley. The mining village known as Yankee Jims, between Colfax
and Foresthill, was the site of a convention to determine the preferred
route across the Sierra to Sacramento
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The
Gold rush of 1849 played an important role in developing the
American River's rich historical identity. Auburn, Colfax and
Foresthill grew to be large towns that outfitted and provided
the miners with supplies. The river bars still bear the names
given them by the miners. Over 6 miles long, the Grand Flume
was built on the Middle Fork in the 1850's from Oregon Bar to
Mammoth Bar to facilitate mining the river bed. At Horseshoe
Bar a tunnel was blasted through the bedrock to divert the water
from a section of river for mining. This is the site of the
infamous Tunnel Chute rapid. Many of the trails in use in the
canyons were miner's ditches that diverted water from streams
to wash gold from the gravel at the mining camps. Much of the
environmental destruction of the Gold Rush has been healed by
time and now the real "gold" is in the scenic beauty, the pristine
wilderness and the biodiversity found in the canyons.
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